San Francisco Chronicle from San Francisco, California • Page 16

3M 16 SAN FRANCISCO OHBONICLE STmDAY FEBBTJABY 14 1897 JTNEUflOME OF BH DRdMdlfl TiOjVOULU Ju ran i I mm A HUNDRED years of ctrfllza whaling vessels going out to them In a tlon has created a transforms double war canoe seventy feet long fr Uon beyond the most Utopian with a hundred paddlers mJL dreams In the Paradise of the Many enjoyable performances wer Pacific It seems hardly credible that given In that home of the drama country whose savage inhabitants which was equipped with scenery by murdered the first white man who put my esteemed friend and brother scenic foot on Its shores a century ago should artist William Porter now the to day be possessed of modern appli senior member of the profession whose ances abreast of the ancient capitals honorable career dates back to the of Europe with their boasted accumu Chatham Theater New York as long lation of a thousand years of learning ago as 1848 where he was painting scen From the real life tragedy of Captain ery when San Francisco was Terba Cook on a coral reef to the comedies of Buena and the Spanish rancheros paste modern stage In an opera house tured their horses In the Potrero The equipped with the latest mechanical curtain represented a view on the Lake and artistic resources presented by the of Como and was destroyed when the cream of the dramatic talent of the house was wrecked by fire some two Western World is a stride unequaled years ago I am however enabled to by the fairy tale of the giant and the reproduce the first sketch for it seven leagued boots yet such is the During the existence of that opera fact to day house a company was taken out by The influence of a population drawn Manager Dalley of San Francisco and from all parts of the world and very gave some successful performances largely from progressive California They took out a scenic artist Henry cultured wealthy commercial and stn Schloth who while there painted a gularly prosperous with a religious special curtain from Wagners celebrat hablt of feeling has naturally resulted ed palntingof the Chariot Race which in the capital city of Honolulu in the attracted a great deal of attention for formation of a social class not one whit the St Louis College where there is a bulbs arranged one In the center and one at each corner The center and corner lights are on respectively separate switches so that both or either sets can be used as desired The walls are shrimp pink and the ceiling is painted in soft tints of pale blue and white the ornamental iron work In bronse tipped with gold The splay of the proscenium arch is bordered by twenty one gilded ornamental panels of a Renaissance design each with a lamp It is pierced by doors lead ing to the electricians switchboard and stage managers room The switchboard controlling hundreds of electric lights both In the house and on the stage has a series of Indicator lights corresponding to those In operation The stage lighting Includes portable electric reflectors for colored light effects The whole Installation was the work of Hoffman chief electrician The stage has 485 incandescent lamps In all of the Hawaiian Electric Company The curtain shown or rather ln behlnd the aristocracy of any nation In taste refinement and personal attainments and it is therefore not surprising tttat so far back as 1848 Honolulu possessed a theater The inaugural performance In that year was She Stoops to Conquer Two members of the cast were Charles Hopkins and Henry Sheldon The former was editor of the Polynesian one of the first papers in Honolulu Mr Sheldon is an editor now In 1849 a minstrel company and In 1853 a Mr Breslaw had a company with a regular season In 1870 Dominic Murray and his wife played there Then a rival theater was erected called the Varieties and did very well until Its destruction by Are In 18S5 Edwin Booth Laura Keene and a company returning from Australia played Charles II Hamlet and to save hotel expenses camped In the rear of the theater with a native cook Then Wilder organized a company which Included Frank Mayo stage for amateurs in the classroom about the size of the Alcazar stagu here In which the reverend Fathers Frank and Bertram take great Interest The opera house was destroyed by fire February 13 1895 Nothing daunted by the misfortune Mr Irwin and his associates largely Influenced by the refined taste of Mrs Irwin commenced the re erectlon of the Thespian temple which in May last was sufficiently advanced to start upon the fitting of the stage and the painting of the scenery Accordingly Mr Porter was sent for as artist and Robert Abrams of the Columbia Theater San Francisco as master mechanic The house will hold about 1000 persons seating 600 and was designed by Ripley a local architect It contains four large proscenium boxes independent structures of a quasi HindooHindoo Moorish type the front balustrad irg however being ar acanthus leaf motif I cannot tel how far th rlra Varies companies Including one un perles may be valuable as a part of the der the management