St. Paul daily globe., 1890-05-01
DANCED ANDLoOKED PRETTY
Opening of the KIrmess at the
Harris Thoater,

The Kirmess which has been under prep
aTation for several weeks was given last
night at the Harris. The house was only
about half full which may account for the
somewhat ragged progress of the entertain
ment. A Kirmess is in the original an old
Dutch rustic festival. The peasantry of the
land behind the Zuyder Zee were wont to
collect on the lands of one of their lords
and delight the gentry with tableauX,
dances, and such like advertisements. The
entertainment last night was something more
elaborate than those attempted by the old
Dutchmen. aud consisted of representative
dances in costume of various nations, those
being selected whose nations al costumes are
most picturesque. There were nearly 200
persons on the stage, composed of the repre-
SentatiVes of Minneapolis society, and the
fair daughters and stalWaTt sons, albeit
trifle inclined to skinniness of calf, danced.
smiled smirked, made blunders recovered
themselves, showed their ankles, used grease,
paint and powder donned outlandish dresses,
wore false boards, and for one brief night
were ION the stage"
The curtain rose on a brilliant spectacle.
There were the full representations OF all
nations before the public, and not the glare
of lights nor the cruditieS of make up could
hide the heart-swellings of those, who, for
the first time in their lives, were ION the
STAGE and ''acting right out before every.
body"
Two of the upper boxes were occupied by
distinguished guests, the queen of England
and the Goddess of Liberty and their friends.
In the goddess party was young man made
up to represent Powhattan, but he looked
more like Shiny Sam, of DEVILS gulch,
in search of q drink Various notable
men and women, like Pocahontas, Gen. Wash
ington. La Fayette, Robert Burns, Richard
Occur de Leon, Benjamin Franklin and John
Adams were represented i'll these parties, but
if the originals looked at all like their repre-
sentatives. the world should be thankful that
they have long since ceased to exist Legiti-
mate actors will not be forced to resort to
trades unions to protect themselves from am
bilious Mlnneapolitan aspirants for hlstrionic
honors Many of the men seemed to have
put on their makeup with farmers plaster
sower and fastened it with a trowel.
group of little girls, on halfmarch, half
dance, came out first representing the
flowers, clad in Italian costumes. They did
credilably. The humble bees were little
tots, and what they did they did well. Young
dairymaids. They carried bright, new tin
pals and tin dippers but didn't look bit
like dairymaids Next came the Japanese
ladies' who looked very sweet and pretty and
odd, as they were intended to look. Eight
young ladies and eight young men, dressed
to represent Austrians, the men carry
ing reaping hooks, except when they
dropped them, gave a harvest dance and
won deserved applause. They did better
than most of the others. Miss Matte Murch
danced the Highland fling with spirit and
grace, and won deserved encore. Her part
of the entertainment could scarcely be i'm
proved upon The fairies and butterflies,
also little girls, danced pretty for such little