Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-02

tall man, and the peanut receptacle reached
almost to the level of his eyes. Over this
lmprovised everest he watched the play;
and eat steadily at his peanuts. He had a
very nice calculation, that colored man. He
allowed for seven acts in the "White Slave, -
so he purchased peanuts enough to last for
seven acts, at so many nuts per act But he
was foiled. The fifth act did not last for
five minutes and at the end of the play the
calculator must have been annoyed to find
a useless surplus of peanuts.
MacaulaY could always study best when
eating bread and butter. The goods" enjoy
themselves most when munching peanuts.
HOW THE GODS CATCH ON.
Somehow or other, the finer sentiment of
the piece seemed to escape the gallery.
They laughed at an oft-repeated guy, like
Mrs Lees oft-repeated Mister Stitch"
and they pounded the benches, shouted, and
emitted shrill whistles, suggestive of loco
motive yards, when the hero mouthed a
grandiose sentiment, or the villain was de-
fed by the heroine in an unusually tragic
manner. They seemed to like good situa-
tion, and they reveled IN a discharge of fire.
arms. Six or seven newsies (they must
have been newsies from their voices)
perched on the back rail, like so many spar
a
off. When the "Belle Creole" blew up,
they whistled so loudly that a seedy and
mpish-looking gentleman on the fifth
row leaped to his feet and looked round in
dismay. Poor fellow, he had been doing.
and awoke to hear, as he thought, the night
express come hurting along the ties be-
hind his weary bones. .
Oh that gallery whistlel 1t is the grand
secret of the gods, transmitted through
long generations of gallery frequenters. 1t
rises high above the loudest acclamations-
it is heard in the fiercest tempest OF cheers.
These little Gavroches on the rail were
not shy about expressing their sentiments on
the play. 1t was-"Jimmv, dat's corker.
dat gal, and 'Git on to his gun, boys, ,"aud
'Hope dat ar Lacy'l get hung, bymebv,"
from the rising of the curtain, even unto the
falling thereof. One of the little gamins
had owned to lurking feeling in Lacy's
favor. This made him the target for his
friends scorn and derision-"Now whar's
yer Lacy? Guess he's beat this time."-
''Knockln' woman down. Oh, he's daisy,
he is." "Put bullet in him, the big cow
ard" These were the taunts levelled at
Lacy's defender, who still held his own
stubbornly, and exclaimed when the villain
was arrested, oval, they was four to one
agin him, anyhow"
BREAKS FOR THE DOOR.
At the end of every act there was a rush
for the door. The privilege of going out
when you want to 60 out, and getting a
check "just like dude goin' for drink"
is an enticing one to gallery Arabs. The
writer was borne with the stream down the
staircase to where the check bestowers stood.
''Mister, gimme check" "Gimme check,
mister" "Gimme two checks, mister, for
me an Whitley" shouted the youths on the
crest of the wave. How they all got checks
was astonishing to degree. Behind came
the older folks, among them some gentry
whose rubicund nasal organs hinted that,
like Mr.. Squeers, they were going to stretch
their legs a bit between whiles." These
took their checks more soberly, but as the
play progressed, and the leg stretchings grew
more frequent, there is little doubt but that
the sobriety would be largely diminished.
Leaving the Bijou gallery the writer
hastened toward that of the Academy of
Music. In the cozy little theater over
which Mr.. Harry Williams presides, the
gallery is much the same as in the Bijou.
Of course the tough" element was present,
as it was also in the Bijou. One cannot
keep the tough gods out, that is apparent.
But the gallery attendants moved about,
ready to pounce down upon any disturber of
the public peace. Perhaps it was imagina-
tion, but apples and oranges seemed to the
writer more in favor at the Academy than
peanuts. Two or three young fellows sit
ting near the front rail, devouring the latter
juicy fruit, seemed bent upon making the
mouths of the fair singers water, and thus
impeding their vocalization.
THEY WHO CHEERED LoUDEsT.
With the love for beauty which is rooted
deep in the Celtic nature, the Irish element.
or very large slice thereof, had put in an
appearance in the Academy gallery. It
was they who did the loudest pounding and
cIapping, it was they who whistled shriIlest
at the encore OF popular cantratice, or
danseuse. 1t was they who, in accents re-
dolent of breezy Connemara, punctuated the
performance with approving remarks The
newsies did not flock quite so thickly to
Mr.. Williams show. The overpowering
attraction of 1.-THE White Slave" quite out
did the Academy in the minds OF these
young worshipers of melodrama. But of
children of larger growth" there were
plenty, and so far as crowds went there was
little to choose between the two galleries.
A little while was spent among the
Academy "gods" that it should have
been but little whilel The end of the per-
formance came all too soon, and the writer
ielt regretful, as ne passed out OF the gallery,
still echoing with the last burst of applause,
and descended with his friends, the gods, in
motley concourse, to the street. In the street
the Olympians melted away, to alley, or to
mill, or to eating house-whithersoeve duty
or whlm chanced to call them. But their
destinations mattered little, in the streets
their divinity had left them; out of the gal
lery they were gods" no longer.
Brennan.
I.nnL h. R.in.d A.n Van SIrLa