of Charles Thorne color scheme of the decorations but it brought its history down to 1881 when appears to me in an architectural point It was demolished and not long after cf view a mistake to have placed thm ward William George Irwin a million on the outside of the lores wherehv the aire identified with the largest sugar and banking Interests of the city determined to erect the opera house of which the cut gives an idea and which Is only an indication of the contrasts everywhere existing between the charming coral villas of the merchant princes and the grass huts of the old days when King Kamehameha the Great personally acted as pilot to the horseshoe arch which would have given a character to th Interior is now hidden entirely beneath a commonplace arrangement The balcony has a similar acanthus leaf front with electric hghts in pairs at Interval The ceiling is in twenty four square panels each containing a large ornamental boss in stamped Iron and each carrying five incandescent i ras i Fir ih ggisust i Mii Wfl3 j2233JSG3 yfftjlmaOfflBFi rated ir thp rut is Ideal and is entl The Pala of Truth hert Abrams San Franciscr a nred tage mechanician was intrusted th the stage constructs and th Honolulu prs has given him very high er omiums upon the ex cclicrce of his wrk Montague and Henri Berger with the following cast Leonora Mlis Annls Montague Azu cena Mrs Dlmond Inez Miss Bertha Young Count de Luna Monteagle Ferrando Ernest Ross Marrtco William Lewers Chorus Mils Pauahi Judd Miss Rosie Roth Miss Juliette King Miss Kate Paty Miss Maggie Llshman Miss Daisy Llshman Miss Kathleen King MIbb Allle Wall Miss Nellie Young Miss Kate McGrew Mrs Mott Smith Mrs Ross Mrs Lose Archie Smith King Charles Wright Paris Joseph Conradt Mist Frank Armstrong Charles Rice Godfrey Jr Ernest Mott 8mlth Thomas Wall Arthur Wall Walter Dillingham Norton Mr Howard Tem pleton HalsteadNMusical conductor Professor Herri Berger Honolulu society Is nothing If not musical and the critics opinion was that grand opera need not fall there fbr want of talert There was some congratulatory speechmaldng by Rain Walker Mr Irwin ard Mr Porter and the fashionable audience included the President the Portuguese and Japanese Consuls ard other notabilities The first performance as a matter of business was by Nat Goodwin who had been Informed In Auohalla of the near completion of the house The captain of the steamer pushed on five hours ahead of time to give him a chance of performing Mr Goodwin made a con Ss dsv in Hnrnlnti as Krrlard is half holliay and hence the opening tract with Melville Marx of the Colum rght was fixed for the 7th of NvembT bfl Theater who was there in advance last whr II Trovatore was per of the Frawley company who were on formed by a talented professional and thir way to formally open the house amateur company the programmes be by which the public were enabled to irg headed Grand opera night com se The Glided Fool plimentary to Mr and Mrs Irwin ten The Frawley company opened on the dered by the Musicians of Honolulu 17th of November in The Wife Their The opera was directed by Miss Annie engagement was a gTeat success both artistically and financlally and their reception very encouraging to professional artists Mr Freldlander told me the other day some carious things about it It is well known that players are superstitious worse than sailors and would have nightmare to sleep in a berth numbered thirteen yet the Frew ley company and the Columbia Theater have found it a lucky number They made their San Francisco contract on the 13th of April opened on the 13th of May there were thirteen in the company played thirteen plays for thirteen weeks while at Honolulu they gave thirteen plays on thirteen nights and thirteen times turned away people there are thirteen lamps In Friedland erV office where the contracts were made and the documents repose peacefully in case 1313 at the Safe Deposit vaults The production of The Ensign was probably the most enthusiastically received of any and was a great occasion the British Commissioner and the officers of the various men of war being in the audience Many bouquets were presented and a bouquet in that land of gorgeous flowers is something handsome Over a thousand splendid flowering plants are Indigenous to the island where carnations plumarlas and the royal polnciana grow like weeds A novel bouquet was presented to Frawley himself made up of pineapple bananas mangoes tamarinds oranges and other Hawaiian fruits arranged upon a bamboo pole The variety of plays performed afforded a gauge of the popular taste which was more In favor of comedy than anything else The dodger announcement of the Frawley company In the native language was a literary curiosity There are three points about the Honolulu Theater which might be Imitated elsewhere to advantage First Mrs Irwin had the theater carpeted with the thickest Turkey carpet so that visitors entering or leaving would not disturb the performance by the sound of their footsteps second the theater has an electric ventilating fan of 30000 cubic