Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-01-16
ACTORS oE MANY LANDS.
Attracted to the United States from All
Over the World.


Attracted to the United states from An
Over the World.
There are few countries of either Eu-
rope or Asia which have not contributed
or are not contributing speciality fea-
lures in the line of gymnasts, conjurers,
singers, dancers and equilibrists to tho
American stage. Africa and Australia,
on the other hand, have furnished few
performers. From Japan, more than
any other country, come the conjurers
and equilibrists, whose marvellous sup
pleness and surprising dexterity are the
envy of American gymnasts every
where. From India come the nautch
dancers and few sleight-of-hand per-
formers, though the latter have never
ranked very favorably with the Japa-
nese specialists in the same line. From
Arabia come, at rare intervals, men
skilled in Workmanship or feats of phys
ical strength. China, though the most
populous country of Asia, and the coun-
try of Asia most largely represented in
the population of the United States, has
contributed nothing to the fund of pub
lie entertainment or of instruction
though stage or circus performances.
From England come chiefly the serio-
comic singers, almost without number,
and the ''patter" vocalist from the music
halls-a ''patter" vocalist being one who
is gifted with more voluhility than APP
probation for melody. There are gym
nasts, too, from England more distin-
guished as a rule for their physical
strength than for their grace or orig
inality. The serio-comic singers who
come from England are mostly women.
The male comic singers from London
music halls are not in very much de-
mand here. From France, too, come fe-
male serio-comics and occasionally
male comic singer-such as Paulus.
But male comic singers from France are
not any more successful than those
from England.
The French stage sends to the Amer
lean stage many clever dancers and
some graceful gymnasts, and besides
these the "shadowgraph" men, who re-
produce familiar objects through the
medium of q magic lantern. There are
very few French ventriloquists who
come to this country, whereas the Eng
lish stage sends many. French per-
formers, as rule, are better at sleight-
of-hand than their English cousins.
From the Tyrol, in Austria, we get the
perennial and inevitable Tyrolean war;
blers. From Spain come the dancers,
who perform always to the music of the
castanet. From Italy come the vocal
lists and occasionally a gymnast of in
ferior quality. From Germany come
men of strength, like Sandow, who have
great powers of endurance and the abil-
ity to lift weights. From Turkey come
most of the skilled swordsmen and
knife and sword swallowers. From Rus
STA there are few dancers; from
Poland and Hungary there are many,
and these latter always appear in what
are known as the national costumes.
From Sweden come female musicians
trained to play in harmony in an or
chestra. The American stage derives
nothing of value from Greece, Holland,
Denmark, Portugal, Switzerland or Bel
GUM, and very little from Scotland and
Austria.
In respect to gymnastic ability the
japanese performers probably outrank
all others who as aliens appear in the
United States. The Persian performers,
so-called, who have been something of a
rage as dancers since the success of the
Chicago Midway, are, all of them,
strangers to the land of the shah. The
foreign aeronauts are either French or
English.-N. Y. Sun.