Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-24

mon red cabbage gives three colors. Slice
the cabbage and pour boiling water on 1t.
When cold, add small quantity OF alum,
and you have purple. Potash dissolved In
the water will give brilliant green. a
lew drops of muriatic acid will turn the
cabbage water into crimson. These put IN
globes with candle behind will throw the
Light on the picture.
Again. if CHASTITY look be required and
ghost scene be in order, mix common salt
with spirits of wine in metal cup, and set
II upon a wire frame over spirit lamp.
when the cup becomes heated, and the
spirits of wine ignites, the other lights IN
the room should be extinguishcd, and that
OF the spirit lamp hidden from the observer
The result will become like the witches In
Macbeth" 'sThat look not like the inhabi-
tants of the earth, but yet are OF 1t.
Plays That Play Themselves.
To return for moment to the first use of
the stage, the play. 1t is curious thing to
see the plays which amateurs do well. The
Rivals" is one these, and so is EVERY
body's Friend" "The Follies of Night
plays itself, and 'eThe Happy Pair" goes.
very. well. ga Regular Fix one OF
Southern's plays, the Liar in which poor
Lester Wallack played, and "Woodcocks
Little Game" are all excellent.
Cheap and nsophistieated theatricals
such as schoolboys and girls can get up In
the garret or the basement are those which
give the most pleasure. But so strong Is the
underlying love of drama that youth and
maid will attempt hard and sometimes dis
couraging work even in cities where the pro-
fessional work is so very much better. The
private amateur player should study to be
accurate as to costume. No pink satin
Marie Antoinette slippers with Greek
dress. Classic sandals are easily made.
1t is an admirable practice to get up o
play in French. 1t helps so to conquer the
delicatesse of the language. The French
repertoire is very rich in very easily acted
plays, which any French teacher can recon-
mend. Imitation negro minstrels are funny
and apt to be better than the original A
funny man, mimic, one who can talk in
various dialects, is precious boon to the
amateur. Many of Dion Boucicault's Irish
Uses of the Art Divine.
But in this connection, why not call in the
transcendent attraction of music 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 on? 1t adds great charm.
The family circle, where the brothers have
learned the key bugle and cornet, trombone
and violoncello, and the sisters the piano
and harp, is to be envied. What blessing
in the family is the ran who can sing comic
songs, and who does not sing them too
often.
A small operetta is often very nicely done
by amateurs. Would that Sir Arthur would
write another "Pinafore," but alasl there
was never but one.
Tableaux vivants are a very favorite
amusement AThey are easily gotten up at
the end of long parlor, requiring nothing
but movable stage, raised three or four
feet from the floor, with curtains of green
baize for background and draw curtain
to go up and 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, aud
odd old dresses which clever girl will in
stantly find use for The getting up of the
tableaux will occupy rainy week to great
advantage
A Clever Woman Necessary.
Private theatricals will call for more
brain, but there is nothing so remunerative
if well done. A clever woman to manage
them is all that is required at the start.
Some one who will select the heavy father,
the light and gay hero, the stately heroine,
the singing chambermaid, the delightful
soubrette Of the French stage, the humorist,
the Irish or Yorkshire or Yankee character
as desired. Some people are born with a
dramatic instinct; it is great boon. Others
have it not. These last must be reserved
for the tableaux.
j, A private theater is great addition to
large country house, and it can be done so
cheaply and well by modern architect,
used as ballroom on off evenings, and
perhaps q library, dining room or any
other gathering, that it is wonder it has
not been thought of more frequently. And
nothing can be more improving to young
people than to study up play. Observe
the faces of the Oberammergau peasants,
their intellectual and happy faces, Gin
formed with thought" and contrast them
with the faces of the German and Bavarian
peasants about them. Their old pastor,
Deisenberg, by training them in poetry and
defamation, by founding his well written
play on their old tradition, by giving them
this highly improving recreation for their
otherwise starved lives, made another set of
human beings of them. They have motive
in life besides the mere gathering in of a
livelihood.
A Center of Real Culture.
So it would be in any country neighbor-
hood, however rustic and remote, if some
bright woman would assemble the young
people at her country house and train them
to read and recite, lifting their young souls
above vulgar gossip, and helping them to
understand the older dramatists, and even
attempt Shakespeare.
Funny plays might be thrown in to en-
liven the scene, but there should be good
deal of earnest work inculcated as well.
Music, that most divine of all the arts,
should be assiduously cultivated. All the
Oberammergau schoolmasters must be musi-
clans. and all the peasants learn how to
sing. What good thing it would be if our
district schoolteachers would learn how to
teach their scholars 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, and that there will
be no more complaint of dullness.
M. E. w. SHERWOOD.
Won MOLTKE's LAST RUBBER.