The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-21

cntlT6 cOntluenb u oApoCtou W lhh OOHh duu
worship the idols of New York. notwithstand-
ing the well known fact that the standard of
artistic dramatic, musical, and literary cul-
ture is lower in that pretentious town than
in either. Philadelphia or Boston, not to speak
of the other great cities of the Union. That
the critical opinions Of New York are at least
unreliable, if not absolutely worthless, has
been demonstrated so often in Philadelphia
that our citizens have earned the right to be
suspicious of any attraction that appeals to
their patronage on the strength of Gothamite
encomiums. Singers that New York has ap-
parently gone into raptures over have
failed to create sensations in Phila-
delphia after their first appearance
simply because they have been found to be
undeserving of the praises bestowed upon
them; and the same may be said of dramatic
artists and attractions of every description.
Managers have gnashed their teeth with an
guish at finding Philadelphia audiences ex-
ercising a cool and dispassionate Judgment
for themselves, without regard to New York
puffery; and while it is not to be denied that
we have been humbugged pretty often it is
nevertheless creditable to the culture of Phila-
delphia that the purchased enthusiasm of
New York has on many occasions, espe-
cially with regard to matters that call
for the exercise of real artistic taste,
produced little or no impression. We
say purchased enthusiasm, for it is we'll
known fact that managers who import
European musical and dramatic cele-
to advertise their attractions for
the whole country. In very many instances
there is no expectation of making money in
New York, but, on the contrary, cash is paid
out there in every direction, not merely to
the newspapers, but to anybody and every
body who will aid in getting up the appear
ance of an excitement by means of which
the curiosity of the public outside of New
York is to be stimulated.
Barnum was the grand master of this kind
of pufery, and none of his successors in the
business of humbuggery have been able to
improve upon the devices which he invented.
There are thousands of our citizens who have
a vivid recollection of the manner in which
Jenny Lind was Barnumized, and it is GER
| tainly calculated to excite smile to read the
notices of serenades, torchlight professions,
and all the other schemes for obtaining pub
icity invented by the great Phineas T. re-
vived at this day by another manager in
behalf of the enterprise in which he has
embarked with another Swedish songstress.
The lady in question is so far as we are able
to judge from apparently disinterested Euro
pean criticisms, written before she had any
intention of coming to America, an artist of
superior abilities, but her appearance on these
shores is not matter of such importance
that all her movements should be chronicled
by the New York papers and telegraphed all
over the country with the expectation that
the provincial press" will, as a matter of
course, accept them for gospel and publish
them gratis for the benefit of the managerial
exchequer.
If the singer in question appears in this
city, she will undoubtedly be applauded by the
public in the heartiest manner if she at all
equals what we have right to expect from her
European reputation, but really we must be
excused from accepting her merits in advance
on the strength of the suspicious enthusiasm
that greeted her arrival in New York, and the
reports of her brilliant successes in that city
which managerial strategy is circulating in
this locality. 1t is serious question whether
the American public have not had quite
enough of this Barnumization of actors and
singers, and the American newspapers quite
enough of advertising gratuitously entertain
ments in which they have no special interest.
Have we yet arrived at that point of civiliza-
ton and artistic culture that we are able to
form deliberate judgements of our own with
out being influenced by the interested OPT
Mons of the advertisement-writer and bill
poster We think we have; and the Phila-
delphia public only a few months ago
proved conclusively that it was
competent to reduce an actor who had the
advantage of puff preliminary from no less
pen than that of Charles Dickens from the
lofty pinnacle where Dickens and the news
papers of New York and Boston had placed
him to his own proper level, and it only
needed one performance here to decide that
instead of being the greatest and most intel
lectual histrionic artists of the day, he was
merely good melodramatic actor, who was
very far from being the equal of the leading
artists of the American stage.
Since Parepa has left us, we will be more
than ever glad to welcome really first-class
singer to our Academy of Music, and for the
sake of the lovers of music we hope sincerely
that the young Swede now warbling in New
York may surpass the most extravagant ex-
pectations that have been formed with regard
to her; but it is at least we'll to keep our judg-
ment unbiased, and it will be a more plea
surable disappointment to find her better
than was imagined than to have her fall