The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1883-10-11
A CHINESE THEATRE.
An Interpreter Explains the True
Inwardness of the Play.
Scenfc Pe%cuIiarities Which Call
for n Strong Imagination---A
Series OF Conflicts and
Screeching Love
Scenes.

IN d. Conway in Philadelphia Times.1
found the Chinese theatre extremely en-
pertaining. A very attentive Chinaman sat
In my box and undertook to explain to me
the meaning of the figures and the plot.
When 1 entered there was a man with a sort
OF long, thin pike in his hand, curiously
dressed, with his breast naked, who seemed
to be in a frantic state of mind and who
squealed perpetually at a bundle of silk on
the door, from which presently emerged a
head and an infant foot, showing it to be a
woman. She also began to screech in reply,
n this squealing and screeching was obvi-
ously necessary, in order that their voices
might be heard above the dread confusion of
gongs, t%rurnpets and other noisy instruments,
whose torment assembled up for ever and
| ever.
The orchestra was on the stage, immedi-
ately behind the performers; and when 1
asked the Chinaman at my side whether his
people liked our American music, he replied
that they generally thought it to be too
sorry" He put his hand upon his breast and
said, "Velly sorry He added: "Our music
is too noisy" In this / concurred with him,
but did not say, as l thought, that / had
never heard anything more melancholy than
the sounds which reached us. Various per-
sons in fantastic dress came on the stage, one
OF whom was a more horrible looking char
acter than any described in the annals of de-
neurology. On his whitened face were many
black and green lines; his mouth was painted
with tusks, and l hardly needed my Chinese
friends information that he mot honest
man." There were several characters who
were not honest, and they seemed to be pur-
suing the bare-breasted individual who had
first occupied the stage.
/ understood from my interpreter that a
high pile of chairs represented a mountain;
that this pursued individual and his wife
were brought to a stand in their flight by
this terrible obstruction. Suddenly the man
began to dig at one of the chairs with his
pike; then, getting on that, dig at the next
higher, and so on. My Chinaman then made
the following reply: They want kill him:
he must takee wife: wife amt go; she cry
hard; he diggee way through mountain.
They chair is mountain" By this time the
man had reached the summit of the pile of
seven chairs, the summit being firmly grasped
and held in its place by two men, supposed
not TO be seen Having vigorously cut q
path through this mountain the hero re-
turned to his wife, who still crouched on the
ground and never for a moment ceased her
wild wailings and commissions. He took her
on his shoulder and carried her to the foot of
the mountain. Then he attempted to carry
her up the steep precipice. Again and again
49, 10 Dt@h " NNC NAA ~ tpRh lAhlt VII u
shriller cry of pain and pointing with great
simplicity to the various contusions she had
received. Sometimes these falls were made
head-over-heels, and l fully expected that the
audience would be moved to some mirth; but
no, they all sat in imperturbable solemnity,
there being during the whole performance no
plaudit, no voice, but only the wooden 81
lence.
Finally he succeeded in carrying the
trembling woman over the mountain; but,
just as l expected that all was going well, she
began, with a sword he gave her, to cut her
throat. My Chinaman explained: "She
velly sorry again. He can't save him and
she. She kill herself for let him free of her
while he gone" When she had fallen dead,
two servants of the company came and dis
posed her dress decently, taking care to have
the draperies lie in the most effective way to
the audience. When the hero returns he
screeches n good deal. He then prepares to
give battle to his pursuers alone. For this
purpose he rolls up his sleeves slightly and
takes great care to bare his breast a little
more, giving himself a fine barbaric look.
He then falls into a blood-sucker rage, with
which he meets his enemies and disposes of
them after a series of conflicts, which extend
through fifteen minutes, the parties going out
one door and coming in another, each of
these conflicts reproducing the other with
true Chinese fidelity. However, in order to
be saved, the hero has to take asylum at the
altar of the joss. In order to do this he must
needs become a priest; but it turns out that
by becoming a priest he has divorced himself
from his other wife, who is a sister of the en- 4
peror.
This original and highly-decorated wife
comes in, finds her husband beside the altar,
turned priest; more screeches. She tries to
drag him from the altar; failing in that, she
tries cajolery, and for ten minutes we wit |
messed the Vaccinations of a -Chinawoman try
ing to captivate her lord. My Chinaman
again explains: "She velly sorry. She will
him nave back. She have no priest. She
cry a good deal" She did cry a good deal.
A more unearthly series of yells, screeches,
squeals and outcries than that Chinawoman
uttered that evening never greeted my ears,
even in the Geological gardens at feeding
time. 1 don't know why it is, but it seems
that whenever these soft-voiced Chinese nave
anything formal to say they seem at once to |
nave a gong in their throat. Even when
they drink tea together they suddenly pause, |
and as il seized with some wild spirit they
gesticulate at each other and shout alternate
words with rhythmic regularity, at the end
of which they take tiny cups of tea.