The Portland daily press., 1881-01-01

doors, and he made hasty arrangement for
taking over the Haymarket. "Hang Chow,
the Apprentice of Fa Kiang," was duly an
nounced, and the play was put in rehearsal
with vigor and effect. At the beginning of
the season Jack opened the theatre with a
tremendous success. Such first night was
never knownin Lond n. Duchesses intrigued
for boxes. and peers called personally
upon Jack to beg the favor of chair behind
the dress circle, as all the stalls were Sc
cured beforehand for month ahead. The
free list was really suspended, and the pit
and gallery were all transformed into re-
served places at five shill'ngs a head. Jack
even thought it desirable to insure proper
ventilation by turning on stream of pure
oxygen from patent generator in the cellars
below. 1t was the grandest sensation OF
modern times. Sarah Bernhardt was no.
where. Mr.. Raymond took through ticket
for California, and the Dutch players went
and hanged themselves in an agony of dis.
grace.
The curtain lifted upon beautiful place
OF willow-plate pattern scenery in blue chi.
ma. Azure trees fOated airily above ceru-
lean cottage, while a blue pagoda stood on,
in the background against the sky, with ali
the charming disregard of perspective and
the law of gravitation which so strikingly
distinguishes Chinese art. The front of the
stage was occupied by blue shop, in which
a youth, likewise dressed in the prevailing
color with a dash of white, was serving out
blue.te in blue packages to blue supernum-
eraries, the genuine Cinnamon of the
Thames vessels. A blue lime-light PLAYED
gracefully over the whole scene, and diffused
a general sense of celestiality over the pic
ture in its completeness. Applause was un-
bounded. Ksthetic ladies in sage-green
hats tore them from their heads, lest the
distressful contrast of hue should mar the
pleasure of their refined fellow-spectator
and a well-known preRaphaelite poet, hold
ing three daffodils in his hand, tainted out
right as he afterwards expressed it, with a
spasmOdic excess of intensity, due to The
rapturous but too swift satisfaction of a SUBJ
tie life-hunger.
The youth i'll blue, by name Hang Chow,
appeared. from the expressive acting of the
celestial troupe, to be the apprentice of his
aged and respectable uncle, Whang Sch,
proprietor OF a suburban grocery in the
neighbOrhood of Pekin. At first impressive
and obviously guided by the highest moral
feelings, as might be observed from the ele-
waited nature Of his gestures and the extreme
accuracy with which he weighed his tea, or
counted out change to his customers, his
whole character underwent visible deteri-
Grafton from the moment of his becoming
acquainted with Mee-Nee-Shang, the beau
tiful but wicked heroine of the piece. Not
only did he become less careful as to the
plating of his pigtail, but he also paid less
attention to the correct counting out of his
change, which led to frequent and express
sive recrimnations on the part of the fat
faced supernumeraries. At length, acting
upon the suggestions of his evil angel with
whom he appeared about to contract clan
destine marriage, George Barn. mean
Hang Chow-actually robbed the till of II
strings of cash, represented BY real Chinese
coins of tho rhelm, specially imported (from
Birmingham among the properties designed
for the illustration of this great moral
drama. OF course he was hunted down
through the instrumentality of the Chinese
Police, admirably dressed in their national
costumes; and after an interesting trial be-
fore Mandarin with four buttons and the
Exalted Order of the Peacock's Feather, he
was found guilty of larceny to the value of
twenty shillings, and sentenced to death by
the bastinado, the sentence being carried
out, contrary to all Western precedent, CO.
ram p0pul0. Meenie, whose admirable act
ing had drawn down floods of tears from
the most callous spectators, including even
the Directors of a fraudulent bank, finally
repen.ed in the last scene, flung herself
upon the body of her lover, and died with
him, from the effects of the blows admins
tered by one of the supernumeraries with a
genuine piece of Oriental bamboo.
The curtain had risen to applause, it fell
to thunders. Meenie and half the compaoy
came forward for an ovation, and were al
most smothered under two cart-loads of bou-
quets. The dramatic critic of the Daily Ir-
ritator loudly declared that he had never till
that night known what acting was. The
poet with the daffOdils asked to be permitted
to present three golden blossoms with an
unworthy holder of the same material to a
lady who had at one sweep blotted out from
his heart the memory of all European maid
ems. Five sculptors announced their inten-
ton of contributing busts of the Celestial
Venus to the next Academy. And society
generally observed that such an artistic and
intellectual treat came like delightful oasis
amid the monotonous desert of English
plays and English acting.
That night, as soon as the house was
cleared, Jack caught Meenie in his arms,
kissed her rapturously upon both cheeks,
and vowed that they should be married that
day for night. Meenie observed that she
might, it she liked, at that moment, take
her pick of the unmarried peerage of Eng
land, but that on the whole she thought she
preferred Jack And SO they went away
well pleased with the success of their first
nights attempt to heartlessly and unjustifi-
ably gulling the susceptible British public.
Next day both Jack and Meenie looked
anXiously in the papers to see the verdict of
Chinese drama. All the fraternity were
unanimous to a man. "The play ITSELF"
said the Irritator, twas perfect in it's naive
yet touching moral sentiment, and in its
profound knowledge of the throbbing human
heart, always the same under all DISCUSSES,
whether it be the frOck-cOat of Christendom
or the graceful tunic of the Ming dynasty,
in whose time the action is supposed to take
place. As for the charming acting of Nee
Nee-Shang, the Pearl of Dazzling Light
SO an eminent Sinaist translates the ladys
name for us-we have seen nothing SO
truthful for many years on the Western
stage. 1t was more than Siddons, it was
grander than Rachel. And yet the graceful
and amiable actress holds up the looking
glass to nature to borrow the well-known
phrase OF Confucius, and really acts so that
her acting is but another name for life itself.
When she died in the last scene medical
authorities present imagined for moment
that the breath had really departed from her
body, and Sir John McPhysic himself was
seen visibly to sigh with relief when the little
lady tripped before the curtain from the
sides as gayly and brightly as though moth
AAs, Aou OCSullCu ~ UTcdk tuc even TENOR Oh
her happy thought. 1t was pleasure
which we shall not often experience upon
British boards"
As for the Hebdomadal Vaticinator. it's
language was SO ecstatic as to defy trans
cription. ''It was not play" said the con-
Guiding words of the uotice, sit was not even
a magnificent sermon; it.was grand and
imperishable moral revelation. burned into
the very core of our nature by the searching
fire of mans eloquence and woman's inno-
cent beauty. To have heard it was better
than to have read all the philosophers from
Aristotle to Herbert Spencer; it was the un-
derlying ethical principle of the universe
working itself out under our eyes to the in
fallible detection of all shams and impos-
lures whatsoever with unerring truth and
vividness."
Jack and Meenie WINGED at that last SEN
tence little, but they managed 10 swallow
it, and We're happy enough in spite of the
moral principle which it seemed was work
ing out their ultimate confusion unper-
ceived.
For ten nights "Hang Chow, the Appren-
tice of Fa Kiang," continued to run with
unexampled and undated success. Nee