A VARNISHED OPERA HOUSE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1875, 26 February 1880, Page 3

A VARNISHED OPERA HOUSE.

The humorist of the “ New York Times” tells the tragic story of the opening of the new opera house in Lynn, Mass. The varnishing of the perforated wooden seats, it appears, was neglected until the last moment, and then a quantity of varnish was hastily purchased of Mr Brewster, one of the leaders of the anti-opera house party. The narrative then proceeds:—“The house was varnished on the last day of October, and on the next evening it was opened by the ‘Pinafore’ company. Every one of the seven hundred seats was occupied, and it must be admitted that among the audience were many of the leading citizens of the town and their wives and daughters. The first act of the play was listened to with the most serious attention, and when the curtain fell not a single person went out for cloves. The manager was delighted, and remarked to the leading actor that ha had never seen as intelligent an audience in the whole course of his life. The second act was received with the same quiet and attention, and there was even a look of painful anxiety in the faces of several of the men in the audience. Sir Joseph began to feel annoyed at the solemnity of the audience, and asked the manager if the people took him for an undertaker and believed they were attending a blanked funeral. At the end of the act there was tho same absence of any apparent thirst among the young men that had been noticed after the first act, and the actors began to entertain gloomy doubts as to whether beer was attainable in Lynn. The play came to an end and tho curtain fell amid a silence as of tho grave. The orchestra rose and departed, but the audience sat still. The manager came to the footlights and announced that the play was over, and as the announcement had no apparent effect, begged to bo informed whether tho opera house was a deaf and dumb asylum, or whether he himself had suddenly become stark mad. It was then that Esquire Standish beckoned him to his side and explained that the audience would gladly retire if any way could be devised of separating them from their seats. No loss than eight gallons of turpentine were bought of Mr Brewster that night, and used in detaching the ladies from their seats, to which the undried varnish had glued them. When the ladies had all disappeared, the male part of the audience, with many irreverent exclamations and cries of anguish, tore itself loose and went home through the back streets. The opera house has remained closed over since the opening night, and it is tho belief of Lynn that Mr Brewster, who mixed the varnish, and was subsequently found in his shop at eleven o’clock at night, ready to ■ 11 turpentine in quantities to suit purchasers, deliberately brought about the catastrophe that broke up tho “ Pinafore ” season at Lynn.”