Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-12-01
SAN FRANCISCO LETTER.
TaE LITERATURE AND ADJUSTMENTS
WHICH PLEASE.
Evidence of pecadence of Thought Power
and Taste-Ihe French Fair-society
and Personal NOTES.-The.

and Taste-1he French Fair-society
and Personal NOTES.-The.
SAN Francisco, November 2S 1888.
Some friends of mine have recently been
discussing, with more or less earnestness,
the low average that the great majority
the paying public-demands and patron
ICES in amusements and mental pabulum,
as illustrated in the low intellectual plane
of all the so.called comic papers and in the
perennial hourishing OF the Ministries,
when the theaters endured but jerkily by
seasons of month or two at time. This,
somebody ingeniously explained, was due,
not to the degeneracy Of minds at large,
but to the increase of the public appealed
to- That is, be believed there were just
as many people who reveled in magazines
of high standard, and who could only be
coaxed from their firesides in the evening
by really good play and really excellent
artistic acting, but that these people would
never be the majority, and the true major
and the comic weeklies and minstrel enter
tainments were addressed to them, SIM
ilarly 'Peck's Bad Boy" There has
always been
LITERATURE FOR THE GREAT UNwAsHED.
The penny.dreadful variety is their meat
in story and drama, but the wave that Is
going over the country now is the distinctly
vulgar in pen production, vulgar IN Its
Latin meaning, OF belonging to the crowd
people too healthy and commonplace to
enjoy hair breadth escapes, murders and
rescues, people whose one ideal IN recrea'
ton is TO DE made to laugh, and the things
they laugh at are hest indicated by the
sale of "Peck's Bad Boy" and the per-
ennial success of the minstrels. went to
one of the two minstrel entertainments
that the city now affords, last Friday even
| ing, partly to see Muldoon, the GIsco-
Roman wrestler, in his representation of
! famous statues, aud partly to try to snatch
the inner secret of the success OF min
strelsy. The gentlemen of color, IN their
| faultless dress suits, sat in their semi
circle, but the audience was twice as inter-
esting. The theater was packed. The
people all, as far as l could see, were Of
the well-te-do commercial class, the women
mostly past first youth, large and fresh
colored, and quietly but richly dressed.
! 1t appears that the way to 90 to the min
strels ia in parties, the larger the better.
| | found myself in the midst of one whose
various members seemed to extend quite
over the house in sort of network. It
was the kindest audience that could be, a5
kind as we'll. trained family to
THE VENERABLE JOKES
| OF its funny member. One minstrel told
| a tale of an anti drinking society to which
he belonged. Fifty sisters were also mem.
bers of the society, and the test of whether
the men of the society had been drinking
consisted in his being kissed by the fifty
sisters in fall conclave. Nobody laughed.
! The interlooutor repeated, Fifty sis
ters?" The other end man queried,
kissed by fifty sisters?'' The teller of
the story asseverated, Fifty sisters, and
d" Kissed by fifty sisters" and questions
and answers flew in quick succession. The
more lively reiteration of the form of words
seemed to act as stimulus to the risibles
of the audience, and at last they laughed
heartily. This must be recognized
manner of forcing joke. Some of the
stories were very old; some of them less
so, but their setting is half of their sue
cess. There is distinctly minstrel man.
ner of talking / have marked it In popu.
lar youths in parlors, without heretofore
being able to classify it. 1t consists partly
in an intimation of high spirits or humor-
Gus depression and innocent recklessness.
Its dialect has for one characteristic the
! suppression of certain vowels, as ''vo'cli y
for " vocalist" d" libr'Y" for " library,
and SO on.
| A SLIGHT NASAL TwANG
Is a great addition to the true minstrel
manner. It is very effective from min
strel, in the parlor somewhat bewildering,
but often very amusing. In the second
part of the minstrel entertainment the
BACKED white men appeared in women's
costumes, and dragged humanity down to
It's very lowest level. 1t was not coarse,
there was nothing said or done that
a father might wish to screen his daughter
from hearing or seeing but it was vulgar,
common it had a certain snartness and
coarse satire, but it was odiOusly unpleas.
ant some way, notwithstanding which peo-
pie rocked themselves upon their chairs in
paroxysms of uncontrolled merriment,
threw up their arms, wiped the tears from
their eyes, and asked each other if that
was not the very best yet. All that was
cleared away, and we had Muldoon against
red background, in blaze of concen-
trated light, as the "Flghtipg Gladiator, 3"
the "Quoit Thrower," the Hercules with
the Club" "Canova's Hercules and
Lichas," Napoleon after the Figure on
the COlonne Vendome, and the Wrest-
Ter in Repose." Marion Wells, the sculp.
tor, arranged the statues, and, although
he had a perfect specimen of the animal
man to work with, still his success in rep
resenting the differing Characteristics of so
many well-known figures was surprising.
For instance,
THE HEAD OF THE HERCULES
With the club is much longer from crown
to nape than that of the " Fighting Gladi.
ator," while that of the Napoleon is fat on
TOP and full at the line between the hair
and the forehead. All these points had
I been observed in getting up the statues,
| however Mr.. Wells manipulated the white
wool wigs to produce the effects. The up
per part of the body appeared to be bare,
| as though powdered to the smoothness of
/ marble it was pink, and showed the mag.
nificent punches of developed muscles in
all their surprising beauty. The lower
part of the body was encased in dead
white silk feshings. Although the join
at the waist was quite perceptible, it was
not injurious to the complete effect, which,
on the stage so lately desecrated by the
most unsparing burlesques of humanity,
was sort of hymn of praise for the
restoration of man to the dignity of
Gods image in which he was created.
1t is due the audience to record that it ap-
plauded the stately Greek ideal as enthusi-
astically as it had the horse. play and buff
foonery. At later stage of the entertain
ment Muldoon appeared in large, rough
| freize Jacket and trousers of modern cut,
| introducing to us ian athlete of whom
America might be proud with a vaguely
self-deprecIating intention apparent in the
emphasis on the word might "-Hanian,
the rover. Hanlan, brisk looking young
man with curly, red beard, said he was
no orator, as Brutus was-Muldoon, in
| fact, is rather fond of speech making
adding something about Australia, and his
general good. willing. and retired. to the
strains of ''God Save the King" or our
| ga ,,arioa - What coprantiop u.pIo,, b,5