Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-11-06

NEW YORK, November s-The destructicnof
Abbey's Park Theatre has brought to light the
early vicisstudes of that fated pile and as us11al
developed the fact that the concern was never
paying establishment but that. on the con-
trary, its recurring leases were annually char
acterized by lower contracts, so that the
variations Of decline were from $4,000 In 1873
to SIC, 600 for the present year.
But it is not this disclosure alone which
has brought forth many interesting recollec-
tions of some of the popular playhouses Of
this city. The transfer of the scene OF Mrs.
Langtry's debut to the capacious and palataI
precincts of the Gran1 Opera House not only
revives peculiar memories of that magnificent
theatre IN It's palmy and eventful youth, but
will probably tend TO reolace the opera 7use
itself upon something like the PROSPEROUS ard
pre-emnent plane st occupied curing the later
career or James Fisk, Jr.. who was at the time
or his death its enterprsing and enthusiastic
proprietor and manager.
The Grand Opsra House was built by J. N.
Pike, the great Western liquor merchant, at
an enormous cost. It's location Is as the
corner Of Eighth avenue and Twenty
third street. It is Of pure white marble,
tions AID plan, while, according to credit
able architectural a&thorites, its symmetry
and consonance Of Construction have not been
excelled by any later effort at theatrical gran
deur in this city. Il was chriseeDed Pixies
Opera House" but st its verv infancy two
obstacles retarded anything like pronounced
success-it was too far up town, and its owner
lacked the merits Of being a shrewd manager.
however much he possessed the skill OF a pros
porous dealer in distilled liquors
1t was when Pike sold the Grand Opera
House to James Fisk Jr-, and when the latter
assumed its control, that the whole aspect of
the establishment became changed Instantly
the Grand Opera House became an "institu-
ton and prosperity. Its mirrored walls and
vestibules reflected nightly a sea of surging
patrons eager for costly Feats; its ensemble
revealed an intensity of tint and tinsel whose
spleDdor only the imagery of the East had
outlined, while its cushioned chairs sn1-
lounges were a soft and soothing innovation
the like OF which to the modern auditor had
not before been known.
Such was the Grand Opera House under
Fisk Here was witnessed the giddy and fas-
cinating, the lewd and senseless spectacle OF
The Twelve Temptations. Here too, came
In their alterations purer and better exhibit
tlons. The very best and the very worst of
French sensualisms found here platform for
grace and genius, and plaudit for beauty and
abandon. Here, too, through the long era Of
revelry and hilarity, of whirl of wealth, of in
toxication, sat the notorious Mrs. Lawler (bet-
ter known as Josephine Mansfeld) BUDDY
OF face, round Of form, redOlent of perfume
this woman nightly swaysd her overrated
charms within the managers private box. She
seldom gave single glance toward the play,
but sat, half concealed and half revealed"
fronting the auditorium and confronting the
corral of lorgnettes that bleared aud busy eyes
tirelessly trained upon her. The bulwark &,
her womanhood Qf womanhood she had) was
book, Vdde D1ecUB1 she always held half
opened, and behind which, when even her in
herent brazenness could no longer rtsent the
vulgar stare of the multitude. she sometimes
howed her eyes in retreat Here, too, from this
box, she beamed her baleful glances upon the
infatuated but fated Fisk When smile that
played with a seeming playfulness lit up her
features and she was seen from the auditorium
to turn pleasing look toward some person un-
seen by Others, intuition told them It was Fisk
and it often was. But there was another
who shared these truthless giances. II was
Stokesi
Those who viewed the dual scene. who
watched now the varying phases of the real
play. and now the by-play OF the managers
private box, could see in the former all the
pretense of an unattainable naturalness. but
in the latter they saW-nothiDg, and vet in the
miniature drama of the balcony recess were
three percentages destined severally and soon
TO be the hero, the soubrette and the villain in
denouement whose history and whose horror
would set it far above the feeble reaches OF
histrionism imitation or art.
When on the cold, cloudy Saturday after
noon OF January 8, 1872 the echo of pistol
shot shocked the .habitues Of the Grand Cen
tral Hotel, and the form of the horid Fisk lay
stairway then the metropolitan mind sus-
cepibly, yet insensibly, reverted TO the histori-
cal private box at the Grand Opera House,
But while the hapless star of the tragedy was
dying, and the infuriate william was already in
limbo. the tawdried and gaudy goode of the
box had flown away forever. and the Grand
Opera House, after all its glory and gilt GUILT
in more ways than onel went down in dark
ness.
Perhaps out from the depths into which it
was plunged by Lawler Langtry's genius is to
rehabilitate and reillume IL. NJ.