Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-02-04
Theatre IN st. Louis. Our Correspond.
ent Gets Left Over a Day in
the Capital OF Egypt.

Theatre In st. Louis. Our Correspond.
ent Gets Left Over Day in
the Capital OF Egypt.
The theatrical season appears to be
dull IN St. Louis and the piecss running
last week were weak The craving for
novelty by the regular theater-goers
soon pushes from the stage the strong
pieces which only occasionally appear
: the pieces we country Jakes would
like to see when we come to the city,
but hardly ever get chance to see
Foreign brogue appears to be the pre-
vailing elem ent of the plays now on.
We have it in variety in Love and
Law, Italian, German and Irish; in
''In Spite of all'' we get French and
q erman galore. and in "Our Joan"
most of the characters talk what is sup
posed to be Cornish, and all say 10y
Cahn't." In "Love and Law Milton
Mobiles is supposed to be the star in the
young Irish Lawyer, but can't see
that he is particularly brilliant. A SUBJ
star, in the character of the dago,
cringes glides, scowls, Kisses oaths,
stamps, yells and beats the air in
manner to Guido the genuine Italian
william much farther than the burnt
cork minstrel outdoes the genuine
negro. Pretty little Dolly Noble, as
Rita, crates, sings and gesticulates with
fervor at least equal to the genuine
Italian, and with charming Italian
brogue, although she turns out to be
no Italian at all but the stereotyped
'long lost child" of an English mobile
family, not with strawberry mark on
the left arm, this time, but the scar of
a scald on the left shoulder. These
lost children of gentle blood are for
tunately branded and the brand duly
recorded. Rita is fairly charming in
her Gorgeous silk petticoat and spangles,
and is even picturesque in her old
clothes, which have so many tatters
and as many colors as Joseph's coat
after the old man opined some evil
beast had torn him. By the way,
Jacob in this instance, didn't seem to
sustain his reputation as the father of
all the jew peddlers, clothing men and
brokers-the man who beat his father,
his brother and his brother-in law, who
seemed to be the only capitalists within
his reach-or he would have had
RACIAL mend up the coat o little and
then he would have put it off on some
country Jake of Midianite as 'sheap
at tree tollar.o
Little, viyacious, red-headed Minnie
Maddern seems to be the faverte star
here, as she was once pupil in the
public schools of st. Louis, and having
since achieved fame in New York, the
st. Louisans are naturally proud of
her. Her gush and vivacity are re-
markable, but the strong points of her
acting are winking and striding
More than half the time she is tearing
about the stage like contestant in
go-as-you-please walking match, and
more than the other half she is winking
like the proverbial toad under cab
bage leaf. This would be very ludi-
crous if her long lashes didn't sweep
down upon such pert and pretty
face, and If the 1.-THE form were not so
graceful, agile and kittenish A great
contrast to little Minnie in physique
and averdupois is the Englis h star, Rose
Coghlan, who has an arm like black
smith and voice of which a six-foot
marshal of Fourth-of-July procession
might be proud. She makes strapping
fishers lass in "Our joan" The plot
of this play seems patched up from
Charles Reade's "Christy Johnston"
and William Blacks princess of
Thule" but the conversation is as stupid
and full of bosh as the ordinary English
society novel, where the mush is pep
pered with epigrams adapted from
French novels. But the dullness Of the
play is redeemed by the last sceue-the
storm, shipwreck and rescue-where
the scenic display is very fine. They
have the old style dried-peas rain and
sheet-iron and bass-drum thunder, but
since the introduction of the electric
light they are enabled to use real light
ming on the stage with vivid effect.
Barney McAuley as Uncle Daniel in
"a Messenger from Jarvis Section"
seemed to be worth all the other plays
then running in st. Louis. He APP
peared perfect type of the old Yankee
farmer-not the conventional Yankee
of literature, speaking an impossible
dialect and wearing more impossible
costume, but in everything-dress, lam
guage, tone and manner-"as natural
as an old shoe.'' There is more fun in
one of his droll sayings than in all the
labored epigrams of the dandy stars,
and more pathos in one of his simple
sentences than in all the gush and hys-
terics of the prima donnas.
left St. Louis last Saturday night
on the Texas & st. Louis road via Cairo
and wished | hadn't, Notwithstanding
the cut rate. The road is poorly furn-
ished and worse managed. Our train
failed to make connection at Cairo and |
we were left to pass twenty-four hours
in that delectable place. They do not |
check baggage through, and the road |
from st. Louis does not run into the |
same depot from which the road out of |
Cairo starts, and while one was finding
his baggage, getting it to the other de-
pot and getting it re-checked, he would |
probably get left. even if he got into
Cairo on time. The Texas & st. Louis. |
or Cotton Belt route is good one for
travelers-to let alone
c. N. HoLFoRp.
Little Rock. Ark, Jan. &c, 1886.