CRITICISM IN ADVANCE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2135, 28 December 1880, Page 3

CRITICISM IN ADVANCE.

Here is a criticism in advance which the “Spirit” devoted to the new play, founded on the most strictly protectionist principles, and with the Monroe doctrine of “ America for the Americans ” breathing patriotically from every line of it: —ln Act 1., Miss Davenport dashed upon the stage, dragging a train of uncut velvet, upon which 84 dressmakers were employed for 9 days. She turned, displaying a Jersy waist, to which 49 seamstresses had devoted 7 days and nights, and raising aloft her right arm and hand, gloved by the united efforts of 11 kidworkers during 6 weeks, she flashed upon the enthusiastic audience an elegant bracelet, upon which 45 of Tiffany’s choicest workmen had been engaged for one month, and for the diamonds in which 116 hardy pioneers had toiled and delved for nearly a year. Just as she was about to pour forth an impassioned speech, she dropped her fan, made by 31 experts in 22 days, and tipped with ostrich feathers which 83 bushmen had torn from the tails of 5 full-grown birds after an exciting chase of 4 hours, during which 1 of the ostriches ran a mile in 2.101, beating St Julien’s famous time. Mr Harry Lee stepped gracefully forward to pick up the fan, but ruined the poetry of the situation by wearing a suit of clothes that had been made by 1 tailor and 1 sowing-machine in the absurd space of 16 hours, to say nothing of his boots, upon which only 1 shoemaker and a boy had been employed. But such an experienced actress as Miss Davenport was not to be annoyed by so untoward a mishap. With a charming smile, she shook her lovely head, thus calling attention to her elegant earrings, upon which 92 of Kirkpatrick’s artisans had worked themselves to skeletons in 3 weeks, and, standing “Divinely tall (5 feet 8 inches) and most divinely fair,” she let the audience catch a glimpse of a dainty slipper, for which 32 men had been 16 days in tanning the materials, and of a deliciously embroidered stocking, upon which 56 women had worn their fingers to the bone. The curtain then fell amid rapturous applause, and loud calls for the author; but Miss Dickinson preferred to wait until the great costume of the second act before bowing her thanks for this recognition of her genius.