feet per minute capacity and lastly the admirable good taste of the Hawaiian ladles leads them to doff their hats In the theater SYDNEY CHIDLEY Frisian Legends The North Frisians are very unmerciful to people who dont marry One of their legends says that after death old maids are doomed to cut stars out of the sun when It has sunk below the horizon and the ghosts of the old bachelors must fix them up In the sky running like lamplighters up and down a ladder all night Dick Turpms Cottage at the ncient Tovr of Hounslov IN DAY8 gone by those good old times ere the Iron road had superseded tbe turnpike and eleetrcaiy propelled motor cars were undreamed of the ancient town of Houn slow could hold up Its head with the best of em Several hundred stage coaches and at least 1500 horse were employed In dally trarsit through the High street of what was for mopt coaches the first stage on the Important road to Windsor Staines Bath Bristol and the West of England generally It was here says London that timid travelers first experienced uncomfortable apprehension Ir regard to those whom they might meet on the road for only a short way out of the then flourishing Middlesex town began the dreaded Hounslow Heath And truly It was enough to give one pause for a more desolate and awesome wate than was presented by the noted rendezvous of highwaymen at That time could scarcely be imagined To begin with It was entirely unir closed and Its area had been variously recorded at 4292 and 658 acres Mary and terrible were the stories in circulation as to the boldness and ferocity of the footpads and mounted robbers who frequented the hiding places in the Vicinity so that It Is no wonder the guards cautiously examined the priming of their huge blunderbusses as the gallant equipages left the Bell Irn behind them on starting across this wilderness Moreover there were many gibbets to be seen some ever as late as 1830 with their noisome occupants exposing bleached skeletons to the shuddering passer by The heath has undoubtedly been the scene of many sanguinary encounters between the peaceable wayfarer and the idverturous robber The great Dick Turpln although he Is supposed to have paid more devoted atentlon to tbe York road than to the Bath road was concerned In many of these exploits according to well established local tradition that Is and to much Indirect evidence which seems to bear the impresg of probability Sam Wellers Romance of Turpln and the Bishop who had such a very uncomfortable meeting on the heath is as brisk and most likely quite as authen tic a relation cf everyday incidents there as many to be gathered slxth hard to day Few reader of the immortal Papers of the Pickwick Club car have forgotten how Bold Turpln vonce on Hounslow Heath His bold rhare Bess bestrod er Ven there he seed the Bishops coach A COmini alone the road er So he gallops close to the orses legs And he claps his head within And the Bishop saysSure as eKfrs Lg ejfjrs This heres the bold Tur pin That there was ground for the fears of the reverend gentleman the sequel but too plainly tells for The coachman he not liking the job Bet off at a jil gal lop BU Dick put a couple of ball in his nob And perwailed on him to stop Hounslow Heath was the chief rival in this undesirable sort of notoriety of Flnchley Common Tre famous Mil Cutpurse robbed General Fairfax hr and in 1774 Lord Berkeley hot a footpad on the road to Cranford Twenty four years later John Mellish member of Parliament for Great Grimsby was shot by highwaymen on returning from hunting with the Kings hounds It is also related that Twysden Bishop of Raphoe was shot through the body while playing the highwayman in 1752 Claud Duval too Is said to have performed an impromptu dance with a charming young captive on Hounslow Heath on which occasion and In consideration of the ladys complaisance he restored to her her 300 of the property found In the coach Dick Turpln himself appears to have perpetrated no notable robbery on the Heath proper but it was here that he is reported to have held up the lawyer on the day that he helped himself to a portion of the latters cloak for his saddle It Is also related that Dick once met a poor laborer returning homeward on a Saturday night with his scant pittance hidden in his pockets under his huge smock frock The robber happened to be pressed for even a few shillings and he forthwith stopped the man near a place known as the Avenue at Cranford The poor fellow readily parted with the siller en hearing Dick Tur pins name but was not surprised to receive a promise that If he would attend a certain place at an appolntd time the amount would be restored He did at Dick Turpins Cottage at Hounslow tend and received not crly his own all beholders might realize that a meet tinged with a shade of respect If not ex again but a substantial addition The Ing with the noted rascal had actually actly of admiration and he would seem story goes that at the first meeting at taken place At the same time It should to have enjoyed a well established repu the mans request Turpln