Omaha daily bee., 1890-05-04
( Had A TERRIBLE AUDIENCE.
Joe Jefferson's Experience With Ticket-of-
Leave-Man in Australia.
.OTHELL0's APOLOGY CUT SHORT
=. a Hundred Lines at One Fell Swoop-
Mysterious Disappearance Of
French Composer-Lester Wal
lacks Neglected Grave.
OTHELLo's APOLOGY CUT SHORT

Having had a long rest from acting, re-
turned to Melbourne to play short engage
ment with my former partner at the Hay
tnaket, and then sailed for Van Diemen's
:. Land, now called Tasmania, writes Joseph
SSSIersou in the Century for May This lovely
island had formerly been a convict station,
where lifesentenoed prisoners from England
had been sent. There was at the time speak
of, and is now, a most refined society in Tas-
mania, though among the lower classes there
was strongflavo of the convict element. /
acted '"rhe Ticket-of- Leave-Mann for tho
first time in Hobart Town, and there was
much excitement in the city when the play
was announced At least one hundred ticket
of-leave men were in the pit on the first night
of its production. Before the curtain rose, /
looked through it Mt this terrible audience;
the faces in the pit We're study Men with
low foreheads and small, peering eyes, ferret
looking eyes, some with fiat noses and square.
cruel Jaws, and sinister expressions-le
4 low and cunning-ah wearinga sullen, dogged
: looked, as though they would tear the
benches from the pit and gut the theater of
fits scenery if one of their kind was held up TO
public scorn upon the stage. This shows the
power of the drama. An author might
Nrte an article abusing them, or an artist
paint II plCluEt buUWiuB up uc-
formity of their features--all this they could
bear and even laugh at; but put one of their
fll upon the stage in human form, surrounded
by the sympathetic story of play, and they
would no more submit TO an ill-usagc of him
shan they would to personal attack upon
themselves.
The first act OF the play progressed with
| but little excitement. These men seemed to
" gay the humorous and pathetic side of the
lSf6ry With great relish; but when 1 came
Upon the stage in the second act, revealing
the emRciated features of returned convict,
With supken eyes and a closely shaved head,
There was painful stiffness in the house.
The whole pit seemed TO lean forward and
sstrain their eager eyes upon the scene, and
Bob Brerly revealed to his sweetheart the
E'secrots OF the prison house, there was
Hittle murmurs Of recognition and shal1ings of
she head, as though they fully recognized
the local illusions that they so well remem-
sbered; deep-drawn signs for the sufferings
that Bob had gone through,
fand little smothered laughs at
some OF the old, well-remem-
bered inconvenience Of prison life; but then,
bob was hero and their sympathies were
caught by the nobleness of his character and
his innocence OF crime, as though each one of |
these Williams recognized how prosecuted he |
and Bob had been.
[ AS the play progressed, their enthusiasm |
Increased. Whenever Bob was bounded by q |
detective, or illtreated by the old jew, they !
would howl their indignation at the actors; |
and when he came out unscathed at the end |
pI the play, monument Of perfect Innocence, |
Xey oheered TO the very echo. This perform |
Snce rendered me extremely popular with |
some OF the old 'lagsn OF Hobart Town; and |
= was often aceosted on the street by these |
Worthies and told some touching tale OF their
eariy prosecutions In fact they quite looked
very tiatteiing but the fheonyenience that / |
gyzas caused by being poked In the ribs aud