The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1879-04-23
some Amusing Defects In .plnafore.'

Editors IhtellIgeneCr.
"Why the fun lies in the defects"
someone remarks. No, It does not; the
plot is oil q tangle and would scarcely be
so amusing, were one to. know the missing
links Of the story before witnessing the
opera. The music is good, as general
thing, and the organist who brought in
the selection from Pinaiore, as an opening
piece for Sunday morning, could scarcely
be blamed; for it might have been that
very strain from Lohengrlns bridal march,
which comes in so unconsciously in the
chorus, "shall we submit" that one
could scarcely say that 1t was stolen, yet it
is the very idea,
"Who is the youth with faltering sLepP"
asks little Buttercup, as Ralph makes his
appearance. Turning back, almost to the
close OF the act, we find Buttercup making
a confession (how quietly and how natur.
ally they all accept that confessionD that
when she was young and charming she
practiced baby farming, pursed ~twotender
babes-Ralph and the Onptain-and got
them mixed up in some way; Ralph be.
came the Captain and the Captain Ralph,
at least that is the way Sir 10.
seph expresses it officially. OF course,
she could not very well mix them
up, unless they were very near Of IN.
age, and both very tiny ut that. Many
years afterwards Ralph appeared as q
youth, while the Captain put in his appear
ance as q widowsr with O manageable
daughter. No doubt Little Ruttercup, at
the time she mixed them up, was between
twenty and thirty years OF age; ~supposing
Josephine to be a young lady Of eighteen
or whereabouts, We make the Captain and
Ralph to be something on the shady side
OF forty. Adding these forty years 10 the
twenty or thirty years of BGttercup's life,
we have a Buttercup Of sixty or seventy!
-(dcar Little BaaercupO Now the idea Of
an old woman sixty or seventy years OF
age gazing on a handsome Captain Of forty
as he sung to the fair moon!
We grow q little confused as to who the
third pair might be, as Sir Joseph accepts
cousin Hebe'G proffered devotions, but
then it is not necessary to know before
hand mystery lends enchantment. Capt.
Cocoran tells up some time afterwards
that he will marry with u wife in his
humble rank Of life, and that is to be
Buttercup, his foster mother.
What the great attraction OF the opera
is, and how it has gained its immense pop
ularity, n could scarcely tell. Certainly
it is charming and attractive, and a great
many points Of human life are given us, yet
one hearing Of 1t issuficient for a c~ultiya.
ted musical ear. 1t is quite needless
to mention some ofthe imperfeCtions
OF the publication, gotten up in so
short a time rs it was. It has taken such
q hold on the popular world that perhaps
some OF the ideas which seem so ridicu-
lous Just To- may heOomp immortal. Dick
Deadeye is most assuredly a philosopher,
and Just such a person as one continually
meets in every day, life-forever on the
lookout about others affairs. How sugces.
tive his sympathy, as he catches the tears
that fall from his one eye, between his
iorefnger and thumb, and places them in
his cap!
%"Pinaforc," with its gallant crew of
Wheeling amateurs, has lifted its anchor
right nobly. Well may we be proud Of
the ship that has sailed into port immortal.
wu,u,r,o .n,, ,ozo NJ. NJ w.