Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1896-11-26

gives this picture OF
an odd phase of life at the great Amer
lean summer resort:
There are not many public enter
tainments in Saratoga, except such as
the hotels supply; but there was Sc
ries of Salvation Army meetings, and
there was at least one theatrical per-
formance-a performance of East
Lynne" entirely by people Of color. The
sentiments and incidents Of the heart
breaking melodrama, as the colored
mind Interpreted them, were of very
curious effect. 1t was as il the YER
sion were dyed with the same pigment
that darkened the players skins: it all
came out negro. Yet they had tried to
make 1t white; l could perceive how
they aimed not at the imitation Of our
nature, but at the imitation of our con-
vention; it was like the play of chill
dren in that. l should have said that
nothing could be more false than the
motives and emotions of the drama
as the author imagined them, but had
to own that their rendition by these
sincere souls was yet more artificial.
There was nothing traditional, nothing
archaic, nothing autochthonic in their
poor art. II the scene could at any
moment have resolved itself into a
walk-round with an interspersion of
"spirituals" it would have had the
charm Of these; it would have consoled
and edited; but as it was l have sell
dom been so bored.
began to make some sad reflections,
as that our American society, in its
endeavor for the effect of European So
ciety. was Of no truer ideal than these
colOred comedians, and l accused my
self of final absurdity in having
come there with these young people,
who, according to our good native
usage, could have come perfectly well
without me. At the end of the first
act I broke into their talk with my
conclusion that we must not count the
histrionic talent among the gifts of the
African race just yet. We could con-
cede them music, supposed, and there
seemed to be hope for them, from what
some of them had done, in the region
Of the plastic arts; but apparently the
stage was not for them, and this was
all the stranger because they were so
initiative. Perhaps, said, it was an
excess of self-consciousness which pre-
vented their giving themselves wholly
to the art.
gave myself to the study OF the
types about me, and I dwelt long and
luxuriously upon the vision of florid
and massive matron in diaphanous
evening dress, whom imagined to be
revisiting the glimpses Of her girlhood
in the ancient watering place, and to be
getting all the gaiety she could out of
1t. These are the figures one mostly
sees at Saratoga; there is very little
youth of the present day there, but the
youth Of the past abounds, with the
belated yellow hair or the purple mus
taches, which give a notion Of greater
wickedness in a former generation.
made my observation that the
dress, even in extreme cases of elder
ly prime, was very good-in the case
of the women, mean: the men there,
as everywhere with us, were mostly
slovens; and I was glad to find that
the good taste and the correct fash
ion were without color line; there
were some mulatto ladies present as
stylish as their white sisters, or step
sisters.
The most amiable Of the human race
Is in great force at Saratoga. where the
vast hotel service is wholly in it's
hands, and 1t had honored the effort
of the comedians that night with a
full house Of their own complexion. We
who were hot of it showed strangely
enough in the dark mass, who let US
lead the applause. however, as If
doubtful themselves where it ought to
come in, and whom l found willing
even to share some misplaced laughter
of mine. They formed two-thirds of
the audience on the floor, and they
were a cloud in the gallery, scarcely
broken by a CLEAN Of white.