TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR-ROOM AT MAURICEVILLE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 4965, 2 March 1895, Page 2

TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR-ROOM AT MAURICEVILLE.

(J)ran a Correspondent). The juveniles at Mauriccvillc were given a treat on Wednesday night last when Mr Knott.travclliug photographer, spectacular artist, and lecturer, gayc an entertainment at the Choral Hall, consisting of Magic lantern views, etc. The show was well patronised a fair sprinkling of adults being present as well as the young people. The ehiof item of the entertainment was however, ten groups of pictures representing a serio-comic tragedy, entitled " Ten Nights in a Ear Eooiu." I do not know whether all your readers have had nn opportunity of seeing or hearing this thrilling drama, so I will briefly describe it, ns shown and explained by Mr Knott at^ Mauriccville. Simon Slade, a jolly miller in a town in the Stales, decides to dispose of his mill and start a pub, he does so and makes a hash of it. As a miller, Simon was a success, but as a saloon-keeper he was perhaps the most dismal failure on record—a Simple Simon—in fact.

Early in bis coreer as a dispenser of snake juice, be developed a tendency to throw glasses and empty bottles at undesirable customers, who bad just spent tbeir last sixpence over tie bar. He invariably missed bis man, however, but. ho always managed to bit somebody clso and it used to causo trouble. On one occasion lie hit a little girl who had come to fetch her pa home and split her head open. Needless to say the missile was intended for the pa—with the usual result. After this, Simon Slade's descent was rapidhe took to drink. His repeated failures to hit anybody ho aimed at, combined with the certainty of hitting somebody else seemed to prey on bis mind. He lost heart, and to add to his misfor- 1 tunes the little girl lived long enough to extort a promise from her fatberthat lie would "never get drunk any more," which ho duly kept. Thus Simon Sladowas deprived at one fell swoop of a customer and a target to throw bottles at. Naturally a proud man.his spirits sank beneath the weight of his accumulated troubles, and his general appearance at this time showed that the end was not far off. The usual padding in the shape of o. villainous gambler and an innocent young man, who commits a murder and in turn jets murdered himself is supplied, added to which Simon himself is murdered by his own son, who subsequently gets hanged, and Mrs Sladc takes refuge in an asylum for the hopelessly insane. Such in brief is the story of "Ten Nights in a Bar Eoom," and it beats Edgar Allen Poo's" Fall of the House of Usher" into a "cocked hat."

The story extends over a period of ten years and there is only one night depicted in each year, so if the habitues of the house kept up the same racket] the balance of the time, it must have been the liveliest pub in Christendom. The wonder is that the old pub stood so long. Mr Knott's delineation was the finest thing in low_ comedy ever witnessed on the Mauriccville boards, and the audience left at a late hour more than satisfied with the performance. While here Mr Knott obtained somo good local pictures of our lime kilns and school children, and various other bits of natoal scenery. *~~: I understand that our local amateur dramatic' Chib §re haying a piece" specially written for tjioir nosj; performance to bo entitled —'■■Tcnminutes in a back room, or the escapade of a bu'shwliabker." It is expected it will make a considerable noise, and I have no doubt it will .'