MISCELLANEOUS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1570, 1 March 1879, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

At one of the theatres in a town of Nevada, the play of the "Forty Thieves " was lately presented, but in rather a meagre manner, as may be inferred from the lack of abundant scenery and properties in the Far West. When Ali Baba had seen the thieves enter and quit the cave, ho went to the wiogs and brought in a mule, which, having taken grave offence at something, awaited its opportunity for revenge. No sooner had Ali come out of the cave with his bags of wealth, and attempted to put them on the back of the beast, than it began its part of the performance. It let ily with its heels ; kicked the shavings (the supposed riches) out of the bags; kicked down the cavern; kicked down a whole forest; kicked down the wings ; kicked the end of the baas viol, leaning against the stage, to pieces; smashed the footlights; and finally put Ali hors de combat by planting both feet in the pit of his stomach. The quadruped continued kicking as if he were hung on a pivot, until a rope was fastened around him, and he was dragged off by the united strength of the company. The Nevadans want to give the mule a benefit.

When artists fgo to Eussia they have to beware of the customs of the land. Yieuxtemps, tho violinist, used to tell the tale that he wa3 once invited to spend a few days at the residence of a wealthy Eussiau noble. He was not a little surprised ami scared when, as he was going down the staircase, ou his way to dinner, he saw a black uia«o ou

the landing, In the midst of which glowed two fiery eyes. ' What's that ?' said the artist. J ' Oh, nothing ; only our black wolf; he's 1 hungry,' said hia hostess. J At night, when Vieuxtempa was conducted j to his apartment, he almost stepped upoathe j same blask mass, which lay across the threshold of the bedroom. Early next morning, as the attendant entered Vieuxtenips' room to open the shutters, a frightful fusillade was heard in the courtyard. 'What's that?' said the artist. * Oh, nothing,' said the valet -de- ohambre who accompanied him; ' only our black wolf. I'll drive him off. Scwolf !' ' What's that ?' said the artist, starting up in bed. ' Oh, nothing; only our black wolf. They've shot him for killing the cook last night.' Has not pantomime seen its best days, and is it not a form of entertainment which is rapidly going out of fashion ? It was on December 26th, 1777, that the first English pantomime, called "Harlequin Executed," was brought out at the Lincoln's Inn-fields Theatre, then under the management of Rich—the same Rich who produced (lay's " Beggar'3 Opera," and of whom it was said, in reference to that undying work, that it made " Rich gay and Gay rich." I shall be much mistaken (says "Lorgnette" in the "Sportsman") if pantomime, as we shall presently see it, survive another quarter of a century. We are becoming too refined to thoroughly enjoy the spectacle of the butter slide and clown's cruel jest of sitting upon the baby. Stage performances, says a Cleveland paper, have of late been varied here and there from what was intended. Joe Rainbolt, one of the sharp-shooters of the variety theatres, shot oft' one of his wife's fingers ia Cincinnatti, instead of hitting the potato that she was holding for a mark. In a pathetic scene in "A Woman of the People," in Baldwin's Theatre, San Francisco, the wooden head of the baby that the agonised mother was holding fell off and rolled noisily to the footlights. The actress coolly picked it up and put it on the body again. Two young actors turned a mock fight into a real one in a Houston Theatre, and would not desist at the proper time. The stage manager was compelled to drop the curtain on the unexpected scene. A phonograph was part of an exhibition in Cairo, 111. A sheet of tinfoil had been placed in the apparatus ready to be used, but an enemy of the manager had replaced it by another, and when the crank was turned the phonograph said, "This show is a fraud, and the manager is ," and at that point the man at the crank stoppod. A policeman went |on the stage of the Chinese Theatre to stop the performance, which had been extended beyond the legal time of night. The indignant audience tore up the seats to fling at the intruder, and did damage amounting to 800 dollars.