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Whit at Apr 12, 2020 11:35 AM

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worse from an artistic point of view than the performance of Buffalo Bill and his friend and there never was anything worse of its kind since Thespis bellowed from a cart-tail. This is one of the first fruits of the pacification of the Indians. The operations in hair conducted by Buffalo Bill, were interrupted. Having no Sioux to scalp, he nightly scalps the muse of tragedy. If the establishment of the peace policy of the President is to be followed by such by such consequences as this, every lover of the drama will at once become an enemy of the administration and demand war to the knife against the red man.

The lines allotted to Buffalo Bill are not arduous, and no vast amount of study and intellectual effort is required to unfold their meaning to the audience; and yet the wild and ineffectual struggles of the actor with them would make a contrary impression upon the uniformed. Imagine a boy of ten years, at school, explaining the unnecessary filial piety and devotion of Casabianca, and a very correct idea of the Buffalo's methods of treating the English language will be obtained. It is absoliutely picturesque in its absurdity. Texas Jack speaks rather more naturally, although with a certain awkwardness which, even in the author's finest passages, impresses one with the conviction that the actor is perpetrating a somewhat clumsy gag. The most effective members of the company are two or three Indians, who, when they are not executing a war-dance, or brandishing tin tomahawks, stand grim and silent, looking as gloomy and sad amid all the hurley-burley and noise, as if their squaws and popooses had just been ushered to the happy hunting grounds at the very moment when those last fragments of baked dog disagreed with the bereaved relatives.

But it is undeniable that a certain interest does attach to the two white men apart from their absurd attempts to act. They are both fine-looking men, Buffalo Bill particularly, having an exceedingly handsome face and noble carriage. And then, when we see them rush in with pistols and rifles and slay a dozen Indians at a time, or watch the dexterous gentleman from Texas throw lasse with delicate precision, or observe both of them tear the red-flannel scalps from the heads of their fallen enemies, it is comforting to know that they have done this kind of thing all their lives in deadly earnest. The exitement in the gallery during these passages was something wonderful to witness. There was not one boy of all the thousand present who did not scream and yell whenever there was a genuine war whoop upon the stage or a shot from Buffalo Bill's own rifle, until the very savages them selves must have felt that the battle-cries of thier forefathers were, to, the vociferations of these young pale faces, as the croaking of a [from] to the screech of a fog whistle. It was a gala night for the [urchins] who have fed upon Ned Buntline in the story papers, and if every boy of them did not, last evening, firmly and finally resolved to become a scout and a slaver of Indians at the very first opportunity, the nature of boys has changed wonderfully.

The subordinate members of the company are not much more efficient than the stars, but the two ladies [where] present the Indian maidens do tolerably well, once of them singing in a very creditable manner. The Scouts of the Prairie will be produced again to-night.

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worse from an artistic point of view than the performance of Buffalo Bill and his friend and there never was anything worse of its kind since Thespis bellowed from a cart-tail. This is one of the first fruits of the pacification of the Indians. The operations in hair conducted by Buffalo Bill, were interrupted. Having no Sioux to scalp, he nightly scalps the muse of tragedy. If the establishment of the peace policy of the President is to be followed by such by such consequences as this, every lover of the drama will at once become an enemy of the administration and demand war to the knife against the red man.

The lines allotted to Buffalo Bill are not arduous, and no vast amount of study and intellectual effort is required to unfold their meaning to the audience; and yet the wild and ineffectual struggles of the actor with them would make a contrary impression upon the uniformed. Imagine a boy of ten years, at school, explaining the unnecessary filial piety and devotion of Casabianca, and a very correct idea of the Buffalo's methods of treating the English language will be obtained. It is absoliutely picturesque in its absurdity. Texas Jack speaks rather more naturally, although with a certain awkwardness which, even in the author's finest passages, impresses one with the conviction that the actor is perpetrating a somewhat clumsy gag. The most effective members of the company are two or three Indians, who, when they are not executing a war-dance, or brandishing tin tomahawks, stand grim and silent, looking as gloomy and sad amid all the hurley-burley and noise, as if their squaws and popooses had just been ushered to the happy hunting grounds at the very moment when those last fragments of baked dog disagreed with the bereaved relatives.

But it is undeniable that a certain interest does attach to the two white men apart from their absurd attempts to act. They are both fine-looking men, Buffalo Bill particularly, having an exceedingly handsome face and noble carriage. And then, when we see them rush in with pistols and rifles and slay a dozen Indians at a time, or watch the dexterous gentleman from Texas throw lasse with delicate precision, or observe both of them tear the red-flannel scalps from the heads of their fallen enemies, it is comforting to know that they have done this kind of thing all their lives in deadly earnest. The exitement in the gallery during these passages was something wonderful to witness. There was not one boy of all the thousand present who did not scream and yell whenever there was a genuine war whoop upon the stage or a shot from Buffalo Bill's own rifle, until the very savages them selves must have felt that the battle-cries of thier forefathers were, to, the vociferations of these young pale faces, as the croaking of a [from] to the screech of a fog whistle. It was a gala night for the [urchins] who have fed upon Ned Buntline in the story papers, and if every boy of them did not, last evening, firmly and finally resolved to become a scout and a slaver of Indians at the very first opportunity, the nature of boys has changed wonderfully.

The subordinate members of the company are not much more efficient than the stars, but the two ladies [where] present the Indian maidens do tolerably well, once of them singing in a very creditable manner. The Scouts of the Prairie will be produced again to-night.