Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-06-24
GOTHAM GOSSIP.
rHy PAGAN TENDENCY IN TIE SHOW
BUSINESS
xskins Rome Fowi-faper Money Of DIFF
fsrent Countsies-A Trip
to Europe
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NEw York, June %, 1888.
There is decided Pagan tendency in
The "show business" and by the "show
business" l mean that order OF public
entertainment which appeals to tho
senses merely, and mainly depends upon
what has been called the "wink OF the
eye" for it's success III Barnum were
not restrained by a viewless something
called public sentiment, no would long
AGO have revived the Roman arena, and
in fact has got as near TO it as Is possible
in Christian community with his
chariot races and his unwritten promise
"a kill a female chsriotcer or two every
week. think naltogether likely il New
York had had an architect capable OF
building an amphithcatre, New York
would very soon have found Nero to
fill il.
We had an actress here not long ago
who put Pagan drama on the boards
and defended its lust and brutality over
her own name in the newspapers, and
naturally enough got the ready pen OF
MIR. Ipgersol TO say he didn't see any
thing bad in IT, g,
Tho Pagan tendency is not, / am glad
10 say. IN the direction of lust and cruel
". Ii is rather in the direction OF mag
nifcenco and sensuousncss II exhibits
itself in theesort TO produce "monster
shows which TO the multitude Of people
take the place OF anything like thought.
Down at Erastina, which is only half
an hour frem the City Hall, we have
what is called the ovid West. 1t IS
an exhilarating spectacle in which men
and horses risk their necks, and from
which ten to twenty thousand people
daily revsl in the harbarous pageant OF a
hundred Indians mimicking the outlaw
ing and violence of their native vllds.
On the same island and even moro
convenient to the city wo now have
ready for grand opening the most pre-
tenhous effort in the way Of spectacle
that was probably ever attempted since
the Roman emperers taxed their morbid
imarinstions aad drained their treasn
RES to furnish visual amusement to the
faded esthetics OF the imperial city.
IInre Kiraliy is a ba.let-iactor don't
for the sake Of the revised code PRINT
that mslcfactor. lie is a dance con-
tractor. He rains girls on the stage
when the public is arid ard thirst Tor
that kind Of human nature that can DO
got at wholesale for ten dollars a week.
He now proposes to give MS what he
calls a gigantic historical spectacle OF
Nero or, The Fall Of Rome"
1t is presumable that Mr. Kiralfy
thinks Rome fell during Nero's time.
At all events he is going to make it
fall with one thousand girls, and his
logic is so much better than bis historical
accuracy that AN bound 10 say that
number Of girls ought TO bring down any
average city.
Hitherto don't think the ambition OF
this spectacularist ever got much beyond
n hundred girls, AMI that put great
strain on tho morals Of New York. What
one thousand girls in hot weather Will do
staegers our fondest anticipations, so TO
speak.
/ suppose the average nan everywhere
has "a pretty clear idea of what one girl
can do when she sets in. But we've got
10 revive our Pagan arithmetic; no less
than one Pagan fancies to grasp a thou
sand of them.
MAKE ROME HOWL.
Nv faith in Kiralfy is so great that /
believe he will make Rome howl, and
New York also. The bill calls for three
hundred athletes, n chorus Of five hun
dred voices, a band OF one hundred mu-
sicians, and procession OF twenty three
hundred persons. There will also be
thrown in hundred elephants. lions,
camels, and tigers, and q squadron Of
horse. The whole spectacle there [
duote) u close with n supernal destruc-
ton Of Rome by fire and n magnificent
apotheosis showing the dawn of Chris
tianity.
This takes the Pagan edge of, as it
were. Evangelical men and women will
now flock to the arena and take an hour
of animalisn fer the sake OF ten seconds
Of dawn.
What Ewant to know is this: Is Mr..
Kiralfy's little stock company Of TWEEN
ty-three hundred people going to live at
st. George, or come up every night on
the boat? II so, which boat? Is there
TO be a salary-list Does the Staten
Island Ferry Company put up for this
combined exhibit?
They used TO do this sort of thing at
Pompeii and Ephesus, though l am too
young to remember much about it. But
IvesseR some Of the fresooes that have
beenleft.
l am glad, as / said, that our Paganism
runs merely to largeness, not to lustful-
ness. We want to feed the senses-cTam
the eve with eaormous and multitude
all nd
while the Dog Star RACES the weak man
prefers to see something going on to be-
ing.made TO think.
There ID, too, q sanitary side of this
new enterprise. Captain Williams has
been for years advocating the plan OF
getting all tho bad women of New York
into one street, where he could keep his
eye on them. Now it strikes me that
Eiralfy's plan OF getting all the good
bookings and blg -limbed girls of Now York
on an islxnd where the fast man and the
sport cap keep their eyes on them ought
TO lend sense Of repose and Quaker
quiet to upper Broadway.
PAPER MONEY OF DIFFKRENT COUNTRIES.
At almost any hour of the day eager
and hungry men and boys may be
seen ftzseting their eyes on the glittering
heaps Of coin and the thin bundles OF
bank,notes spread in tempting array be-
hind the plate-glass windows of the
money-changers IL Wall street and
vicipiiy. "It is surprising" said
q ksssau-street broker, show many
different kinds of paper We use
for currency in the various foreign
countries Each nation seems to have
ito own particular kind OF brand OF
paper. Here is Bank of England
note. It. printed on Irish linen water
lined paper, plain white with rough
edges. Ysu viii notice in short time
how the paper lacks the smooth, oily
feeling Of our own bank notes. Then,
again, there is an absence OF any color
ing except black and white. The snail
estnotss ISSUED by the Bank OF England
are OF the value of IS or S25. The
cid fashion of ssnding these notes from
one country TO another was TO cut
tho notc into two parts. and seRd tho
pieces fnpseparste envelopes but that
10 hrssly done away with. All such
notes finally find their way back to the
Bank Of England, where they are re-
tired Tor good. They are never reissued,
- the bank only sends out new, clean