St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-24

ligion and amusement that included the
performance of companies of men who
had become SO deXterous in these exhi
billions as to be continually held as pro-
fessional entertainers. Among these
were conjurors, necromancers, jngglers.
play modelers, snake charmers and
dancers. Before this in Egypt, bands
OF street entertainers performed for the
delectation of the ladies of the harems,
who viewed these speciality artists from
their latticed windows. All records
show that juggling and comic exhibit
lions were always in high favor, while
the conjuror, the juggler and the snake
charmer, as we'll as the clay modeler,
were engaged as professionals to appear
at state fetes. Pharaoh had his select
lot of court musicians, magicians. Jug
glers and dancing girls. and the queen
OF Sheba entertained her Roman lover,
Mark Antony, with the performance
of the most wonderful professionals in
all Egypt.
The Chinese, too, were not without
their vaudeville exhibitions. They en-
joyed performances Of figures something
after the pattern of our Punch and
Judy, and had companies of oddly
dressed musicians centuries ago. The
| Japanese had marionette exhibitions,
and the Dial Ang. or puppet show, which
afterwards became famous in England,
| are known to have been given with
| favor in Japan when the earliest Dutch
navigators visited those shores. The
| Japanese have been entertained with
| dancing girls, wrestiers, conjurers and
| gymnasts since the first of the Shogauns,
| and from close scrutiny of records
| obtainable. their exhibitions were the
| same before the introduction of Chris
tianity as they are in 1898. When the
mighty Alexander wedged into India,
he discovered people who were
amused by vaudeville performers, rep
resenting nearly every department of
the variety profession as we know it
today. There in that land of gold was
| the acrobat. the wonderful Indian ma
gician who has never been elualed even
up to now, the QUOT thrower, the dex-
| ferrous swordsman, dancing girls, clay
modelers, griZZled buffoons, story tell
erS. snake charmers, experts on mu-
| steal instruments, and the conventional
wandering minstrel, with "shreds
| and patches" were as familiar
sights there then as they are
today. Crowds of Nautch girls, perhaps
not much unlike those who pirouetted
on the Midway Plaisance the past sum-
| .mer, companies of musicians and large
troupes of performers gave outdoor ex-
hibitions in the larger towns or roamed
about and exhibited their skill and deX-
terity in the streets of villages. All the
tribes of Africa, with perhaps the single
exception of the bushman and the pig
mics, have professional entertainers
who give performances which,in a great
measure. correspond with many of our
vaudeville acts of the present day. The
| gorgeousness of the Alhambra and the
wonders of the entertainments of the
MOors are as we'll known as the history
of Spain, and as the drama, as we
consider it. formed no part nor parcel
of such entertainments, they must be
designated as in the category of vaude-
vile, which includes all of the different
| kind of entertainments given by the
| ancients. with the additions and inn
| provements made by the increasing de-
mand for novelty and the refinement
suggested by our advanced civilization.
The nearest approach to originality in
| the vaudeville business is the negro
minstrel portion, which is purely Amer
| lean in character and execution. The
minstrel stage gave many great dramatic
and operate stars of the first magnitude
| their start in public life, and was for
many years the only portion of the va
| riety business patronized by intellectual
people. 1t is not many years since a
| first-class minstrel troupe would draw
the same class of audience as an opera
| company. MinstrelSy was then the
fashion, aud the prominent minstrel
halls of the large cities were among the
| best-paying amusement concerns in the
country.
| Beyond doubt there is nothing new
in the business. What we see now we
have seen before many and many time.
possibly in another form, but the same
character of act. The strong-man bust
ness done by Sandow Was a feature of
the earliest American circus, and the
| irrepressible serpentine dance of today
is but an elaboration of the HindoC
Nautch girl. The London gaiety dance
has been done for centuries by the
dancing girls of Persia and Java. In
fact. everything now done on the va
riety stage was done before the word
variety was applied to theatricals.
The first English added to the list Of
specialties. and began to dignity theil
productions by the erection of booths OF
small portable theaters or tents, and
began to charge an admission fee i'll
stead of giving performances in the
open air, and those depending on the
liberality of those who witnessed them
and the booth and tent of the Englist
fair OF today is but an elaboration o.
what had been in use many years be
fore we had variety theaters on thi;
side of the ocean. The music hall IL
London today is probably the mos
~
~ NU