The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-03-04

Every audience at "Ahyssinia" an
nOunces impulsively yet positively its
choice between one uncOuth black man
and a stageful of comedy brown, yellow
and almost white girls. The nightly
demonstration of preference for the
all-negTO rather than the beached
negresses is good-humoredly riotous.
The man is Bert Williams, the funny
half Of the Williams and Walker pair.
I don't know that il is so i'm other
cities, but here in New York fashion,
able people have Joined others in going
foolish over this caricature in human
charcoal. He is laughed at on sight,
and il doesn't matter what he does or
says, the laughter accompanies him
necessarily Nature gifted him with
that indefinable quality which enables
one man in ten thousand TO convey a
meaning without effort. In his case,
the power is due in part to mobile ugli-
ness of face and wabbly lOoSeness of
the joints in his long. unshapely fig
ure; but the fellow seems to possess,
too. a keen sense of originative humor.
The WilIiamiacs have an outbreak at
each performance of "Abyssinia." The
new extravaganza is altogether the
work of negroes, and none that white
men ever made has had a worse hbret-
to- but the music is technically good,
though unsuitably operate. The
mounting is handsome and correctly
Abyssinian. The producers seem to
have said to themselves, NOW We'll
show these white folks that we can do
things on the stage just like they cam"
but who cares if they can? and a ma
jority in the audience is sorry that they
do. For there is barely trace of ne
groism in the play.
At the end of an act, Williams sings
one of his hard-lucio ballads. The
mOdish people in the parquet have, up
to this time, borne a monotony of dull
ness, relieved only when Williams was
on view, and now that he has reused
them, they don't want to drop right
back into lethargy. The call for en-
cores, but haven't lot enough when the
curtain is lowered, and they continue
the applause until, in about five min
utes the curtain is raised. But not
for more of Williams song and dance.
The scene has been changed to the
king of Abyssinia's gorgeous throne
room. His majesty enters with much
pageantry and stately pomp. A pro-
cession of his subjects brings gifts,
and marches singing in and out and
round about. But we refuse to listen
we keep UP our applause-we cry,
Williams, hi-yii" Next, the stage is
filled with dancing show girls-mulat-
toS, quadroOnS, octorOons, without one
full-blooded negress-and we drown
the music with our half-jocose, half
angry tumult. One of us. as likely as
not an Astor or a Vanderbilt, shouts,
Bravo, Williamsl" as though he were
acclaiming Caruso at the opera 1t is
not until the brown and yellow girls
cease their duplication of what pink
and white girls do and shift to a cake
walk, that we give over our demand
for our moneys worth of Williams.
Those shaded show girls i'm "Abys-
sinia" are led by Aida Walker, who
used to be Ada Overton, and is now
Coon Walkers wife. Is the change
from ''Ady" to ''I-e-da' meant to mark
a musical advance by Williams and
Walker from negro melody to operate
music? Aida is q lively lightweight,
impish, sprightly and coquettish. Her
complexion is half-tone and her hair
hesitates between Marcel waves and
Afric kinks.
BY jove,'' a Johnnie exclaimed. ''but
she's a jolly little weneh."
Instantly he perceived that he had
made an awful break, don't you know,