The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1875-03-12
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"AiI0''-Izis Description OF Es.

- aSAtA HIS AIS~SCTARgAOn Oh "a.
The Columbus fOhio) cores
pendent OF the Cleveland Leader
writes: on Friday evening last
Max Strakosch's Italian opera
troupe presented for the first time
n this city Verdi's magnificent
olie:a. OF Aida to large and en- q.
thusiastic audience. Uncle Jim
Thompson, the member from
Montgomery, was present, and af-
ter the performance, meeting, the
old Boui bon in the Office of the
United States Hotel, / innocently
asked him If lie had attended the
opera, and what he thought of it.
Taking huge jack knife and a
strip of "plug" from his pocket,
and carving a ''chaw" of tobacco
into suitable dimensions, the old
gentleman, in his slow, hating
stvle. replied as follows:
YES, went to the opera; paid
! dollar ma half for a seat in the
pit and fifty cents more fur one o
tlicmthar opera glasses. Thar was
most half my per diem for that
day used up, Young man, just for
nothin' but n theater show. Yes,
and now / come to think on it,
l had to shell ont n quarter more
for a lie brettOe, l believe they
called it; nothin' on airth but a
dorned old book, and half Choctaw
at that. But, come to and out, if
it hadn't been fur that book, l
wouldn't Il known not one word o.
what the whole cusscd mess was
about. from first TO last, fur if you
believe it, they wasn't'a single one
10 the performers what knowed q
word o English. and if they had,
'twouldn't made no difference, fur
in sted O talkir' they SWING off
the whole piece and without no
pinch Of tune neither They
had band, to be sure, but, bless
yon, they didn't pay no more
'tention- to it nor Dig gcr Injun
would TO a meetin' house origin,
bnt every cussed one Of en- Jest
wlIooped it mp on his own hook, to
suit himself. Arter / got a little
used to it | managed by readin'
the lie-bret toe half the time and
watchin' the show the other half
toe to keep the run . the thing
purity considerable well. The
name o the piece was Jady, though
'twant spelt that way no how, and
it was kind o heather performance
from beginning to end. Thar was
King and lot o priests and
soldiers and prisoners and women
folks, the whole derned lot o 'em
kinder butternut colored 'cept one
O the women, and she was just as
purity as a picture, though she
would a looked better toe my mind
if she'd had 4 kind O Christian
clothes on instead of bein' kivered
with spangles and gold and SIGH,
like barber-rarian. Then thare
was lot O tin camels and ele-
plants put on poles, and SIGH like
nonsense. But the singin' was the
funniest part o the whole bust
ness. One o the butternut-color
ed women and the good lookin'
gal was both in love with a little, in
significant snuff colored chap what
didn't seem to be worth a pint O.
cider, for all he put on so many
airs, and them two women would
sing at each other fit to take your
head of, by ginger! Then the
little snufI-colored chap would
come in and put his hands upon
his stomach, and double himself
III, and yawp at both of EN- as if
he had right smart fit o. wind
collie, and they would screech back
again as if they had it too, and
finally the whole dumbfounded
crowd would jinc in, king, priests,
soldiers, prisoners, and woman
folks, and howl and whoop and
scream and hOller altogether for
all the world like lot O. cullered
Methodists at protracted meetin'
and then just as / would begin TO
be rally afeard thoy'd all bust, the
curtain would 60 dawn and we'd
pass a little spell o quiet.
''Oh, no, it wasn't bad show,
young man, taking everything in
to consideration, I'd a heap rather
sec Streets o. New York or Cal
Wagner's niger minstels any day
in the week.