The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-19
A FEARsOME AUDIENCE.

Bob Briefly Played Before the Ticket-of-
Leave Men OF Van Dieman's Land.
Having had a long rest from acting, re-
turned to Melbourne to play short en-
gagement with my former partner at the
Haymarket, and then sailed for Van Die
mans Land, now called Tasmania. This
lovely island had formerly been convict
station, where life-sentenced prisoners from
England had been sent. There was, at the
time speak of, and is nov, most refined
society in Tasmania, though among the
lower classe there was strong flavor of
the convict element. acted ''The Ticket
Of Leave Man, for the first time in Hobart
Town, and there was much excitement in
the city when the play was announced. At
least 100 ticket-of-leave men were in the pit
on the first night of its production. Before
the curtain rose, looked through it at this
terrible audience; the faces in the pit were
study. Men with low foreheads and
small, peering, ferret-looking eyes, some
with fat noses, and square, cruel jaws. and
sinister expressions-leerin low and cum
ning-all wearing sullen, dogged look, as
though they would tear the benches from
the Dit and gut the theatre of its scenery il
one of their kind was held up to public
scorn upon the stage. This shows the
power of the drama. An author might
| write an article abusing them, or an artist
paint picture showing up the hideous
deformity of their features-all this they
could bear and even laugh at; but put one
of their ilk upon the stage in human form
surrounded by the sympathetic story OF q
play, and they would no more submit to an
ill-usage of him than they would to per.
sonal attack upon themselves.
The first act of the play progressed with
but little excitement. These men seemed
to enjoy the humorous and pathetic side o1
the story with great relish; but when lcame
upon the stage in the second act. revealing
the emaciated features of returned con.
yict, with sunken eyes and sely-shayec
head, there was a painful stiffness in the
house. The whole pit seemed to lean for
ward and strain their eager eyes upon the
scene; and as Bob Briefly revealed to his
sweetheart the secrets of the prison
house." there were little murmurs of recog
milton and shakings of the head, as though
they fully recognized the local allusions
that they SO we'll remembered deep-drawr
sighs for the sufferings that Bob had gone
through, and little smothered laughs Al
some of the old, weli-remembered incon
veniences of prison life; but then Bob wa
a hero, and their sympathies were caugh
by the nobleness of his character and hi
| innocence of crime, as though each one O
these villains recognized how prosecuted h
and Bob had been.
AS the play progressed their enthusiasm
increased. Whenever Bob was bounded b,
a detective or ill treated by Jew the,
would howl their Indignation at the actors
and when he came out unscathed at the en-,
of the play, monument of perfect inpo
cence. they cheered to the perfect echo
The performanc rendered me extremel
popular with some of the old "lags'' O
Hobart-Town. and was often accosted o.
the street by these worthless and told som,
tale of their early prosecutions. In fact
they quite looked on me as an old "pal.
These courtesies were very fiatterine, bu
the inconvenience that was caused by be
, ing poked in the ribs and winked at no.
and then. as much as to say. "All right, oil
boy; we know-you've been there" rer
dered nv favoritism among these fellow
rather irksome.-Joseph Jefferson, in Th
. CsNtury.