Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-02-16
PIONEER DRAMA.
Theaters and actors In Downieville in
Early Days.

PIONEER DIANA.
Theaters and actors In Downieville In
Early Days.
In early times, when the mines were in
full blast, from 1851 to 1856, in the sum-
mer and fall each year the theaters in
Downieville could support permanent
theatrical troupe, with good paying bust
ness every night, and ON Saturday and
| Sunday houses crowded, and in those days
we had good stock companies. The first
| theater built here was in 1851, on the lot
| OF the Plaza Livery Stable, and was burned
down In the first fire, in the early
part OF 1852, and replaced with a
larger one, more neat and cosy, near the
upper butcher shop. Then it paid actors
to take a starring tour IN the mines, and
Downieville was included in the trip. The
building was lofty and convenient-a deep
wide stage for scenic effects, and could seat
about 600 people. The chandelier lighting
the room cost 5000, and had beautiful
effect around the parquet ran panels
with mountain scenery on each one, and on
the drop curtain an italian scene painted
in oil, by the late Harry Mighels, of the
Carson Appeal
leghanians," visited Downieville, and they
were very popular. They introduced for
the first time the old and yet favorite songs
"Old Folks at Home" "Ben Bolt"
"Songs of Labor" and others of that
class, that went to the miners heart, re-
calling scenes and incidents that had chung
to them through their long and weary
journeyings. Here often on the stage
would occur scenes and incidents that were
not laid down in the bills / remember
on one occasion, when Jim Byers
and Miss Carpenter were playing
Claude and Pauline, in the "Lady OF
Lyons, when Claude's mother enters his
room and sees painting of Pauline,
that he has!left on the easel, the mother
delivering an eulogy on the same, speaks
of a marble brow, peerless rosy lips and
dazzling eyes, and the contour OF that
beautiful face, etc. /; but in those days por-
traits were scarce IN town, and the prop
erty man had borrowed picture from a
saloon, and, unintentionally, set it SO that
half the audience could see it, and, what
was supposed to be Pauline, was an old
bald-headed man kneeling down with
broad grin and twinkling eyes, looking
over fence at some young ladies bathing
and sporting in sunny stream. The au.
dience reared and shouted-Claude's
mother broke down, and the curtain had to
fall before quiet could be restored.
The Waller company was the best, l
think, we ever had in Downieville. Mrs.
Waller was first class, and all were good
performers. She ha. played leading char
acters since in Covent Garden, London, and
last year was starring in San Francisco, In
Queen Elizabeth, Mary Stuart" and
other great plays. On one occasion they
1.-THE Wallers) were performing 1.-The Lady
of the Lake" and had a supernumerary
known in town as "Gallous Jack" Jack
had something to say like this: "My
Lord, the officers of the law have arrested
the other conspirators, and are ON the track
OF your Lordship." The audience and the
footlights drove the words from his
memory, but the meaning remained.
He blurted out, They've got the
other fellow ard they're after you. -
Jack brought down the house,
and the actors too. To show the estima-
ton Mrs. Waller was held in as an actress
and lady, at her benefit tickets for the first
and second seats were put up at auction,
and the first was knocked down to Colonel
Ramsdale for 81, 100; the second to Oscar
Ball, proprietor of the Downieville news
paper, the Mountain Echo, for $3.50. The
mouse was crammed. The finale of the
play was tableau representing the arms
and shield of California Mrs. Waller en-
throned as the Goddess of Liberty, with
miners picking and banning In red
shirts and big boots, and a good sized,
live young grizzly bear chained In the
center of the group, comprised the scene.
The curtain slowly rose, the orchestra
played, the grouped actors sang the 90 Star
Spangled Banner" and the bear reared on
his hind legs and howled in what critics
would call the upper register" and
nearly drowned the voices of all the rest;
but not being used to facing such an audi
ence, in his excitement he did what bear
ought to do only in his native wilds, and
he made a burlesque of the beautiful tab
leaux, and the curtain fell amidst the wild
est shouts of both audience and actors.
Some time later, in the same season, an
amateur performance was given to help the
erection of the present school house, it
came off successfully and brought in 5000.
The play was called the Golden Farmer"
and the lady characters were young men
in female attire, and it was difficult to tell
them from the genuine article. Bob Tay-
lor, afterward District Judge, was the
Golden Farmer. Lawyers Speare, Cassit
and Cap. Hungerford took leading parts.
l wonder if Cap. ever recalls to mind,
away in Paris, among the princes, dukes
counts and other high jinks, the character
he sustained of the Village Apothecary,
on the banks of the Yuba, before he be-
came the father-in-law of John Mackey,
the bonanza king Well, my part was
short, but / was Lord Fitz-somebody ON
the occasion, and had to grant fe-
male-womans appeal for her husbands
life-the climax OF the piece. The senti-
ments, not the acting, brought down a
storm of applause, to my utter amazement.
Cassit, in the act of falling, tried to do it
first.class in theatrical style, but fell so fiat
that it knocked the breath out Of him, and
he had to be dragged off; but whisky
brought him to. Toodles was the after
piece, and Bob Taylor was the best Toodles
/ ever saw but in the drunken scene, in
attempting to pick up his hat, after many
vain efforts, there suddenly appeared
great rent in his neither garments. One
Of the orchestra lin an aside told him what
the matter was Bob literally faced the
music. got his hat and retired backward
from the stage in manner that brought
him rounds of applause. Il Miner, in the
Downieville Messenger.
THOSE FRENCH FLAYS.