The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-24

Fine progress is being made on the
 comic opera, Pirates of Penzance," which
 will be presented at the Jefferson theatre
 February ? under the auspices of the Woman's Auxiliary of the Associated Charities. Robert Lawrence of the South ern School of Musical Art is director and
 those who have witnessed the rehearsals are greatly pleased with the outlook for
 most successful production
 Much general interest has been shown III the opera All of the box seats and
 many of the seats in other parts of the theatre have already been sold. The following story of the Pirates of Pen zance' will be of interest at this time. F'redric, a brave and daring lad, while or the tender age of s, was apprenticed by mistake to a pirate crew. His faith ful and devoted nurse, Ruth. cared for
 him during all the years of his appren-
 ticeship. counting but little the cost of becoming ''piratical maid of all work in order to remain near him.
 The story opens on the last day of apprenticeship, when Fredric having safely reached his majority, is at last
 ''out of his ndentures" and ready to take his place as a full-nedged pirate
 brave and bold. But in the midst of congratulatory festivities he startled the
 merry band by bidding them all long farewell Only duty had kept him a pi-
 rates apprentice. for though he loved them one and all, he not only objected
 to their profession but depored their unbusinesslil<e methods, their extreme eonscientiousness and exceptional tender heartedness. To such an extreme had their scruples carried them, that they made it a habit never to attack any weaker foe nor ever to molest an or l phan The fame of this tender idlo- syncracy had spread from sea to sea
 and was the direct cause of the vast
 mercantile navy of Great Britain appear i ing to be recruited solely from her or 1 phan asylums."
 fTedric's father had never intended his 1 son for the career of jolly sea rover, ; | but wanted him to follow the seas as | a "pilot's' apprentice. The fond but care ] less nurse heard pirate" not pilot and I the harm was done. Though bangs of l remorse early forced an unwilling confess
 sion of the deporable mistake from his devoted Ruth, tyranncal sense of duty | bid him for give the error. bury it deep
 in his heart till the hour of revelation and devote all his energies to being the l best pirate of them all.
 Now at last on the eve of freedom he
 proclaims the truth to his comrades, and vows that by the same sense of duty
 that has held him pirate true. he will 1 now devote himself heart and soul to the
 extermination of all pirates. friends or l foemen.
 Now 1t so happens that the only wom- an Fredric has ever seen is his old nurse. espite his attachment to her he thinks l it is duty to leave her with the crew but she pleads her own case SD eloquent | ly that he is almost persuaded to take 1 her to wife. He has a strange idea that | the right age for wife should be IT and
 not A. but he finally agrees that should l eI Ill., l as she claims and as fair to look upon
 as others of her sex. disparity in age
 would be no obstacle to their union. But
 alas for Ruth the pledge is no sooner given than a bevy of beautiful maidens. I ''the plainest of whom is surpassingly l lovely appear to rob her of her Eden. l Ruth. the deceitfu is speedily forgotten l in the contemplation of the charms of fair Mabel, daughter of the renowned Major General Stanley.
 Fredric forthwith presses his suit right galantly and wins with his ardent woo- ing his beloved Mabel, when stealthily his pirate comrades slip up on the couple and their fair companions Seeing "a first rate opportunity to get married with impunty and indulge in the felecity of | unbounded domesticity. they cauture the maidens and are about to summon doctor of divinity, located in the vicin- ity, to aid them in being "parsonified and conjugally matrimonfied,' when the
 brave major general comes to the res
 cue. On being introduced to the Pirates of Penzanee," he shrewdly appeals to
 their tender consciences and defeats
 their wicked intent by posing as an "or-
 phan" "Foied again the crest-fallen
 pirates withdraw, regretting that life can
 not be occasionally found with a little
 less poetry in it.''
 Fredric, anxious to "atone before mid
 night for his involuntary association with
 the pestilent scourges by sweeping them
 from the face of the earth" calls in a
 sergeant of police and his mnions of
 the law Plans for the capture of the
 pirates are made but scarcely are they
 ready to start on the proposed raid than
 the pirate king reappears, heroically risk
 ing his life and limb to relate to his
 beloved Fredric one last 'quib and quib-
 ble quaint'-a startling paradox-a most
 ingenious paradox, to prove that though
 a man may have lived 21 years he may cent though the joke seems, it dispels
 not have passed but five birthdays. Inno-
 Fredric's fond dream of liberty and hap