The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-19

themselves out, the need of something
stronger was felt, and, it was gravely
announced that one of the riders had
to be reused from his lethargy and
forced again to his task by charges of
electricity, administered by his train
ers. An additional flip to the gate re-
ceipts was administered on Thursday,
when the police, who have never been
known to lose a cent by an affair of
this sort, compelled four riders to de-
sist. 1t was noticed that they did not
take either Miller or Rice, who were
in the lead at that time, off the track.
| spent an hour in the Garden, on the
lookout for cases of brutality and aw-
full human suffering, but it seemed to
me that the riders were in very fair
physical state, considering the awful
monotony of their work, and 1 have
never seen more persistent eating and
drinking than that of which they were
capable.
a SERIOUSLY FUNNY PLAY.
The Bowery has always boosted of a
school of drama that is peculiarly its
own, and runs largely to noisily thrill
ing effects, the noblest of virtues and
the darkest of VillainieS. A few nights
ago 1 paid a visit to the Peoples the
atre, which is situated in the very heart
of the whole BoWery region, and there
saw a play called Madeline of Fort
Reno which is worth writing about,
because it is a typical east-side melo-
drama, and one that offers Us not. only
stirring entertainment, but also an OPP
portunity to study the conditions of life
which prevail in a frontier military
post.
The heroine of this border drama is
named Madeline Hartman, and al
oh Oh lo1S oh n
raiment, she lives principally in d vio-
let velvet riding habit surmounted by a
hat with long feather. She is loved
by Jack Curley, described on the pro-
gramme as IAN educated half-breed,"
but Jack does not look to me like a
man Of scholarly attachments, or one
given to the midnight study of Kant
and Schlegel. He reminds me rather
of a fat man of the variety encountered
at Rhode Island charlottesville sort Of
a man who is selected to play on third
base when the fat men meet the thin
ones in a Fourth of July game of base
ball on the village green. But Mr.. Cur
ley possesses many noble attributes be-
sides his flesh and none so quick to
recognize them as General Custer, who
promotes him from the rank of half
breed to that of captain of cavalry in
place of the villain, who is degraded
because he is fat and false.
The first act shows the characters as
sembled inside the post. There is a por-
ton of the United States army, includ-
ing those inevitable attachments, a
comic Dutch soldier and an equally hu-
mOrouS black one, besides a Hebrew
rum seller made up in imitation of Mr..
Frank Bush. Madeline arrives upon the
scene and so does the noble half breed,
who has once before shown his devotion
by stealing forth from the fort When
it was surrounded by hostile Indians,
and making his way into the desert to
procure a cornucopia Of sand that Mad
cline might cheer the downcast troops
by her song and dance.
A crash of music from the band and
Bernadine Banks bounds upon the
stage in a blonde wig, military cap,
short skirt and black stockings. Like
all other military organizations, this
troop of cavalry is addicted to special
ties, and when a small boy wanders in
upon the scene and explains that he