|WE were surprised and grieved to see, on Monday evening, a man in the
dress circle at the performance of Hazel Kirke at Blackburn's Grand
Opera House, who had communed with the maddening bowl till he was
considerably elated. When Pitticus made a good hit, or Hazel struck a
moist lead, and everybody wept softly on the carpet, this man furnished
a war-whoop that not only annoyed the audience, but seemed also to break
up the actors a little. Later, he got more quiet, and at last went to
sleep and slid out of his chair on the floor. It is such little episodes
as these that make strangers dissatisfied with the glorious west. When
you go to see something touchful on the stage, you do not care to have
your finer feelings ruffled by the yells of a man who has got a corner
on delirium tremens.
It is also humiliating to our citizens to be pulled up off the floor by
the coat-collar and steered out the door by a policeman.
We hope that as progress is more plainly visible in Wyoming, and as we
get more and more refined, such things will be of less and less frequent
occurrence, till a man can go to see a theatrical performance with just
as much comfort as he would in New York and other eastern towns.
Another point while we are discussing the performance of Hazel Kirke.
There were some present on Monday night, sitting hack in the third
balcony, who need a theatrical guide to aid them in discovering which
are the places to weep and which to gurgle.
It was a little embarrassing to Miss Ellsler to make a grand dramatic
hit that was supposed to yank loose a freshet of woe, to be greeted with
a snort of demoniac laughter from the rear of the grand opera house.
It seemed to unnerve her and surprise her, but she kept her balance and
her head. When death and ruin, and shame and dishonor, were pictured
in their tragic horror, the wild, unfettered humorist of a crude
civilization fairly yelled with delight. He thought that the tomb and
such things were intended to be synonymous with the minstrel show and
the circus. He thought that old Dunstan Kirke was there with his
sightless eyes to give Laramie the grandest, riproaringest tempest of
mirth that she had ever experienced. That is why we say that we will
never have a successful performance in the theatrical line, till some of
this class are provided with laugh-and-cry guide books.