The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-20

sidering that two men escaped death by
 the skin of their teeth, and that their bal
 loon with all it's machinery, is hys de
 combat for this year, this success is
 hardly the sort one would like to see peated Before another four or five years perhaps even next-we shall. no doubt see the conquest of the air by means
 of aeroplanes.
 Some twenty years ago. the Chatelet Theater--the French Drury Lane-strucS
 gold mine with an adaptation from
 Jules Vernes' Round the World in i Eighty Days" Ever since then, the plays
 at this theater which is the largest in
 Paris next to the Grand Opera, have been
 variations on the same theme. "L'Oncle
 q 'Amcrique' it's new spectacular piece
 -four acts and twenty-two tableaux. by
 NJ Victor de Cottens and M. ,ictor Oar
 lay). is of the family of Round the
 World Captain Corcoran," "Adven-
 lures of Lavarede," and other helter- skelter races all over our planet. The plot is of course, of the hmsiest-the play, in fact could do very well without
 it. The American Uncle,' having lived i an unhappy life in consequence of love match is determined that his niece
 Maud, shall not marry for love; and he
 leaves her his twenty millions (sterling)
 on condition she marries somebody ap- pointed by her guardian within three months of his death. This guardian Blackson intends his son, James, for the husband, and father and son sail for Eu- rope to acquaint Maud with the situa-
 tion. An American millionaire, Harris having fallen in love with Maud became
 James rival. The rest of the play Is
 game of hideandseek between the rivals and Maud and their respective friends | | I, ,iYats tar q6 , lures all over Europe, love remains tri-
 umphant all along the line, and the cur tain drops on happily assorted couples. What is interesting and important are
 the tableaux and the ballets which are in the best style, and you know in what
 a grand way, quite regardless of cost
 the Chatelet can do things. It did not
 do better in the burning river scene in
 "Michel Strogoff." or in La Pourde de
 Perlnpinpin." No less than twenty-two
 tableauxl Think of Brighton Beach in
 the very heart of Paris with shrimp
 gatherers, with novel-reading young la
 dies, with Arriet and Arry, with donkey
 boys and nursery maids, with photogra- phers and the sentimental soldier and his lass, and with children making mud pies and sea sand. You have even the bathing machine and the Illusion of ladies bathing until they turn out to be a corps de ballet { In disguise. Alter tnlS, SkatlnS on Ice III Amsterdam is given. and as good In it's
 way. if not better. The fair skaters also turn out to be a ballet, and might pass for beings stolen from Mohamet's para
 disc They skate in Paths. sledges with /, tinlSling bells on the horses harness run | in among them on the ice. Chamois : hunting on the upper Alps in which sym | bolical personages Tyrol and Edelweis.
 dance, with hunters, is also wonderful. 1 But the bouquet as they say at pyrotec- i nic fetes, is the fete in the house of the i American Uncle at New York The management in mounting this show were as regardless of expense as a railway.
 copper steel or gold king might be in eel 1 ebrating the wedding of his daughter with 1 an English duke. All that the Rue de la
 Paix and the great conturieres in that
 and the adjacent streets can do to grat-
 fly the taste of New York belles for ultra
 fashionable dress has been done, and also
 quite regardless of expense, though the piece is for children. and wee things of two-and-a- half years are taken to see 1t.
 I notice things as if at a picture exhbi- tion, and do not give the names of ac- l tors or actresses beyond that of impay- | able comedian Fougere, who leads the
 ball and throws into it all his fun and
 orieinaiitV