Omaha daily bee., 1889-05-19
THE AlVARY KISS.
A Catoclipmic Performance which
has Unncrvcd St Louis Society.


The Alvary kiss has passed into his
tory, says the st. Louis Republican.
1t is now matter OF tangible record
and must be accepted as an historic fact
along with Washington's cherry tree
and Willy Wally Phelps central bang.
1t has come to stay.
1t may be banished from memory, but
like the lamblet Mary had it will still
hnger near.
1t will crop up like the Ancient Mar
iner at the most unlikely moment.
You can't etface the memory of it--lt
will stick to you through life.
No one who was present at the per-
formance of "Siegfried" Wednesday
night can forget the tremendous sensa-
tion the Alyary kiss made.
1t was as unexpected as diamond
ring in bowl of consomme.
1t came in like zephyr and went out
like a cyclone.
In a moment Emma Abbott, Amelie
Rives and Ella Wheeler Wilcox were
obliterated.
The sleeping goddess was to be awak-
ened by the electric kiss of hero.
Siegfried approached the slumbering
maiden timidly, respectfully, after hav-
ing waved his arms more or less tumul-
tuously in the atmosphere.
He leaned over the vestal virgin un-
til his hot, whitening, sirocco-like, 115-
n-the-shade-tf Fahrenheit. breath made
her eye-lashes curl and her alabaster
brow shrivel and crack.
The orchestra glided into tremulous,
half-frightened movement, full of re-
strained anguish and compressed
''melos," ready for use and guaranteed
to stamp in any cline.
Nearer and nearer.
"Time!"
A minute elapsed.
A long, perilous minute full Of seconds
and burdened with a world of happen
ings.
At that moment an emotional tidal
wave swept over the vast concourse.
An incandescent globe was heard to
burst under the tremendous strain.
Was the world about to end?
A second minute.
Fully as long as the first, but of n more
intense, tame-swept character.
Siegfried did not stir. -
Brunnhilde was still entombed in her
hypnotic spell.
The crowd moved uneasily and
Hark! what was that?
The great bell In the adjoining tower
sounded the hour.
4 ne OfcneSIrd WAS clearly D6COm1nS q
| frenzied. The violinlsts were wildly
saving the air with lightning strokes.
The piccolo was flying up and down
| the register with very daring reckless
ness.
The low thrum OF the brass strings
| became painfully conspicuous.
A cataclysm was impending.
Three minutes.
Was he glued there?
Had he lost all track of time and
eternity, or was his Waterbury at his
| Uncle Tafner'sp
Who could tell what wild, delirious,
lurid memories surged athwart Sieg-
| fried's brain?
Had he become translated, or had he
| cramp in his neck?
The veil Of impenetrable mystery
! hung over these vital questions. No one
| was there to answer them; Berry
| Mitchell was invisible.
| Four.
| The electric current circulating
! around the hall had made fourteen
laps by this time and passed the quar-
! ter-mile post.
| Someone stirred.
| 1t was only dude reaching for gum
drop.
But the spell was broken.
| One straw has often fractured the
camel's back.
The deed was done.
None too soon.
| The concentrated energy of the whole
assemblage was escaping through the
| gum drop dude.
Just as the earth-throb heat finds
| vent through two foot geyser.
The circus was over.
| Brunnhilde was alive.
| There was a deafenIng burst OF Wag-
merriam music to celebrate the successful
| resuscltation.
| There was a wild clamor of the popu-
| lace for an encore.
| But the heavens fall but once.
| The rest of the play was tame and
| spiritless.
Such was tn g Alyary kiss which set
| society talking.