Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-03-30
GOTHAM AT THE THEATRE
AN EFFORT TO CHECK PRESfA-
TURE STAMPEDES.

N
ecrable Manners at the Nilsson Con-
certs-A Rich Satire on Society Gus
toms.
NEW YORK, March 27.-The Kemble
Dramatic Society has begun a war against
the discourteous snobs who make it a
/ point to leave theatres before the perform
/ ances are finished. In New York and
Brooklyn these sort of things have become
/ quite the fashion. About ten minutes be-
| fore the climax of the last act, when the
audience should be wrapt in interest. and
when great many people are greatly in
terested in the play, about one-half of the
people get up, begin to assume their
wraps and make for the doors. This be-
! came so very obnoxious that the Kemble
! Society began to deliver a series of
| lectures through the medium of its
programme to the audiences, but so far
they have done no earthly good. The
Kemble is just now giving a number of
performances by the first amateurs of the
| city, and the rush of the audience for the
doors at the most critical point in the play
so illustrates and upsets the ladies and
! gentlemen who are actors for the time
| being that they are unable t9. go on with
the play, and so nearly every performance
ends in confusion. The President became
so indignant that he said in his address to
the audience recently that he was. bound
to enforce pOliteness if he antagonized
every auditor in the house. Upon this the
people laughed. They seemed to think it
was good joke, and the singing speech
of the President passed for nothing. One
OF the last articles in the programme of
the kemble Society says: 'SNuisances and
abuses creep into the very best society
from lack of little Judgment. We
thought the worst type of the theatre
goer was he who audibly criticized and
| commented upon the performance as it
progressed. But this sort of nuisance
has been left far behind by the especially
obnoxious nuisance that makes it
point to leave the theatre before the cur
tain drops for the last act. We are
at total loss to account for such bad
manners and cannot understand how
people, who are nOminally cultivated and
| refined, can be so absolutely rude and
thOughtleSs. We have become weary of
urging people in the interest of pOliteness
| and decency to remain in the last act, and
now we demand it as thing that is due
to the ladies and gentlemen who volunteer
their services for the amusement of the
other people who insult them" These
! vigorous statements, however, have no
effect on the people. They still continue
! before, and probably will continue until
there is riot and somebody gets shot.
The growing lmpOliteness of audiences is
constantly commented upon, and from il
springs the reflection that people are be-
coming less gallant and polite than they
were in the early days of our city. | at
tended concert last Saturday OF Chris
tine Nilsson at Steinway Hall, and while
there saw another instance of the bOOrish-
ness characteristic of the New York
amusement goers. In this case it was
| inspired entirely by snObbery and the at
| tempt to appear artistic and aristo-
cratic. Although Madame Nilsson is
supported by company of supe-
riOr excellence, it has been considered
the proper thing by few snobs to 90 in
| and hear the great soprano sing and
then go right out again. They are so ut
terly refined that the voices of anybody
else but the queen of song are unbearable.
The fact that Miss Hope Glynn and any
of the five others in the troupe could,
with propriety, star themselves and have
been listened to by people of the highest
culture with the greatest attention all
over the world, escapes these snobbish
auditors. They believe thoroughly in
their own convictions, and these
convictions are that it is not
proper to hear anybody else
sing except Christine Nilsson. When |
arrived at the concert hall there We're per-
haps about a thousand people, well
dressed and intelligent, who sat about the
hall chatting quietly and waiting for the
first number. The MendelssOhn Glee
Club and Theodore Thomas Orchestra
were upon the stage. The concert began,
the various artists rendered their num-
bers, and at about an hour after the con-
cert began Madame Nilsson made her ap-
pearance. But few moments before she
came upon the stage there was a hustle
and rustling of skirts, and people came
trOoping down the aisle in dozens and
scores. Miss Nilsson actually had
to stand still on the stage and
wait for several minutes until they were
seated. | believe at least four hundred
people came in at that time and while she
was singing. The expression on her face
was a study, and should have been a re-
buke to most of the tardy cOmers, and
people without exception dressed in eX-
treme style. After Madame Nilsson had
sung, and received three encOres, the 9TH
er people of the troupe came upon the
stage again and began to sing and play in
the regular order order Of the programme.
Madame Nilsson did not sing
again for halt an hour. The
fashionables all waited for her. But
during the time which elapsed between
her first and second appearance they chat
ted incessantlv, and made such an in
fernal noise that real lovers of music were
debarred from any enjoyment of the sort.
Madame Nilsson sang again, and even
during her last encore, these same people
got up on their feet and began to rustic
toward the door again. Half an hour
later the concert was out, but the hall
was already half depOpulated. This is the
state of affairs that would seem incredible
in city which is somewhat noted for the
culture of its people.
The sign "Hot Beef Tea' is to be found
cOnspicuOusly displayed in the windows
of liquor saloons all over the city, and the
teetOtaler, when asked to drink, is, conse-
quently, not obliged to cOnfine himself to
soda or lemonade, but may partake of a
beverage more in accordance with the sea-
son. While the weather continues of its
present temperature, hot beef tea will
prove welcome addition to the menu of
a well kept bar.
A decidedly inopportune death occurred
here day or two ago. 1t was that of II
lady in whose house amateur actors of
more or less reputation were to give a
theatrical entertainment next week. They
all had learned their roles and apprized
large circle of admiring friends of the
treat which was in store for
them, when the lady's death gave
the coup de grace to the enterprise.
That her death, therefore, is regretted goes
without saying, but the feeling aroused
by it is one more of anger than of sorrow.
The thought that they have burdened
their memories and bored themselves in
learning their parts to no purpose causes
those who were to have participated in
the performance as much indignation as
regret, and in their opinion, nothing in
Mrs. IS life has less become her than
her leaving it.
A few years ago, man holding the arm
of the woman whom he escorted, in place
of rice Uersd, was an unfamiliar sight in a
New York street, and if such were to be
found, his dress, as well as his demeanor,
proved him to be a country cousin.
Time, however, has changed all
that. Either there are more cOun-
try cousins here than natives to the
manor born, or New Workers nave sue
cumbed to the habit of reversing the atti-
tude of the sexes when man and woman
are walking together. Now, well-dressed
and evidently well-tO-do couples, of an ap-
pearance indicating that they ought to
know better, are to be seen everywhere,
with the man grabbing the woman's arm
as drowning person grasps at a straw
As it cannot be that they are all repre-
sentatives from the rural regions, New
Workers without number must have fallen
from grace. Broadway policemen and
hOrse-car conductors are evidently re-
sponsible for this state of things. None
of the first named has ever been known IN