The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-10-20
"A TRIP TOTHE MOON" "
Wonderful Revelations of the
aUrania" Spectacle.
ALL ILLUSIONS OF THE STAGE.
Realistic Presentation Of the Lunar
Giobe-ssIhs wonders Of America"
TO Be Given Tonight.

small but more tnan Celignteo audi
ence Witnessed at the Seattle theater last
night what Is undoubtedly the most mag
nilicens scenic production ever placed
on the American stage, in the
first of the "Urania" entertainments.
Those who went TO the theater expecting
to see leg show were disappointed, but
every intelligent man and woman in the
house felt well repaid after they had wit
messed the spectacular demonstrations
of nature itself. The .sUrania"
spectacies are a revelation OF what
may be accomplished in stage illusions.
Last night the audience was given "a
Trip to the Moon,n and delightfully."- real
istic voyage it was. Garrett 2. Serviss,
man Of sterling accomplishments
as scholar. writer. orator and traveller.
acts as conductor for the party and gives
the explanatory discourse in q popular
manner, and J. C. Mayrhofer. q
celebrated electrician. is behind the scenes,
creator of the wonderful effects which
illustrate the mysteries of the moon, the
evolutions of the earth and the other en-
chanting spectacles of the lunar and ter
restrial worlds.
In "Urania" the house Is entirely dark.
The first act of "a Trip to the Moon"
portrays the entire history of q total
eclipse of the sun. Here are the placid
waters of some terrestrial cove or harbor,
boat lies anchored in the foreground,
a brownish streak of landscape shimmers
here. and there rises up through
the misty dawn the ciouded peak of
mountain. An atmosphere of early morn
ing gray hangs over all, and soon comes a
flush OF rose light. Stronger and stronger
grows the red; speck of dazzling gold
lifts up. like the horn of new moon, but
brighter, that is the horn of the half
eclipsed sun. The rose red grows more
intense, the horn becomes crescent; but
ever as it rises the crescent narrows down
rs the shadow of the moon wipes out the
glowing brightness of the sun. A minute
and all is dark. The rose red dies away;
nothing but a filmy border on disk of
utser black is left to mark the out
line of the eclipsed sun. The scene
changes. the eclipse proceeds, nightly
circle of FIRE with black center looms forth
through the darkness-a blazing ring of
light. That ring of flame is the solar
corona, the incomprehensible fires Of the
sun. Then. as the spectacle progresses, the
strange series of scenic effects brings the
spectator away up through the realms of
space to the surpace of the moon that had
cast its shadow on the sun, and cuts him
adrift on the sterile plains OF that
planet, where no atmosphere exists to
breed twilight or soften a shadow, where
the hills and wales alike are lifeless, and
where one hand of a man is invisible in
the shadowless darkness of an utter night
while the other hand may glisten brightly
in the uudiluted sunshine of an absolutely
atmosphereless day.
One OF the most striking scenes is the
view of our earth as seen from the moons
desolate surface. Our planet looms
through sky OF unfathomable black
there is no dust. no atmosphere to make a
blue sky for the moon-with the CONT
nents showing out in blotches of luminous,
but dull, yellow on oceans of invisible
darkness. Slowly as time goes by the
globe revolves on its own orbit through
this black and depthless sky. Europe and
Asia fade away, America looms up in the
west.
People hold their breath when they
watch this scene, the extraordinary inver-
sion of nature as We see it amazes them.
Its realism Is amazing. Ii is
relief when the curtain falls
and one knows he is on earth
again and not gazing on 1t from afar.
And yet, like every other picture in that
moving gallery of nature, il is but subtle
delusion of the stage.
Tonight will be given another spectacle
which should appeal 20 all. Not all of us
can De travellers. but everyone is inter
ested in the scenes that travel repre-
sents. Our own country is but just
beginning to be appreciated. especi-
ally among It's own Inhabitants, with
regard to its scenic grandeurs. Here we
have mountains, caves, valleys. water
falls, glaciers almost unrivalled elsewhere
upon the earth. Yet to visit. 10 see for our
self ali OF these marvels requires much
time and large expenditure of money.
In the wonders of America" all OF these
things. represented with the utmost skill
and art of the scene painter and the stage
mechanic. aided by the marvellous powers
of electricity, are presented to the audi
ence.