SOMETHING LIKE A "SENSATION."

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 250, 10 December 1878, Page 3

SOMETHING LIKE A "SENSATION."

I was the other day talking to Mr. G. D. 'Chaplin, tbe actor, on the subject of modem sensation, . and wondering what would be the next big "effect" to strike the taste of the public. . •* Headers "r into lakes and- seas were getting played out; the railway train business would no longer go down, even when rushing through midair on a slender iron track, six feet above the stage, with a passenger precipitating himself .into the roaring flood beneath, while revolving saws, mill wheels, quartzcrushers, wrecks, broken bridges, ■ burning mills, explosive powder magazines, and other trifles of that kind, the people would not look at, for they were completely " used up." " The fact is," I remarked, " The theatrical tastes of the public are so depraved that nothing short of a man thrown into a den of roaring lions, to be devoured nightly, will satisfy them. 1 ' ■" What! the same man to be devoured every night ?" •*- Well I suppose ___ would hardly work, and yet I fancy the management would find it hard work to prooaue six fresh victims a week." And then Mr Chaplin, taking Ms cigar out of his mouth, and puffing _ie smoke from the carriage windows—we were in the train at the time, going to Port Lyttelton—told me that the idea was a very good one, b_t it lacked one strong essential—novelty. He proceeded to explain :— It appears _ien, that some few years ago, when things dramatic were at a very low ebb in Philadelphia, one entorpriswig manager was strnek with an idea, which if he could but carry at out, he believed would fill the exhausted exchequer to overfiowiug. He sent for a well-known author- and they soon struck a bargain. A week parsed away. In the meantime the town *pas most lavishly posted over with striking pictures, descriptive of a man being torn to pieces by furious lions. At the Museum at Philadelphia there is a perfect menagerie of wild beasts, among them being a cage of very fine lions. This museum is also part theatre, and the manager in question engaged the whole establishment, lions and all. The town was billed with the new piece—the name of which I forget—and quite an excitement was got up, as it was given out that in the course of the drama a man would be eaten alive by lions. The opening night came ; the crush was something terrific, and the house was packed from floor to ceiling. The piece was a grand success. It was magnificently got up and well acted throughout. It was a classic play of the old Roman period, and the hero in the last act was found guilty of the crime of having murdered his twin brother, of which crime he was, of course, quite innocent, but was found guilty on what George Darrell, in "Transported for Life," calls " that bane of society," circumstantial evidence. Anyhow, innocent or not, the noble Romans found him guilty, and the sentence of the Court was that he should be torn to pieces by lions. The play was powerfully written, and the hero had . borne himself so well throughout that when the sentence was delivered there was not a dry eye in the house, and a baby, being affected to yells, was incontinently '• sat upon " by its mother, in answer to the gallery boys' shouts of '• Sit on.it; 'sit on it!" The hero was the more to be pitied, as the brother whom he was supposed to have slain was himself a most fearful and blood-thirsty villain.

■ The next scene in the drama was to bring it to its awful close. The flats were drawn off, and an iron cage, containing four lions, was discovered. These cheerful beasts appeared to be perfectly ravenous with hunger, as they glared fiercely through the bars on to the exciied audience in front of them. The Roman Judge gave the order " Let the sentence be executed," and the prisoner was removed. The next moment he re-appeared on the top of the cage supported by two guards, who led him up from below by means of a ladder. The silence of the audience was intense. The hero by this time was pale as death, and leaned forward as though about to fall. Suddenly the top of the trap is opened. It is about seven feet above the lions who are leaping towards their prey and giving vent to the most terrific roars. The audience are now in a state of convulsive excitement Heavens! if they go. much nearer, the man will fall among them!" cries one who thinks the "sensation" already carried too far. But horror seizes on the whole assembly when the prisoner is flung headlong down into the den. "Great God, this is terrible!"—they cry. The lions hap madly on their prey ; they rend the unfortunate man limb from limb, and the den is at once strewn with his blood and bones. In one minute nothing but blood remains to tell the tale! Oh, horror! horror 2 Men shriek, women faint, and the whole place is in an uproar, people rise en masse to protest with one voice against the outrage.

The curtain now falls, and the audience give way to their feelings, and yell, and howl, and scream like mad. The green baize on the prompt side moves, and there steps to the front, all unhurt and smiling, the man they had just seen devoured, and whose flesh and bones a few seconds before were strewn about tho cage. He steps nimbly to the front, and begins to speak. The audience are hushed as if by magic. "He wished," he said, "to thank them for the kind feeling they had shown towards him at his supposed death; but at the same time he also wished to explain that it was not he who had been torn in pieces, but his recreant twin brother, who being in the way behind the scenes, had been mistaken for him, seized by the guards, and thrown in the den ! He thought the piece had been a success, and he begged to announce its repetition for the following and succeeding evenings, and be retired amidst thunders of applause, and cheers that lasted fqr fully ten minutes. What cared the audience about a life 1— retributive justice had been done, and the play ended satisfactorily. ~..A,\. I had almost forgotten to add that the twin brother in the particular scene referred to was a Well-executed " dummy," stuffed with blood, raw beef, bones, <_c., and that the lions had been kept nearly halfstarved for the purpose of making the newpiece '- go." And it did, but for how many months it ran I am not in a position to say. I recommend the idea to Mr William Hoskins, or any other 'enterprising managers who are so constantly .producing sterling and startling novelties. ' , ITaeby Hotspur.

Mrs Bravo, tbe wife of the late Charles Bravo, who died about two and a half years ago in the " Balham Tragedy," has just perished by a death as miserable, though not as mysterous, as did her wretched husband. She has been living since April last at Coombe Lodge, Southsea, and, According to the testimony of her medical attendants, was irreclaimably given to the undue consumption of stimulants—a habit which hastened and indeed caused her unhappy end. On the other hand, the servants of the establishment, though admitting that their mistress drank a great deal of sherry, denied that she was ever intoxicated. The doctor, however, deposed that the -'only assignable cause for the intense congestion of the stomach, fiver, and kidneys was the excessive use of alcoholic stimulants." This doctor, it seemes, a few weeks before her death had induced Mrs Bravo to become a total abstainer ; but it was too late. She had never been attacked with delirium tremens, but succumbed to a succession of acute vomiting fits.