Litchfield enquirer., 1871-09-07
LITCHFIELD.

The concert of the Bristol Quintetto club
 was postponed on account of the weather
 till Thursday evening. Soon after the
 doors were opened at 2. people began to
 flock in. There was evidently prevalent suspicion that notwithstanding the reserved
 seat system it was safer to come early.
 For three quarters of an hour the audience
 found their chief amusement in the cheer
 full manner with which the principal usher
 concern was for the lamps on the melode-
 on whose position he changed at least half
 dozen times at the imminent risk of an
 explosion each time. Then there was the
 minor difficulty of insinuating 125 "reserv-
 ed" people into 100 reserved" seats. This
 he almost accomplished, and if people were
 not satisfied with their limited accommoda.
 tions it certainly was not his fault. He en-
 couraged a Respondent young stranger
 whom we took for clergyman by calling
 him ''brick," and he asked the young gentleman who assisted in the "left field" for more chairs from ''outside." referring to the Universe with gentle wave of the hand 50 expressive that we were much taken aback when the response came |: tThere ain't no more Mere."
 At last came o'clock and with it posi-. lively the last reserved seat Ia bench radi- ating directly from the melodeon). The musical arrangements consisted of melo- deon of the cabinet organ variety, and. the American flag, whose folds made 6 sort of tent of the Judges bench and served as 8 retreat for the gentlemen in non-descript costume and Breitmanish accent, who sung the comic melodies. The concert opened with the overture to the Poet and Peasant on the melodeon. The programme was for the four hand piano arrangement but the good instrument was proba ply and so we had the melodeon version; we'll enough executed, but utterly ineffective from the incapacity of the in. strument. The most satisfactory part of the performance was the organ chords with ] which it closed and which we never heard in that connection before. The singing which followed was barely passable at its l best. and pretty bad ct it's worst. It would l probably have been well enough received l in many country places, but failed to inter- l est an audience composed in great part of city people accustomed to the best per. formances of professional musicians. Mir. 1 Bidwell, the leader, sang song quite we'll, and played his deplorable instrument with much taste; little girl sang temperance song very sweetly; and the quartette was tolerably effective at times.
 We judge that the financial feature of the entertainment was . suocess; and that the gross receipts must have been over one hundred dollars. .
 - The horse thief, Taylor, sent here sometime since for stealing horse in Rox- bury. has escaped from jail. He was taken ont with others to work on land occupied by the Sheriff. managed to get away, and has not yet been recovered. If our recol- lection serves us. the sheriff strongly op-| posed the working of prisoners outside the jail. under MT. Gibbud's iailorship. New erthelees, although there is now no jailor except the High Sheriff, the practice is continued. That there should be legally jailer in control of the jail is the evident design of onr law; that prisoners should not be worked at farm labor except l under such responsible authority is equally evident; and it seems to us. also, that pris- | oners committed to jail for trial on grave charges should not be trusted outside the l jail walls at all. They cannot be compelled to work; and if they do 60 out with the convicted prisoners it is probably only with | th0 deeiQn 0f aacanin0