The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-01-20
NYM CRINKLB WRITES.
The Famous Dramatic Critic
Discusses Theatrical Events.
NEW YORK PLAYS AND PLAYERS.
Francis Wilson'S New Opera, "The Lion
Tanner" a Pleasant Hash OF Music
aad Mirth-The Inimitable Rehau and
the Divine Patti.

copyright. 1892, by American Press Associa-
ton.
NEW YORK. Jan 6-There are three or
four Merry Andrews in the amusement
world who walk over the people with inn
perious tomfoolery They are jolly modern
juggernauts, and ought to say the people
throw themselves under their wheels with
mad fealty to fun that is almost pagan.
De Wolf Hopper is one of these, Dixey
used TO he, and Francis Wilson is another
You may, if you please, put Mr.. Harrigan
into the same category.
These men play the court jester to the
public, and none of them is so specially en-
dowed to do it as Mr. Francis Wilson, who
has Just produced at the Broadway theater
an expensive and glittering masQue, which
he calls The Lion Tanner"
And here ought to say in parenthesis
that theatrical entertainments run like
dynamite disasters, in cycles. The prin-
ciple of sympathetic imitation governs the
character of plays. After somebody dis
covered the skirt dance every playwright
bent his material to that focus After Mr.
Howard had produced Shenandoah" the
entire play constructing ability of the
country conferred itself OF war plays.
Just now somebody has struck the idea
of putting a circus on the stage-tent,
lion tanners and sawdust. The Academy
of Music has been converted into a cirque
Street parade, double trapeZe, paper hoops
animals and clown are now rooted for the
winter under the protecting agis of the
drama, and the parade becomes play
Prestol The moment Mr.. Francis Viii
son got his Lion Tanner" on we saw it was
the same attempt--the same spangles, the
same sawdust, the same hoop-la-bus all
swimming in the deceptive mayonnaise OF
opera, just as the other arena at the Acad
envy swirns in the olive oil of drama.
But throughout this ragout is the
piquant flavor of Francis Wilson like the
pervasive capsicum. To say that he ever
for one moment attempts to act would be
poignant injustice to the purpose and pre-
tense of tho Merry Andrew. He does bet
ter. He skylarks. He has tied the chorus
TO the caravan and reinstated Mr.. Merry
man and the monkeys, and if you will only
accept his postulate that it is opera, every
thing goes swimmingly and music gets
the benefit of a masquerade. =
"The Lion Tanner" was the theatrical
success of last week. The big Broadway
theater creaked and snapped with the
pressure of people, and after all Mr. Will
son is the postulate. The people go to see
him fill the shining interstices of this
merry mob with Francis Wilson. He may
be called the cement that holds the cere.
mony together. A kind of differentiated
idolatry reigns when he appears, and the
people begin to throw themselves under
his tomfoolery.
That he can make the disciplined heart
glad is doubtful, but the popular heart is
not disciplined. 1t is content to be di-
verted, and suppose you have heard that
Barnum swayed the hearts of his country
men with a hundred old cages In line
properly lit. He used to say: LET other
people make their laws am content to
make their programmes"
The form of entertainment so resplen-
IDENTIFY shown in 1.-THE Lion Tanner" is and
has been for long time the form that
catches the multitude IN this city Mr.
Harrigan has built a temple of his own
out of it. Miss Lillian Russell stands like
an oriental goddess in the front of it, hold
ing her pink skirts up so that we can see
Opera" embazoned on her black stock
ings A few men like De Mile and How
ard and Mr.. Gus Thomas are honestly
trying to write plays, but they are mp in
tie Darlor with the lights turned down
and the shutters bowed, entertaining
few invited guests, while Hoyt and Jo-
seph Arthur and the rest of them are hav-
ing open house in the kitchen with the
servants.
Mr.. Harrigan, who has just furnished a
new variation of his old themes and called
- ha CT ~ IIonono - Oh &c
of being frayed along the edges of his mag.
ination. The last piece could not escape the
imputation of being warmed over. Some
Of the scraps were recognized as having
been on the table before.
But am bound to say that the table was
beautifully garnished. The candelabra
was resplendent, and the town having as.
sembled to see the new piece reminded me
of funeral at the Little Church Around
the Corner, where nobody has time to think
of the deceased, for everybody is too busy
counting the flowers.
Mr.. Harrigan is the inventor Of the hap
py device of ANAL gamating the niger and
the Irishman. His patent makes Stephen
Foster and Dion Boucicauit walk the earth
in perennial vaudeville.
If you think the folk songs of the planta-
ton died with Dixie, go and hear Mr. Dave
Braham still pouring them out. If you
want to see all the ebullient cussedness of
negro minstrelsy doing the double shuttle
under the banner of the digenous drama,
go to Harrigan's.
If you want to see the immemorial Irish
man of the Fourth ward outside of the
Fourth ward you have got to visit this
asylum for him.
It's astonishing how the town revels in
the menage, when the animals are safely
Gagged behind musical bars.
A good many other fellows have tried 70
keep the grave of minStrelsy green, and
wandered off into paresis. Mr.. Harrigan
alone stands radiant in the cemetery and
makes the ghosts go round.
Somewhere up in the chair of the temple
there is Italian opera. You can hear some
of the strains of the ''Trovatore" and the
"Prophete" leaking through journalism.
But the doctrinaireS call it Abbey opera,
and the Wagner critics. as rule, pretend
TO be very much astonished when you tell
them there is opera in town.
The name of Patti also glimmers IN the
week and the season reminds me Of q
swell dinner at which everybody eats tur.
S W go "a N-P'N'NNe >--~ " as AOt
Chauucey Depew
Why shouldn't we call Patti an after
dinner donuas
OF course I'll 60 up like everybody else
TO the Metropolitan malt house before she
goes and let her hypnotic me, She'll
shake her ssucy head instead Of her voice,
and roll her wicked eyes instead OF her top
note, and show her plumage instead OF
her ras.lage and wink at q high c. and
we'll all swear we heard IL
Patti deserves well of the coming gener-
stioa uhR-h yxol,id never have haa-j Of