The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-30
BROOKs AND DICKSON.
And the Kind of Plays They Imported from
Abroad and Produced in America.


Abroad and Produced in America.
"Geths' New York Letter.
You have observed that Brooks and Dickson
have broken mp their partnership proof
OF the tumble of imported actors, sceneries and
yarns Brooks and Dickson were among the
sons of Abraham who thought theatricals were
good thing. In order to have a very good thing,
they refused to adopt any play unless it was al
ready a success. 1t occurred to them that what
had been a success in London must succeed IN
New York and throughout these benighted
States. So they began to import pieces from
the Surrey Theater and from the wild dramatic
purlieus of Southwark and Whitechapel Most
of this class of theaters described the operations
of the British poor, the necessary rascahties Of
the aristocracy and the terrors which in an old
society overwhelm all who make misstep.
This kind of British literature is two centuries
old We are not entirely unaware in America
that under the crust of British society is huge,
unsettled, unpatriotic disaffected element.
This element has its own literature, and its
great apostle was G. W. NJ. Reynolds, writer of
court intrigues, the expressions of younger sons,
the vices of the aristocracy, and even the vii
lianies of the royal family. Reynolds has been
carefully omitted from the British cycopedias
and books on literature. Nevertheless, he had
his hosts of readers and his newspaper, which
bore his name, was to be found in nearly every
public house of the Kingdom. He wrote some
thing in the general style of Ainsworth, but
Ainsworth, who had hardly any Imagination,
contributed to the Tory magazines, and all his
depictions of British society were of the ortho-
dox sort. Reynolds, on the other hand was in
spired by the rigors of British law, by its per-
petual leaning toward power and authority, and
giving the poor and the tempted no chance. He
ransacked the lives of the chief British families,
including the royal princes, and they sued him
for libel and indicted him repeatedly, but he
generally had the juries with him, or if he had
to pay damages or go to Jail his subscribers made
up the funds, or he used his writing materials in
prison, and even when deprived of these he had
disciples who wrote in the same general style,
and who kept up the novels and put his name to
them.
Douglas Jerrod was not as revolutionary in
his nature as Reynolds, but he also had keen
sense of the constant wrongs being visited upon
the poor in the great British metropolis. A book
called From ST. Giles to St James was loud
ly denounced as incendiary, but in course Of
time it was followed by reforms such as the
opening of broad and better streets through the
old London purlieus by which the foul air had
chance to pass Off
1 have never seen in all my life such pictures
as in the vicinity of the Seven Dials and of
Drury Lane in London during the American
civil At that time cotton not to be
had and hence that huge industry which may
be called the bottom of British trade was next
to stands still. The omnibuses would come into
LIVERPOOL with factory girls on the roof, where
they paid penny or half penny less than to
sit inside. Prostitution was all but universal,
On Saturday nights at the outlets of the alleys
leading to Drury Lane you would see staggering
women, lighting women, women tearing out
each others hair, men standing around in circles
and seeing the sport and then near by some
huge gin palace would be all aAame with lights,
and if you would peep within you would see the
great butts and hogsheads reaching almost to
the ceiling so that the human beings on the
floors drinking and guzzling would look to be in
proportion mere pigmes
London, notwithstanding its many industries,
is like all great marts made up of the aggregate
of the trade of the rest of the kingdom. 1t
shoves through its banks and accommodation
houses pretty much all the trade of Great Brit
ain and her colonies. Therefore in tight times
London seems the most pitiless town on the
globe.
New York, perhaps, comes next to London.
New York abounds in cold weather to make the
poor people SILVER while London is eopious in
rains to drench them to the skin The poor
house is local institution in London, belonging
to every parish while the alms-house of New
York is capitalized, so to speak, in one spot.
Hence poverty in London stays near by the
places of its origin, but in New York it goes
over to the island and you hear no more of it.
The pieces Brooks and Dickson brought out to
this country were of a mild democratic and
insurgent incentive They seldom pointed out
any remedy for injuries and mistakes of the
persons depicted, but they agonized every scene.