Viewing page 89 of 316

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Esther Last Evening.

The performance of Esther at Sampson Hall last evening was the most successful and satisfactory yet given there and fittingly closed a series of the finest entertainments ever given by Rondout talent. From the first everything seemed to move smoothly and satisfactorily - the performers were in good spirits, the audience large and good-natured, and all things combined to make the affair successful. The players were rapturously applauded and bouquets showered up on the stage, until the enthusiasm seemed to carry away all hands. The solo parts, without exception, were acted better than at either preceding performance, the Queen throwing into her part a grace and dignity that exceeded all previous efforts. The King and Haman were also much more natural and free, and several minor changes made in their movements added to the effect and were appropriately fitted to their parts. The banquet scene was especially well rendered, while Haman's representations of haughty hate and mortified pride brought out hearty applause for their faithfulness. Zeresh simply excelled herself, having recovered from her previous indisposition, and the intensity and expressiveness of her acting impressed every one, especially the portrayal of wild grief in the last act, when she tore off the emblems of rank and turned away with dishevelled hair and agonized gestures, which was greeted by a storm of applause. So with all- the mysterious Magi, the martial-looking guards, the Phophetess, High Priest, Scribe, maids of honor and pages - there seemed to be a fresh inspiration and feeling, and the audience will not soon forget this last and finest performance of Esther in Rondout. 

The city is to be congratulated first upon the liberal public spirit which led our people to so generously patronize entertainments for a charitable object, there having been sold in all, up and downtown, probably over 4,000 tickets; and second for the ability suddenly brought out and shown in the beautiful representations given by our own singers. It is a great credit to the place, and gives a very flattering reputation to it, for we believe there are few cities of the size of ours where two such large companies of amateurs can be formed and perform so well. The public owe generous praise and thanks to the singers, to Messrs. Peaslee and Ten Broeck and the Dorcas Society. 

87
Mrs. Flutterti Budget. 

Mrs. Flutterti Budget was at the representation of Esther last night - she and three lady friends. She had secured reserved seats in the gallery for herself and them - a fact which so many of the audience as were seated in their vicinity had subsequent occasion to regret. For Mrs. Flutterti Budget is a very ill-bred person. She is not ugly nor malicious, but she is ignorant, egotistic and vain. She has the power to make all refined persons in her neighborhood unhappy, and invariably does it. If she were not ignorant of the dicta of good-breeding which always has respect to the rights of others, she would not - she and her friends - have chatted incessantly through the entire performance. When the full tones of the Steinway grand left nothing more to be desired in the way of a musical noise, Mrs. Flutterti Budget's faithful voice was a degree less afflictive; but when Mordecai, kneeling in front of his stricken people, delivered with folded and uplifted hands that beautiful and touching supplicatory solo of his, then her talk was vanity and vexation of spirit; for it spoiled the notes of the singer for at least twenty-five pairs of ears in the circle immediately surrounding her. 

Mrs. Flutterti Budget is an exceedingly ignorant person or she would not have betrayed her ignorance. She was last night crammed with wonder and curiosity. This can be readily pardoned in view of the spectacular attractiveness of the play, but her disposition to express her wonder in a running comment of the silliest and most inane character, cannot be pardoned. Especially her continuing to pour over the heads and into the protesting ears of those around here a drizzle of gab and chatter after she had been hissed for it not less than a dozen times. Now, no gentleman at a public performance likes to be driven to resort to what may be called vocal violence towards a woman, or a group of women, even if there does seem to be no other remedy at hand. It is a rough procedure, which a truly polite man always hesitates to enter upon. He has a feeling that such a weapon of defence somehow damages him who is obliged to use it, as well as carries with it the power to cut its object more deeply than may be necessary. But bless you, Mrs. Flutterti Budget no more minded being hissed than a barking dog minds a quotation from certain parts of the psalms of David. When she "sensed" that the hissing was intended to quiet her, she only got mad, grew red in the face and talked with fewer pauses and breaks than ever before. She appeared to fancy that the effort made to prevent her from continuing to insult others, was an essential insult to herself. 

When Haman threw himself disconsolately into his chair after receiving his disgrace at the hands of the King, and sang in connection with the act a dolorous recitative over his woes, Mrs. Flutterti Budget jabbered without resting. She offered her lady friends, one of whom sat on either hand, no keen and appreciative critical remarks upon Mr. Crane's excellent acting, but audibly wondered whether the stuff "his gown was made of was worth more than fifty-cents a yard." And when Queen Esther, in all her noticeable personal beauty and attractive royal dress, first presented herself to the gaze of the audience, Mrs. Flutterti Budget expressed in a strident whisper her doubts as to whether the glittering ornaments scattered over the Queen's graceful form were "anything but cheap stuff, got up for show, you know." And in this manner she went on until the final tableau, covered with tinted fire, proclaimed the end of the oratorio, the triumph of the Jews, the scientific and successful hanging of the rascally Haman, and the happiness of everybody but the immediate family of the ex-(ecuted) Prime Minister. 

Now, one word - one exclusive word - as to Mrs. Flutterti Budget. She is a coarse, vulgar, ill-bred woman; vulgar, not in the ordinary definition of the word, but in its proper one - low, common, ignorant and unrefined. By the privilege conferred upon her by her ticket she could claim the seat she occupied, but in every other sense she was an intruder in the house; and she always will be an offense to all civilized people into whose society circumstances may happen to throw her. In her case advice will be neither welcome nor timely. She is too old to acquire new habits and too thickheaded and conceited to know that her habits need changing. But to all younger persons who may follow in her wake, unless warned in season, we affectionately recommend the cultivation of the instincts and arts of good breeding. For - believe your friend, The Freeman, in this, young ladies and gentlemen - while good breeding is not religion, it is the next thing to it. Next to St. Paul, Turveydrop and Chesterfield were missionaries of a genuine practical piety