St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-09-03
King LudWig's Encore.
HE WOULD HAVE THE REAL WATER IN
HIS RAIN.

From Mark Twains "A Tramp Abroad."l
am told that in a German concert OIL
opera they hardly ever encore song
that, though they may be dying to hear
it again, their good breeding usually
preserves them against requiring the
repetition. Kings may encore that is
quite another matter; it delights every
body to see that the king is pleased,
and, as to the actor encOred, his pride
and qualification are simply boundless
Still, there are circumstances in which
even a royal encore-but it is better to
illustrate. The king of Bavaria is a
poet and has poets eccentricities, with
the advantage over all other poets OF
being able to crafty them, no matter
what form they may take, He is fond
of opera, but not fond of sitting in the
presence of an audience therefore, il
has sometimes occurred in Munich, that
when an opera has been concluded and
the players are getting off their paint
and tinery, a command has come to get
their paint and fnery on again. Pres
emily the king would arrive solitary
and alone, and the players would be-
gin at the beginning and do the entire
opera over again, with only that one
individual in that vast, solemn theater
for an audience. Once he took an odd
freak in his head. High up and out OF
sight, over the prodigiOus stage of the
Court theater is maze of interlacing
water pipes, so pierced that in case OF
fire innumerable little thread-like
streams of water can be caused to de-
scend, and, in case of need, this dis
charge can be augmented to a pouring
flood. American managers might make
a note of that. The king was the sole
audience. The opera proceeded. 1t
was piece with storm in it the
mimic thunder began to mutter, the
mimic wind began to wall and sough,
and the mimic rain to patter. The
kings interest rose higher and higher
it developed into enthusiasm. He cried
out -
"It is good, very good, indeed! But
1 will have real rain. Turn on the wa
ter"
The manager pleaded for reversal
of the command, said it would ruin the
costly scenery and the splendid cos
tunes, but the king cried =
"No matter, no matter, will have
real rain ! Turn on the waterw
SO the real rain was turned on and
began to descend in gossamer lances to
to the mimic tiOwer-beds and gravel
walks of the stage. The richly dressed
actresses and actors tripped about sing
ing bravely and pretending not to mind
it. The king was delighted; his enthu-
siasm grew higher. He cried out:-
bravo, bravo! More thunder! More
lightning Turn on more rain!''
The thunder doomed, the lightning
glared, the storm wind ragged, the del
uge poured down. The mimic royalty
of the stage, with their soaked satins
clinging to their bodies, stopped around
ankle deep in the water, warbling their
sweetest and best, the fddlers under
the caves of the stage sawed away foI
dear life, with the cold overflow spout
ing down the backs of their necks, and
the dry and happy king sat in his lofty
box and wore his gloves to ribbons ap-
plauding.
"More yet " cried the king "more
yet let loose all the thunder, turn on
all the water. l will hang the man
that raises an umbrella !"
When the most tremendous and eff
fective storm that had ever been pro-
duced in any theater was at last over,
the kings appreciation was measureless
He cried =
Magnificent, magnificent! Encore
Do it again !"
But the management succeeded in
persuading him to recall the encore
and said the company would feel suffi-
ciently rewarded and complimented in
the mere fact that the encore was de-
manded by his majesty, without fatigu-
ing him with a repetition to gratify
their own vanity.
DuIing the remainder of the act the
lucky performers were those whose
parts required changes of dress F.; the
others were soaked, bedraggled and
uncomfortable lot, but in the last degree
picturesque. The stage scenery was
ruined, trap doors were so swollen they
wouldn't work for week afterward
the fine costumes were spoiled and nc
end of minor damages were done by
that remarkable storm.
1t was royal idea-that storm-and
royalty carried out. But observe the
moderation of the king. He did moi
insist upon his encore. If he had been
gladstone, unrefecting American ope-
ia audience he probably would have
had his storm repeated and repeated
until he drowned all those people.
''what Will Eliza sayp"