The herald., 1896-06-21

in the way of amusements in this city
during the past week, with the eXcep-
ton of a very meritorious amateur per-
formance of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pi-
rates of Penzance at the Los Angeles
theater at the fag end of the week. The
theater- going public is looking forward
with pleasurable emotions to the advent
of John Drew's company of players at
this theater the latter part of the month
In the meantime the Orpheum is putting
up sterling bill of attractions. and IS
drawing packed houses, and Manager
Petrch is happy as clam at high tide.
1t is amusing sometimes to go to the
theater and make a study of the different
faces around one. There is no better
time to study character than when ones
attention is absorbed and he is uncon-
scious of how he is giving himself away.
A good time to look at ones neighbors
Is when, for instance, comedian IN MS
efforts to be funny and quite up to date
makes rather a broad joke. The gallery
is amused to a man and noisily ana nom
estly declares its appreciation. Such Is
the way of the gods. The careful papa,
who is so particular that no breath or
taint of the worlds wickedness shall
come near his dear ones, looks little
anxious and he and mamma exchange
furtive glances over the head of made
moiselle, whom they are chaperoning.
Nine chances out of ten mademoiselle
understands the joke fully as well as
papa does and is inWardly much amused
but outwardly she gives no more sign or
such knowledge than a craven image.
Such is the way of the fin de steele young
woman.
~. 1o1 Of q in
years, who always speaks of herself and
her friends as I'VE girls" She is very
properly shocked at the liberty of the
stage and vows she will never go again
to such a place. But then she does. IL
gives her such a good opportunity OF re-
counting it all to a select coterie of her
friends, with not one of the points OF
that dreadful joke left out. perhaps
detail or two added, who knows? Such
are the ways of maiden ladies of uncer-
tain age.
There is the goody goody man. he who
has the confidence of his womanfriend
as being sans reproche." The men al
ways whisper hypocrite and fraud when
his name is mentioned, but what of that?
The women. with the persistency of
their sex, hold him up as model and tell
hubby how much nicer he would be if
his ways were only those of Mr.. So and
So. What man, in the face of an eXor-
dium of this kind, would have the cour-
age to xpress his private opinion? And
what chance would he have of being
heard did he so express it? Well. just
observe the models face when anything
spicy is heard from the stage. See the
ugly leer of satisfied naStinesS that
comes over his face and then the quick
resumption of the mask Of propriety
and the furtive glance around to see If
Ii, tp,,1 1an n hnpn nhGprNPn.
Such is the manner of most MODELS
There is the young man about town
who really would like to laugh If 1t were
not so awfully vulgar to exhibit emo
tion of any kind, don't you know. Such
is the manner of the nineteenth century
young man.
There is the blase society woman, who
doesn't feel any inclination to be
amused because the joke wasn't spicy
enough She has heard dozen more
risque at Mrs. Blanks last "at home.
She is bored and she shows it. There Is
the young woman out with an englple
parti She understands what it is all
about very we'll indeed, but feels that to
show she does would be ruinous to her
chances But. alas, in her effort to ap-
pear entirely unconscious she oVerdoes
1t all and the young man Is at once aware
that "birdie" knows a thing or two after
all and that the sweet. ingenue express
sion is not quite genuine. Another illu-
sion perishes Truly these theatrical
people have much to answer for.
There are others" as anyone may see
for bimself who will only take the trou-
BILE to study the play of Masks and Faces
about him instead of the action upon
the stage He will soon become con-
vinced that truly doth man in his time
play many parts and also will he prove
to himself conclusively the truth of the
ancient axiom that ''all is not gold that
glitters.
The Orpheum seems to have run to
comedy teams last week. There were
four. OF these Collins and Collins, and
Field and Lewis, seem to be the favor
ties. The latter pair had quite new Sc
lection of anecdotes and racy dialogue
that warmed the hearts of the gods and
made them their friends forever. There
were a good many little points in those
same dialogues that were what certain
advance man would call pretty close to
the line" but that only made the gal
lery, like Oliver, howl for more. Collins
and Collins did some clever yodllng and
singing. Their dashing get-up helped
them considerably with the audience,
who are apt to get tired of comedy
makeup when presented four or five
times in one evening. Mr.. Leslie gives
rather a clever imitation of Albert Che
Waller, but as the genus "cockney" is
comparatively unknown in Los Angeles,
especially the style of cockney to be
found in all his glory on the "old Kent
road" the people We're not quite capable
of judging just how true to life the
sketch was. LIE Clair kept the audience
guessing for a time as to his identity as
his female representations We're so well
done as to deceive many; even his voice
did not give him entirely away.
Senorita Aragon is certainly wonder
on the tight wire. Some of her feats
are enough to make one hold ones breath
in fear. Part of her act she does with
out balance of any kind Then she
dances and jumps and does splits and
performs featS in balancing herself, to
say nothing of spinning around like
teetotum and swinging back and forth
at a tremendous rate. When one stops
to consider that all this is done on a lit
tie piece of string, the performance ap-
proaches the realm Of the marvellous.
Vaudeville will have a strong repre-
sentation at the Orpheum this week A
constellation of brilliant luminaries has
been added to the greater lights of last
weeks bill, and the result will be one of
the best shows of the season. The man
agement takes pride in announcing the
engagement of Miss Alma Herzog. the
celebrated Wagnerian vocalist of Dres-
den. Germany. Miss Herzop cop,ac to