The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-05-16

four is white. I don't know that any
dickeT was needed to keep those mu
sicians under a negTOs baton, and his
demeanOr may not be a result of
agreement; but certain it is that Mr..
Europe, while making the motions
usual to a leader, never seems aware
of the mostly German musicians. but
behaves as though bossing only the
tinted singers on the stage
The action of THE Red Moon" you
may recall, begins in a Florida town
where no sign of a pure white resi-
dent is seen, where most of the people
are old ivory, and where a school foy
Indians and negroes is an institution.
Do you catch the ingenuity of that de
vice The offspring of Indians and
Africans mate in love and wedlock
without the color scheme Of yellow,
brown and. red offending the taste OF
white audience. An ensuing hour of
the play is at an Indian reservation in
the Rockies. where the blend of hues
Is extended. without a break of har-
mouy. by the introduction of Spanish
beaus and bellies from Mexico. A re-
turn to Florida is made for the finish
at a ball in the mansion of the negro
political boss of the town. Not a
glimpse of a clear white person is
given from first to last I wonder that
japanese brown and Chinese yellow
are not worked into the anthropOlogical
design.
This play has serious passages. An
Indian chief has married d mulatto
woman, and he comes, after a long all
sence, TO take away his octoroon
daughter A sober. serious scene of
parental contention over a dutiful
daughter is acted with care and con-
siderable skill: vet the noble red man
Of excessive dignity is personated by
big buck niger. the mother by a fat
wench, and the daughter by a yaller
gal; and doubtless YOU are wanting to
know whether a Broadway audience.
stood for IL. 7 have written that sen
tence cOlloquially, because such die
ton best represents the assemblage's
state of mind A laugh breaks out
once in while up in the gallery, and
sometimes q litter runs through the
parQUet: but the good quality of the
writing and the acting saves the VEN
tuTe-barely saves it: and whenever
the sedate tension threatens to break
the action plunges quickly into hilari-
ty. Thus the show is the strangest
amalgam Of drama and farce, tragedy
and extravaganza, that ever 1 saw.
The boldest phase Of The Red
Moon" in its appeal to Broadway, is
its outfit of shOwgirls. Never have
Williams and Walker. nor Cole and
Johnson ever before. dared to present
negroes in singing and dancing relays
in full and close imitation of the white
beauty shows. Safety heretofore has
been sought in devoung the yellow
ballet-chorus 10 coon songs. cake
walks and antics in ragtime. Six tall
erect, gracefully dignified Gibson girls
are coupled with q half dozen col
legians with the bearing Of Gotham
beaus; not a negro motion or tone
mars the smart set aspect of this new
est of the double sextettes. The usual
lot of smaller and livelier girls. ac-
compsnied by nimble fellows. are per
mitted two short spells of plantation
negroism; but later they are Mexicans
in a fandangO and Indians in a war
dance.
The forty young women play all the
tricks of prettiness known to show
girls: and while the front rows in the
parquet don't sell to the towns round
ers. and the dusky trailers Of these
yellow sOubrettes are relegated to the
gallery. the general applause is IN
grudgingly liberal. And when Abbie
Mitchell, as the Indian maiden. Min
nehaha. is sung to by Cole. as her mu-
latto tenor woOer, with the spotlight
on them-she rolling up her eyes in
loves languOT to his soulful ballad re-
frain of Il love but you-oO-Oo-" the
melody of the music silences every
tendency to take it for fun: and when
Abbie. all by her eoQuettish self II
disc of effulgence that follows her