Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1902-08-29
AT THE PLAY In BURMA.
Few Adyentitious Aids Are Employed 20
Street Is the Iheater.

The blaze of light from 90 Hpo
Obs house shows Turtle-Egg street
(llnown to an unimaginatiye munich
pality as Nineteenth street, crammed
for half its length on either side Of
the stage A nearly naked musician
has begun the monotonous tapping
of drums, which indicates tuningup.
The audience is agog with expecta-
ton, and it cannot be longnow before
the curtain rises. You will be pleased
to accept the orthodox phrase in a
purely tigurative sense. Before you
can raise a curtain you must have a
theater, and theaters in Burma there
are none. Moung Shoay Cone, man
ager Of the company about to per-
form, has never heard Of such build
ing. Box-office conveys no meaning
to his unenlightened mind. Scenery,
flies, green-room, and properties are
to him the babble ofstrange tongues,
signifying as little as stall, dress-cir-
Gle, and pit. When anybody wishes
to give his neighbors a treat, he sends
for the manager, and arranges with
him to bring his troupe and give a
performance in the street before the
benefactor's dwelling on a night as
certained to be propitious. The dep
uty commissioner is then petitioned
for leave to render the street impassa-
bic for that night, and, if that au-
thority be also propitious, the thing
is done. Thus it was that at nine one
morning I received a visit from two
gayly dressed ladies who came in a
private gharry, bringing gold and sill
yer betel-boxes, and packets Of
picked tea. They mentioned casu-
ally that Moung Bah Thwin, 90 Hpo
Obs son, was to be married to-day,
and that 90 Hpo Oh was "giving
poay" tonight. They presented
packet Of picked tea, and l accepted
from a gold box neat cone of soap
leaf, containing half a betel-nut
smothered with pink lime-a "chew"
| which nothing would induce me to
chew. The ladies said nothing about
my coming to the poay, and / said
nothing about going; but if the cane
chair, slightly insecure about the
Joints, which / found vacant at the
upper window of 90 HpO Obs house
had remained unoccupied, 90 Hpo
Oh would have sorrowful expunged
my name from the list of friends, UNI
less l had made a point of stopping
at his door very soon afterwards tC
; explain-casually-that ! had haC
fever that evening. A poay lasts from
dark to near dawn, so previous en-
gagement" must be one of the ex
ceptional nature to plead as a valiC
excuse.
From the coign Of vantage pro-
vided at his upper window, which
runs nearly the whole length of the
house, and is guiltless of glass, 90
| Hpo Obs distinguished guests looked
| down upon matted space about four
yards across, in whose center is plant
ed stout stake six feet high, crowned
with greenery. This is the stage. At
the foot of the pole stand a couple Of
two-gallou tins Of kerosene oil, fitted
| with long spouts and wicks Of rag,
vomiting flame and more smoke,
which rolls in cyilly smelling black
volumes into the still night air These
are the footlights. You must pro-
vide the scenery from the resources
of your own Imagination. Immedi-
ately below MS squat the members of
the orchestra with their instruments,
and the actors, busily engaged in
dressing and making up, sublimely
Indifferent to the gaze Of the closely
packed audience. Custom prescribes
a regular system of seating pOay-
goers. Close round the stage are
packed the children six deep; behind
them, comfortably disposed on pill
lows and mats, are arranged mothers
chaperoning their daughters; behind
these, perched aloft on forms, and
craning their necks to see over the
heads in front, are massed the elderly
men and the ka-lah-thas or bachelors.
The bachelors are the goods" of the
Burmese audience, and on their YER
dict depends in no small degree the
success or failure of actor and ac-
tresses. Behind these again surges
a black mass of unbidden guests, Co
ringa coolies and "lesser breeds with