Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-05-15
From the Boston He1ald.
THE CALCIUM'S CLEAN

IEE UALUlUM y ULEANl.
She wanted to be a fairy,
She wanted to be d queen;
She wanted to skip and whirl about
All over a glorious scene;
She vowed she neier be happy
Until the time had come
When she could stare through the binding
glare
OF the spluttering calcium. .
popular music hall ditty, and it doubt
less expresses-in sentiment. at least
the ambition of many a stage-struck
damsel. The desire to "stare through
the binding glare" is, however, not al.
together confined to stage-struck dam
the same weakness, as everybody knows
who f~requents the theaters; and a
curious spectacle is not infrequently
presented when the calcium ray follows
a parsonage "all over a gorgeous scene"
This was c~leverlv satirized in the our
lesque of The Bells, in which, several
years ago, Nat Goodwin produced with
marvellous fidelity the features. voice,
gait and gestures of Henry irving. In
the trial scene" OF the original play, it
will be remembered, the stage is dark,
save for one powerful team of light,
which falls on Matthias in whatever
position be assumes. In the trial
scene" of the travesty the same rule
obtained, but at times the light "wob-
bled." "What are you doing now?"
asked the solemn, measured tones of
the mesmerist, as Goodwin nearly dis
oon+aI oil hir ,,04- - -@-.@-
of contortions. Trying to keep in the
ID lime-light =" was the agon-
lied response of the writhing actor.
And this rep.y was invariably the signal
for a roar OF laughter, for the audience
was always quick to see the point of the
joke. The distressed heroine Of melo-
drama never goes up home and lays
herself down to die, except under the
calcium ray strained through a greer
medium" to stimulate moonlight. II
the scene is a wood, this streak OF moon
light never struggles through the
b~ranches-it falls direct; il a garnet or a
dungeon, it shoots in through a window,
and, should there be no convenient
window, it somehow manages to pene-
trate solid wall-it is bound to get there.
Should the heroine be in better circum-
stances, she never appears in fine raj
ment and diamonds unless the glare"
is turned full upon her. Juliet can no
longer make love at long range to
Romeo, unless the balcony is bathed in
~effulgence; and she cannot expire in the
family graveyard with any peace of
mind If the calcium man is absent from
his post on the bridge or in the flies.
Lady Macbeth's candle is dimmed by
the ghastly beam which chases her
throughout the sleep-walking scene.
The forest of Arden is preternaturallv
brilliant, that the graceful outlines of
served. The crook-backed Richard
cries for a relay of steeds, and demands
the services OF a surgeon; brave Harry
V. patrols the sleeping camp and pravs
for victory; the melancholy Dane prom
enades the castle battlements in search
OF the parental apparition-all under
"a light that was never on earth"
The storm clouds scatter, and a moon
of extraordinary brightness illumines
the face of Edmund Dantes as he
emer- es from the pasteboard waves,
and shouts, 1.-THE world is mine %
Mephistopheles perpetually followed
by a fiery red glare. Marguerite by a
pale, sickly green. And so might one
go on multiplying example upon exam
pie of the use Of calcium lights on the
kcS Va Al 4OOOhL 14OW oCCO
could Il production" be complete
without them? How lacking in glitter
must ave been the spectacles before
their Introduction Can a modern play
goer imagine a ballet or an "Amazonian
March," or 3 transformation scene,"
illuminated only by the common gas of
commerce? Certes. a difficult task.
And yet it was not so long ago that
calcium lights were unknown in the
theater. Even gas, which in compari-
SOL now seems so dull an iilumin ator,
was not used on the stage until the first
quarter OF the present century was we'll
N gh gone.
In Shakespeare's time, and for many
years thereafter, artificial Lighting was
not needed. The theaters, except the
stage and galleries, were open to the
sky, and the performances began at 3
O'Clock in the afternoon. Then came
the lighting of the stage by 1.-TWO large
branches, of a form similar to those now
hung in churches" according to the de-
scription given by Malone III his "Ac-
count Of the English Stage" These
branches INSTRUCTED the view Of specta-
tors, however; they gave place to small
circular wooden frames or hoops. fur
nished with candles, eight of which
were hung on the stage, four on either
side. Garrick, on his return to London
from Italy in 1865, introduced various
Improvements IN the tbeater, and
among them was the substitution
of a row of footlights tor
the old circular chandeliers over
head; and not long after oil
lamps took the place OF candles. The
first gas lamps appeared in LONDON in
1909, when Pail Mall was lighted by
them. Exactly when they were first
used as footlights it is difficult to tell,
but it is recorded that liz 1928 a gas ex-
plosion in Covent Garden Theater
killed two men, and SO alarmed play
goers that the management closed the
house for a fortnight in order to remove
all the pipes and fittings. BENJAMIN
Webster. in his speech on resigning
the management of Haymarket Thea
ter in 1858, mentioned among the i'm
provements during his fifteen years
tenancy then ended the introduction of
gas; but it is well known that oil lamps