The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-01
GOSSIP AMOUR sHo " PEOPLE.

many another great man or woman, is liable
to mistakes of head and heart. 1t is pretty
generally known fact, for instance, that the
most famous tenor of our day is so careful of
his gloves as to fly into towering rage with
any lady who touches them with more thaa
her fnger-tips in the most impassioned duets.
And a very celebrated prtnad donna, who
takes the world captive as much by the ex-
ceeding loveliness of her person and manner
as by her wonderful voice, is in the habit of
beating her maid abominably two or three
times a week 1t would, indeed, be an acute
analysis which should just determine what 1t
is in the higher walks of music that makes
the lives of its votaries so strikiugly inhar-
monious He or she who has known of an
operate company wherein the four lead
ing persons were on speaking terms
with one another, off the stage, has
known O remarkable fact in the history of that
peculiar class. OF these, and of the drama
tic profession proper, l would perhaps have
no right to speak here, were it not for the
fact that, in my time at least, there was a
sort of fraternity among all people who APP
peared before the foot-lights. do not know
whether the members of cork-opera associate
with the better class of actors at this day,
but think they do not. l would venture to
assert, however, that among the lower orders
of actors minstrels, and circus-riders, there
ever will be such spirit of Bohemianism-
such touch of hearty, reckless good nature
as will always make their whole world kin.
jealousy may be set down as the chief fail
ing Of the whole race, high or low. l have
known men, whose names have made some
noise in the world, to measure with straws
the comparative sizes of the letters in which
they were announced on a poster. But
among minstrels, especially, thorough
worldliness and boon compsnionship enable
them generally to be civil to one another,
whatsoever their private feelings,
An old Snowman at last comes to look upon
the quiet ways of ordinary life with that same
kind of longing, romantic interest with which
a certain species of imaginative youth are
always looking upon the impossible glory of
travelling with a show. A droll sighiug fer
rural pursuits seems to be the most common
form taken by the romance of your veteran
itinerant. Yet, oddly enough, there is scarce
any one whom he holds personally in such
ridiculous contempt as he does the honest
farmer. The vow which the old sailor in the
forecastle is forever making to go to sea 40
more is rarely remembered over three days
on land. And so it is with the cognate ideal
which floats in the queer imagination of
the old Snowman. l never knew
tanned anything like the realiza-
ton Of their romantic purpose. Daniel
Emmett, the author of many of the best
known of the earlier negro melodies, did so
far reach the fleeting object OF his bucolic
ambition as to have large, well-flled chicken
coop in the back yard of a rented house, in
the suburbs of great city. The ladies of
the profession are sometimes given to gossip
and backbiting in as great degree at least
rs are the gentlemen. Jealousy may be as
rife on Mississippi show-boat as ia the ante
chamber of any court in Europe. have
known a ddnSeuSe to furnish boys with clan
destine bouquets to throw on the stage when
she appeared; not that she cared at all for the
praise or blame of the audience, but that she
did care to crush cleverer rival.
In our company on board the Palace and
the Raymond the famous river show boats
we had strange contrasts in human nature.
1t would happen, for instance that the man
who could not sleep without snoring would
be placed in the same state-room with the
man who could not sleep within hearing of
the most distant snore. The man who could
not eat pork was seated at table just oppo-
site the man who dotted on it. We had one
gentleman-the feshy bass singer already
mentioned-who spent all his leisure in
catching mocking-birds; and another who
passed his spare hours in contriving new
and undiscoverable ways of letting these
binds escape from the cages. There were on
board ladies who had seen more prosperous
days, when they were the chief attraction
at the theatres of London, Paris, and New
ladies who had never associated with such
vulgar people before; other ladies who hoped
they would die if they did not leave the COM
pany at the very next landing, but never left;
and yet other ladies, l am rejoiced to add,
who were lovely in nature and deed-kind
mothers and faithful wives, whose strength
of character and ready cheerfulness tended
as far as possible to restore the social equili-
brium.
In the course of the long association gro
tesque friendships sprang up. The man who
played the bass drum was the bosom compan-
ION of the man who had charge of the ma
chine for making the gas which supplied the
two boats The pretty man of the establish
ment, he who played the chimes on the TOP
Of the museum and the piano in the concsri
room-at present popular composer at St
Louis-this young gentlemen, who broke al
the hearts of the country girls that came into
the show, was the inseparable friend of the
pilot, great, gruff, warm-hearted fellow, whe
steered the Raymond from the corners of hi
eyes and swore terribly at snags. The maU
who busted down Tam O'Shanter and tn,
twelve Apostles in wax, and had especial care
of the stuffed birds, giratfes, and alligators
was on most intimate terms with the cook.
AS a general thing the ladies, performers
and crew of our boats were not SO quarrel
some as have seen set of cabin passea ger
on a sea voyage between America and Ea
rope, or especially on the three weeks pas
sage to or from California. When conside
that there were SO many of us together in tai
narrow compass for nearly year, it seems T.
me strange indeed that there was not NOR
bad blood excited
Nine. Olinza was, believe, the name o
the Polish lady who walked on tight-rop
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