29

Amusements.

The Buffalo Bill company appeared at the Opera House last night to the best house of the season, fairly full in the dress and family circles, and a good sprinkling in the chairs and parquet. Had the fact been realized that the company was so excellent and the play so full of interest, a crowd could not have been kept away. Though the house was good, it was the lightest the company has played to this season. In Scranton they had an $800 house Saturday night, and in Wilkesbarre on Monday a $900 house. The company since its first appearance here has been essentially modified in material, as well as the character of the play it renders. Formerly the drama was a succession of imminent encounters, with unlimited gunpowder and slaughter. About 90 per cent of the powder encounter has been cut out, and the balance would be tolerable if only the red light nuisance at the climaxes were entirely abated. It is not an accessory of any border fight, and the pungent offense is enough to strangle a white man or kill Injun quicker than trader whiskey. Aside from this, the play is well constructed, and is full of interesting and exciting incident, and is rendered by a company that has not a single weak member in it, but on the contrary has more uniform strength and talent than is usually found in a city stock comany. The chiefs of the company - Buffalo Bill, Texas Jack, Arizona John, and several other of its members - are exceptionally large, fine-looking men, and they have been on the stage long enough to free themselves of all hampered movement, spirit or speech which the "stage" situation would naturally give a border rover. On the first tour there was a certain repression noticeable; a power fretted by its novel and cramped surrounding, as of a whale in an aquarium, but this is all gone, and in its place the freedom and natural grace of movement and blunt, firm speech that have the true flavor, and give some very real pictures of frontier life. After the above border characters, J. V. Arlington, as Old Scout, made a capital old man and trapper; J. Z. Graham, as Jedediah Broadbrim, was a very Aminidab Sleek; H. Moreland, as General Duncan, made a bluff and dignified officer, and Irving, as Grasshopper Jim, as thorough a villain as could be desired; in fact, we could name the entire cast with credit. Miss Laura Fay was spirited, cute and pretty Irish girl. Miss Waite's old woman was