Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-10
THE TOPICAL TALKER.
Theodore Thoma. win Give Concert HI

Theodore Thomas Will Give Concert Here
| by Invitation = Theaters Must be
Warmed-Up In a Balloon-Americar
Plays Wanted.
No MAN among the musicians of the country
is more deserving of honor than Theodore
| Thomas, and it is pleasant TO learn that Pitts
burg is to have chance to join in national
testimonial to him. simultaneously all over
| the land musicians and still more the music.
loving public have banded together in an ap
| peal to Mr.. Thomas to lead out once more his
famous orchestra. Almost all the great cities
of the Union have invited him to visit them,
and at the present time similar invitation is
being signed in PittsDurg by the most prom.
| inent citizens
1t is settled that Mr.. Thomas will give con.
| cert here in the early part of November. The
character of the concert will in measure be
determined by those who shall sign the invita-
ton. Mr.. Thomas will offer to them the choice
| of three programmes which he has arranged to
suit the taste of the public in the various cities
he proposes to visit Whatever style of pro-
| gramme is chosen we may be- sure that it
will contain good music and that it will be
rendered in that artistic spirit for which
Thomas orchestra is celebrated.
1t may occur to some that the disbandment
of Thomas Orchestra was chronicled at the
end Of the season before last, but no anxiety
need arise on this account Mr.. Thomas has
been able to collect about him virtually the
whole of the orchestra he trained so perfectly,
and it will be heard here in November in all its
original strength.
Now that the cold weather is coming on
Manager Wilt ought to get the heating appara-
tus into working order in the Grand Opera
House. On Tuesday night, so several gentle
men who were there have told me, the theater
was SO cold that they had to wear their over
coats, and when they got out into the open air
it seemed change for the better in the way Of
warmth.
To A sympathetic friend was bewaillng the
fact that SON Of a neighbor of mine had a
passion for playing on the horse fiddle, and
described the noise he made with the hideous
instrument as the most melancholy and annoy
ing had ever heard. He admitted that the
music to be extracted from drygoods box and
rail was appalling; but" said he, II remem-
ber hearing worse noise than that once in my
life. 1t was when made an excursion into the
clouds with Donaldson, the aeronaut, some
years ago There was high wind blowing, and
the balloon was travelling about so miles an
hour. The sun had long set, and we were bowl
ing along about so feet above the earth toward
the Alleghenies. We had the drag rope out,
and as it was 80 feet long, long stretch of it
trailed. AS we passed over q small town the
rope ratified, slid and slammed over the roofs,
making the dickens of a racket. I have never
heard a noise like it."
AMONG the trees beginning to flame about a
farm bouse on Neville Island the Stars and
Stripes waved, and in the bright, clear air Of
Tuesday thought had never seen the ma
tional flag to better advantage. The flag
foated little higher than the autumn-tinted
foliage, and SO became patch of vivid color
upon the background of rolling purple hills
1t looked a little unfamiliar, too, competing
for beauty with the banners of the trees but it
was welcome sight none the less.
Sc
THE need for more American plays, plays
about American men and women, American
history, and American places, is becoming
greater every day. 1t is better that they should
be written by Americans, but not absolutely
necessary. If intelligent playwrights of for
eign birth want to write for the American
market their wares will be welcome If they
give us what we cry for, American plays.
This week again the futility of attempting to
please American audiences with play written
for Frenchmen has been shown. Love and
Liberty is a translation. Another version of
the plot was played here last season by Miss
Efhe Ellsler under the title Of Lady Mar
garet" The latter was not such bad play as
Love and Liberty" and the plot was more in
telligible in Scotch clothes. LADY Margaret
dealt with the times of the young Pretender
and the Jacobite rising of 1745 in Scotland,
whereas Love and Liberty is set in the bloody
ring of 1870 and the Franco German war
am glad to see that Bronson Howard's
latest play Shenandoah" is tremendous sue
cess Why is it a success? Because it is an
American play in its essence. The author is an
American, the plot and the characters, the very
scenery are familiar to our ears as household
words. May Mr.. Howard prosper and turn out
a new play every year. That will be enough.