The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-05-08
Comic Opera Lore.

On ten week?
| Philadelphia Bulletin.
| Comic Opera Lore.
We have had comic operas of the
| Japanese, Tibetans, Hindus, Cingalese,
Fflipinos, Koreans, West Indians, Ha-
| waiians and Australians. When all the
| countries in the world have been used
up a new plan will have to be devised;
but this will do for the present. Hav-
| ing selected his country, Mr.. Smith
now picks out a jungle, a tea planta-
| ton, or desert and introduces his
chorus and minor principals. He does
not need to know anything about the
country other than its name. In fact
| it is better not to. 1t produces too
much confusion to try and give the
comic opera natives any distinguish
| ing characteristics of manners and
customs. Besides, the audience can al
ways tell comic opera Kamchatkan
| from a comic opera Terra del F'uegian
| by looking at the program. 1t is
enough to let the chorus wear delirium
tremens clothes and wander about in
an aimless manner singing music
which, by virtue of its having been
written in the minor mode and with an
occasional violent and discordant mod
ulation, the composer feels warranted
in labelling foreign. With charming
naivete he usually calls it Oriental.
With this important geographical
point settled, there must now enter
several couples of English or Ameri-
can parentage. Follow, then, during
the rest of the piece alarums and ex-
cursions of a mildly erotic nature be-
tween the natives and the visitors. Just
before the final curtain there must be
bewilderingly sudden reassorting of
couples along racial lines. 1t produces
much better effect to introduce a for
eign maiden of innocent demeanor
and a sophisticated aptitude for max
ing love which would weave loops
around the most hardened Anglo-Sax-
on coQuette. OF course she has the
tenor bound, gagged, and helpless be-
fore the end of the first act. However,
he must be rescued from her wiles be-
fore the end. One thing is imperative.
The comedian must be of the same
nationality as the visitors and he must
get deeper in amorous ENHANCEMENT
with the natives than any of the 9TH
ers. 1t is not absolutely essential that
he be rescued.-The Bohemian.
saskatchewan!
Let US have rivers for young men,
men thin in the flank and hard of leg.
All America today wheezes with fat
hold our most amazing fat, our bulk.
our immensity-think of no better
thing to boast than bigness. Yet this
Saskatchewan, with the wilderness
still in it's legs, youth still in its eye,
could tell us that bulk is not strength
but its opposite. that it spells coming
weakness. Wherefore, let us who do
not care for rose leaves, or turbots
tongues, or for the stealing of other
peoples millions, get US to Sas-katch-
evan.
For there is still upon this CONT
nent another Missouri. 1t rises in the
snow and ends in the ice, and in its
crooked arms 1t hold an empire. Few
men now know the Sas-katch-e-
throughout all its length. Two hun
bred and thirty-six years ago it was
that the Hudson's Bay company be-
speech of the wild tribes who came
down with cargoes of furs. These red
men, the Salteurs. the Assiniboines,
the Crees the Piegans, the Slaves. told
the white men of a vast, meandering
waterway, leading deliberately out to-
ward the west, running backward and
forward east and west, north and
south, with the opn and obvious pur-
pose of showing all corners of a new
That was the Missouri of the north,
and from the first it has been COM
petitor of our Missouri.
AS for this Icy drop of Sas-katch-e-
wan, 1t passes through a country still
belonging to the young men. The
story of a young world lies along its
shores And while we may be young
exult then why not? And even if we
be old, will not the winds of Sas-katch-
EVAN, as of yore, wash out a strong
mans sins? Why should not our
young men dream dreams ?-Emerso
Hough in The Outing Magazine.
Tunneling Under the Hudson.
In fifteen years New York City will
be drawn it's water from the great Asho-