discharged a be stated that the tales told of Turpln tailor for generous and kindly dealing pistol through his smock frock so that in the vicinity to day are generally with the poorer classes To find the spot where these events of a long past era occurred would be now an impossible task for the Heath was many years since brought Intc cultivation But those who care to take a stroll through the present day Hounslow will find much that is of interest to reward them You may still discern In the quaint old tavern signs and names some reflection of past glories The roomy stables of the ancient time speak eloquently in their dreary solitude of the bustle and animation once to be seen in the palmy coaching days Some time perhaps Hounslow will have the laugh when the motor car has done Its work In our horseyards of the next few jears of grace The High street virtually the street presents as many specimens of the architecture of the last 150 years as the ordinary man can desire The past and present are inextricably mixed and at length the group of old houses known as Turpins Cottages depicted In our first Illustration are In course of demolition to allow of the building of a modern postofflce Dick Turpin is further reported to have many times lodged in the center building of the second illustration which was known as the Cock Tavern once the oldest house in Hounslow Subsequently the inn was divided by slight partitions Into private dwellings and the title was dropped The block was entirely swept away In 1866 A modern erection has taken the place of the famous Kings Head kept by Host Powell whose nephew Ned Oxford shot at her majesty the Queen on Constitution Hill Another an equally well known place of refreshment for man and beast was the Nags Head where could once be seen the reputed head of Black Bess supposed to have been cut off by Turpln one day when hard pressed and concealed there along with himself On the Heath It may be here mentioned apropos of the nevernever to be forgotten mare lies the rest of her carcass its situation being Indicated to the curious by eight pine trees The devotees who tell you this insist that the trees are planted in the form of a horse but one may be pardoned for feeling on this point a slight doubt On the road to Sutton a small hamlet near Hounslow Is a house which stands In a somewhat isolated position and here according to local tradition Dick one day lay low after the fashion of Brer Rabbit and his kin while the Bow street runners who were searching the neighborhood rwith a warrant for his arrest passed harmlessly and unprofltably by CONTRARY TO HISTORY The Battle of Lookout Mountain Reversed One of the New York regiments announces as a special feature of its annual reunion this year a sham battle which Is billed as a faithful reproduction of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain It Is to be hoped says the Chicago Herald that this bloodless battle will have a different termination than a sham conflict In Olean had a few years ago In all reproductions of war times scenes of course It Is a foregone conclusion that the Stars and Stripes must be victorious that the boys in blue must win while the boys in gray must be routed whipped and overwhelmed As a consequence when the project of a sham battle first was broached in Olean there were plenty of Union volunteers but no one wanted to wear the gray If the boys undertook the hardship of a lively flght on a hot day they at least wanted the proud privilege of posing as victors after the fray No fair daiusel could be expected to feel a lively Interest in a defeated Confederate It required a great deal of labor to drum up enough boys to make a fair showing of the Confederates and In fact this was only accomplished by drafting youngsters and keeping them In doubt until the last moment as to which side they were to represent At last when the decisive hour arrived and the ambitious warriors found that they were not only to pose as Confederates but also that they were to be rigged out In ragged tatterdemalion uniforms they were boiling mad The bugle sounded and the gallant boys in blue made a splendid charge firing as they ran The sullen Confederates received them with a volley As this did not check the Union advance the boys In gray threw down their guns picked up sticks stones and clods of earth leaped over the breastworks and In Just half a minute had whipped the Union army to a standstill It was a most lgnominous and overwhelming defeat and when the sun sank to rest that night his last rays kissed the stars and bars still flying defiantly over the Confederate redoubt FROpl CftKE TO flUSICflL IfSTRtJplEPT Copyright 1S37 All Rights Reserved A DECIDED novelty In musical instruments has Just been sent to this country by a German Ann It is a violin In the shape of a walking cane It Is not always convenient for the knight of the bow and resin to carry his violin case around with him and the violin cane which aa be played upon as readily as the irdlnary instrument Is supposed to be a convenient substitute If probably