The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-02-02
MUSIC AND DRAMA
WHEEL CLUB MINsTRELs.

IN G.Iine ma for their purchase OF IlcRets,
until when the numbers were first as
stoned at ten O'Clock III the evening,
there were already more than dozen
who were prepared to wait until the sale
shou1d open at O'Clock this morning.
There is certainly every indication that
the demand, for tickets will be large and
those who do not arrange to purchase
their tickets today may be disappointed
in the location secured.
Amateur performances have always
been popular and successful in this city,
and among the various presentations of
thel past, none stand forth with more
pleasing remembrance than the several
Wheel Club minstrel shows of years gone
by. Several of the best known singers
of the city have first attained fame ana
prominence in these entertainments
The public will pleasantly recall Elllott
Mitchell in They're After Me-" Lewis
Z. Smith and the late Fred Il. Smith,
in "Inkeytanc, - = Frank Fl. Pierce IN
Riding on the Elevated Railroad
John Calvin Stevens, 4 Harry Merrill
Tommy Thompson and others.
y OF the Wheel Club Ministries IN the
past, the PRESS has said: in 1887: I'm
every way equal to the best professional
performance" in 1888, IAN empnatlc
success, we'll merited and reflects great
credit on the Wheel Club;" In 1881,
"The pronounced success must be a source
of much qualification to the clup' tne
anuJausa WAS we'll merited.'
This ksets high standard TO DE MALL
tained this year. but those who have heard
the rehearsals believe even past reoorus
willsbe surpassed. Certain 1t is thao 0ne
various features in the forthcoming snow
are right up -to-date, and the chorus e&-
coils all previous efforts. The jokes are
crowded with local hits and so are the
songs by the end men. Remember the
dates at the Jefferson, Friday and oatur-
dav .sFebruary Attn and 9th. Tickets are
now on GALE.
THE FISK JUBILEE SINGERS.
Twenty-Five years ago. on the 9th OF
October, 1871, little company OF men
and women started out from FISK scnool
at Nashville Tennessee, to introduce 10
the people of the Northern states class
of music never before heard by them-the
sacred. weird, unwritten Jubilee songs
of the log -cabin and the cotton-field-
songs. which, by their promise of "bet-
ter time coming" did more than any
thingselse to salve the wounds andIstinu-
late the faith of long down-trodden yet
eyer-hopeful race The enterprise was
the embodiment and expressionsof a great
moral purpose-to establish an Institution
of learning for the people whom the war
had recently freed and enfranchised, and
to show that those people were equally
capable with their white brothers and
sisters of approaching aud appropriating
the advantages of liberal education,
The history of the company since that
time ia fanliliar-how they took the north
ern public by storm, then successfully
captured England. Scotland, Germany,
Holland and Switzerland, and how the
dollars poured in until Fisk university
was an established fact, and the widest
dreams of the singers were NOR than
realized. This company comes to Port
land in The Star Course on Wednesday
evening.
WATSON SISTERS.
The coming of the Watson Sisters show
is an event that will be gratifying to the
thousands who have been so much enter
tanned by the combination in past seasons.
We are promised that the company is bet
ter than ever, while many new features
have been added to the long programme.
The show will be at Portland theatre
next Friday and Saturday evenings and
Saturday afternoon, and popular prices
will prevail. The sale of seats is in pro.
gress.
HUMANITY.
Sutton Vane's masterpiece Humanity
will hold the stage of Portland theatre
tonight and Thursday evenings with the
same cast and scenic effects that aided
SO largely in making the play big hit
and money maker. The cast is an ex-
ceptionally strong one. The play intro
duces two car loads Of scenery horses and
a pack of hounds, imported specially for
this production, and calls upon the stage
over forty people at one time. The play
teens with interest from the rise of the
curtain until its final fall.
Humanity" has always been popu-
lar attraction here, and at the low scale
of prices there should be big houses.
Seats are now on sale. There is to be a
matinee Thursday.
DIR. BOWKER'S LECTURES.
DR.. Bowkers series. of travel talks, the
first of which will be given at the Jeffer-
son next Monday evening, are highly
complinlented everywhere The sale OF
seats for all these lectures will be placed
on sale Thursday.
MISS MAY LUCAS WINS THE PIANO
The committee who counted the votes
for the piano offered by @. ID. b. flsk q
Co., awarded the same yesterday to Misi
May Lucas, who received 2,223 votes.
Her nearest competitor was Capt. M. r.