The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-24

transcendant attraction of music2 Now
that we have lady orchestras, why not have
them on the stage, or have them play occa-
sional music between the acts, or while the
tableaux are on2 It adds a great charm.
The family circle, where the brothers
have learned the key bugle and cornet,
trombone and v%ioloncello. and tho sisters
the piano and harp, is to be envied. What
a blessing in the family is the man who can
sing comic songs, and who does not sing
them too often.
A small operetta is often very nicely lone
by amateurs. Would that Sir Arthur would
write another Pinafore, but alas! there was
never but one.
Tableaux WANTS are a very favorite
amusement. They are easily gotten up at
the end of a long parlor, requiring nothing
but a movable stage, raised three or four feet
from the the floor, with curtains of green
balze for a background n a draw curtain
to 60 up n down. A row of common
lamps is placed in front for %footlights, and
the lights can be thrown from behind. As
to dresses, it is the easiest thing possible
to invent them from the cheapest %cretonne
or the most cottony of velvets. The house.
hold will furnish discarded curtains. and
odd old dresses which a clever girl will in
stantly find a use for. The getting up of
the tableaux will occupy a rainy week to
great advantage.
Private theatricals will call for more
brain, but there is nothing so remuner alive
if we'll done.
A clever woman to manage them is all
that is required at the start. Someone who
will select the heavy father, the light and
gay hero, the stately heroine, the singin,
chambermaid, the delightful soubrette o
the French stage. the humorist. the Iris,
or Yorkshire or Yankee character rs de
sired. Some people are born with n ara-
matte instinct; it is a great boon. Others
have it not. These last must be reserved
for the tabaIeaux.)
A private theater is n great addition to a
large country house, and it can be done so
!. cheaply and we'll by n modern architect.
used AS 4 ball room on off evenings. and
perhaps a library. q dining-room or any
other gathering, that it is a wonder it has
not been thought of more frequently.
And nothing c1n be moro improving to
young people than to study up a play.
Observe the faces of the Oberammergau
peasants, their intellectual and happy faces,
Informed with thought" and contrast
them with the faces of the German and Bu-
varlan PEASANTS about them. Their old
pastor, Deiscnberg, by training them in
poetry II defamation, by founding his
we'll written play on their old tradition, by
giving them this highly improving recrea-
ton for their otherwise starved lives, made
another set of human beings of them. They
have n motive in life besides the mere gath
eling in of a livelihood.
SO it would be in any country neighbor-
hood, however rustic and remote. If
some bright woman would assemble
tho young people at her country house
and train them to read and recite.
lifting their young souls above vulgar Cos
sip, and helping them to understand the
older dran.atists, and even attempt Shake
speare. Funny plays might DO thrown in
to enliven tho scene, but there should be n
good deal of earnest work inculcated an
we'll. Music, that most divine OF all tho
arts, should be aasiduously cultivated. All
the Oberammergau schoolmnsters must be
musicians, and tho peasants learn how to
sing. What II good thing it would be if
our district school teachers would learn
how to teach their scholars a part song!
When the art of entertaining has reached
its apotheosis we feel certain that we can
have this influence emanating from every
opulent country house, md that there will
DO no moro complaint of d~ullness.
M. II. w. SHERWOOD.
C.py-1 ,ht.