ART, LITERATURE, AND DRAMATIC.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2354, 19 October 1881, Page 4

ART, LITERATURE, AND DRAMATIC.

[From English and other files,] A Mew Orleans paper evidently desires publicity through a libel. It says : “Madame Zuila, with Forepaugh’s show, walks the high wire with her husband on her shoulders. E:- is a big loafer of a fellow, and assisting in thin act is about the only work ho attempts to do. If his wife were an actress he would stand at the door and ch w tobacco. Ho is a wiMing person. Joseph Murphy, who recently concluded a very successful engagement at the Grand Opera House, and who was lately at the Windsor Theatre, can truly say that honest industry is its own reward. Many years ago he was a poor Irish boy adrift in the streets of Sacramento. He was willing to work, but there was no wo*k fer beta to do. He was hungry and bad no place to sleep. Wandering from street to street in search of a job, late one afternoon he passed by the theatre. Mr Joseph Proctor, the great “Nick of the Woods,” was playing there, and was walking up and down in front of the theatre, annoyed by a lot of bricks and laths left on the sidewalk by workmen who were putting up a new building nest door. “My boy,” said the tragedian, approaching our Irish lad, “ hero is a pass to the gallery and fifty cents if yon wli clear off that sidewalk before peep e commence coming to the theatre,” “ I'll do that same,” said the boy. Here was a bonanza ; meat, bread, and lodgings, and an evening at tbe play. The boy performed bis work faithfully, and, after satisfying his hunger, greatly enjoyed the first theatrical performance he had ever seen. The next day the tragedian saw the sidewalk obstructed again “I am here,” said the boy, as if he had been the Duke’s motto. Sure enough he was there, and he got another fifty cents and another pass to the gallery. The next day the theatre was closed and the tragedian was gone. Bricks and laths were nothing to the boy; but, strangely enough, tbe performance he had seen so infatuated him that he determined to go on the stage, and, being able to sing a song and do a little dancing, he was soon known. Today Joseph Murphy is a good comedian and a rich man, and he owes his success to his own efforts. An oid feat in new guise is strikingly varied in a Western circus. Leaping from a spring board over a row of elephants, camels, and horses has ceased to move an audience. In the present instance the leaper personates an Arab pursued by a company of soldiery. They drive him up a hill and Stand in a dozen ranks at its foot with their spears upraised. Then the Arab runs down the hill, jumps on the spring board (which looks like a rock) and bounds with a somersault over the heads and spears of the enemy. The aesthetic dressc’ worn by the love-sick maidens in “ Patience” are all of one cut, viz , loose flowing skirts, and a half high classic bodice with a ribbon belt round the waist, tied in a looped bow in front, the ribbon being narrow, the same forming braces at the back. The long drooping sleeves are fastened with three buttons on the outside of the shoulder, and spring from the fulness of the dress at the back. The colours and ornamentation have been selected with much forethought. The love-sick maiden who is clothed in dark blue baa large sunflowers on her robe. The whole drees is embroidered with daffodils, a sickly green shows passion flowers, a terracotta has gold borderings, a light blue robe is secured by claret coloured bnwa. Ordinary shoes to match tbe dress would be appropriate for fancy balls, and long gloves, if gloves must be worn, but the idea of course is that they are invisible. Gloves and classic costumes cannot be worn together, correctly speaking. If “ Missadilla” wishes to make her dress very complete, she should carry an old-fashioned lyre, or any portable musical instrument of old days. Lady Jane’s dress differs from the rest. It is a long close-fitting Japanese robe of dark blue silk, embroidered in gold, with a peacock’s tail, scrolls, &c. She has a light blue floating scarf attached to the shoulders at the back.—“ Ardern Holt ”

The theatres in Japan are probably the most interesting sight to travellers ; everything is so different ilrom that to which they Lave been accustomed. Of course, there are no seats ; all squat on mats. Running down the centre of the theatre is an elevated platform upon which the actors always enter upon the stage ; the exits are all from the rear, and, instead of shifting the scenes, the whole s age is revolved on wheels (same as we turn a horse car). When an actor is killed during the play, a man dressed in black, with his face covered (you are not supposed to see him), rushes out,and, holding a large cloak in front of the dead man, the latter rises and runs off the stage, though just beheaded, and his head lying on the stage, looking so natural and the execution so well done that, until you actually see the dead walk, you think he surely was beheaded. After the curtain falls for another act, all the children in the audience rush on the stage behind the curtain and play around behind the scenes until the drum beats for another act. The only music they have is a drum, fife, and and a small string instrument, though the players are generally singing in very high and unmusical notes. The play generally begins at ten o’clock in the morning and lasts until one or two o’clock at night, and the audience always take food enough to last twenty-four hours, besides which men with rice, tea, peanuts, and oranges are always passing through the audience, very much like our circuses at home. The theatre is lighted by gas, very dimly, however, and as the audience—men, women and children—are smoking pipes all the time, the atmosphere is not very pleasant.—Yeddo Letter.