170

AMUSEMENTS.
NIBLO'S GARDEN--THE "SCOUTS OF THE PRAIRIE."
Mr. Ned Buntline has now entered a field in
which he can at least make money. He has written
a play called the "Scouts of the Prairie," which has
no more interest than the many stories of Western
life which he has given to the world; but fortunately
there are resources which the dramatist can
command that are unknown to the novelist. Mr.
Ned Buntline enacts a part in his play. It was this
and the kindred fact that the somewhat famous
Buffalo Bill would support, together with a band of
real Indians, that drew an overwhelming audience
last evening to Niblo's Garden, filling the gallery at
least an hour before the curtain rose with the
noisiest of urchins, and later filled the aisles and
lobby with an eager crowd. The play, as may
readily be imagined, is destitute of any literary
or dramatic merit whatever. It scarcely
coheres sufficiently to interest one in the
story. It furnishes a series of traditional pictures in which the red men make bombastic speeches about the dew, the morning cloud, and the baseness of he white man. They have a strong desire to capture somebody, and consequently jump about and yell and fall upon a trapper called Cale Durg, who is no less a person age than Ned Buntline. The tie him a tree and prepare to roast him. And at that moment Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack jump into the assembly, kill pretty nearly everybody, and form a tableau. The rest of the play is a repetition of this business, varied by a few temperance lectures from Ned Buntline and a great deal of stairs rhapsody from the female trapper Hazel Eye. As a drama it is very poor stuff. But [?] exhibition of three remarkable men it is not without interest. The Hon. W. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) enters into the spectacle with a curious grace and a certain characteristic charm that please the beholders. He is remarkably handsome fellow on the stage, and the lithe, spring step, the round, uncultured voice, and utter absence of anything like a stage art, won for him the goodwill of an audience which was disposed to laugh at all that was intended to be pathetic and serious. [?} of the same characteristic charm hung about Texas Jack and the real Indians, it must be confessed, imparted a realistic individuality that it would be hard to attain by professional supers. To criticise the play would be impossible. The object has evidently been merely to afford these rough notables a few scenes in which to show their mode of fighting Indians, and this end is secured. None of them are actors. Least of all is Ned Buntline. His histrionism is even worse than his literature. But he has succeeded in getting a cramped house, which he and the management do not hesitate to say is better than doing a good thing
"The Scouts of the Prairie" will not only be played every night this week, but will be furnished on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.

AMUSEMENTS.
NIBLO'S GARDEN--THE "SCOUTS OF THE PRAIRIE."
Mr. Ned Buntline has now entered a field in
which he can at least make money. He has written
a play called the "Scouts of the Prairie," which has
no more interest than the many stories of Western
life which he has given to the world; but fortunately
there are resources which the dramatist can
command that are unknown to the novelist. Mr.
Ned Buntline enacts a part in his play. It was this
and the kindred fact that the somewhat famous
Buffalo Bill would support, together with a band of
real Indians, that drew an overwhelming audience
last evening to Niblo's Garden, filling the gallery at
least an hour before the curtain rose with the
noisiest of urchins, and later filled the aisles and
lobby with an eager crowd. The play, as may
readily be imagined, is destitute of any literary
or dramatic merit whatever. It scarcely
coheres sufficiently to interest one in the
story.