would not be selected by a great player who desired to electrify an audience an a public occasion but for all or ilnary purposes it does very welL In Its character as a walking cane the rjolln Is an ordinary looking stick rather big in appearance and suggestive of the days when it was considered Swell to carry telegraph pole canes hi the thickest part it Is about an etch and a half In diameter and tapers lown at the ferrule end to about ialf an Inch The handle Is a crutch frhlch the player unscrews to get the iistrument In readiness for use A cav Xyr is thus disclosed in the center of the jane in which are kept the bow the Iridge and a key that Is used to tune ipltha strings At Intervals down the ddis of the cane there are metal bands which can be unscrewed and taken off When these are removed one half of the cane can be taken away like a lid and the strings keys and tailpiece of a violin are revealed All that remains to get the instrument ready for use is to fit the bridge in Its place tighten the strings and screw on the handle of the cane for a chin rest The tone of the Instrument is like that of an ordinary cheap violin but In the hands of a master it may be made to do wonderful things Of course the chief recommendation of the instrument is Its novelty In the correspondence that accompanies the sample sent to this country It is related that a German violinist has a favorite trick of keeping an engagement to play wtthout bringing his violin When he has sufficiently enjoyed the consternation of the assemblage over his forgetfulness he proceeds to remove the outer shell of his walking stick and produce marvelous melodies from the queer looking instrument disclosed In the Interior This trick almost worthy of the late Magician Herrmann combined with the skill of the violinist never falls to win tremendous plaudits The canes are made in handsome woods with silver handles if the purchaser wishes and with the bands that keep the shell in place of silver en i graved with the Initials of the owner With these embellishments the violin cane is an attractive looking article for a well dressed man to carry an instrument similar to the violin cane In design though much less complicated and quite as novel is the waik ing cane flute It is made in two sections that screw into each other like the sections of a fishing pole When used as a cane the end with the ferrule Is fastened on to lengthen the stick When it is desired to use it as a flute the handle 13 removed and the end piece unscrewed Rare Longevity Last year an old peasant named Ivan Kouzmin was reported to have traveled from Moscow to Kief at the age of 140 He was said to be In good health He had formerly been coachman to Count Sheremetlef says the London Lancet but In 1840 was sent to Siberia where he spent fifty four years returning in 184 His Is not the only Instance In which a Siberian exile has survived to extreme old age Two years ago there was said to have died in Samara one Lavarentil Eflmoff who had attained the age 150 According to the newspaper reports of him he took part as a boy In the famous Pugatchef rebellion in the reign of Catherine the Great and for his share in that brief but sanguinary outbreak spent thirty years of his life In Siberia Recently there was said to be living in the village of Vank Sar atof government an Armenian aged 110 the proud ancestor of ninety one descendants of whom seventy one were still living His name was David Kaz arian Another Armenian a priest named Ter Mlkaeliantz was reported not long ago to be living at Gort in the Caucasus at the age of 108 He was still able to walk to church and once a year performed the liturgy VALENTINE DAY StNQ Once more oh love once more The fleeting year has run Its rhythmic round and frore Earth lies beneath the sun But though the sheet shafts dart The ore of joy is mine With thee oh dearest heart To be my valentine I miss the singing bough The gossip brook I mi And yet oh sweet somehow I keep the chrism of bliss What may the secret be I see thy true eyea thine The secrets this Ive thee To be my valenUne Then let the days divide To music harsh and rude With me doth spring abide And calm beatitude Though surly winter roar And all his were wolves whine Ill laugh them from the door With thee for valentine Clinton ScoOard In Leslies Weekly Party at the Door Is the lady of the house in Cook Im wan of thlm suit Boston Transcript Bubbles or Medals Best sarsaparHlas When you think of it how contradictory that term is For there can be only one best in anything one best sarsaparilla as there is one highest mountain one longest river one deepest ocean And that best sarsaparilla is Theres the rubl You can measure mountain height and ocean depth but how test sarsaparilh You could If you were chemists But then do you need to test it The Worlds Fair Committee tested it and thoroughly They went behind the label on the bottle What did this sarsaparilla test result in Every nuke of sarsapariua shut out of the Fair except AVers So it was that Ayers was the only sarsaparilla arimirtM to the Worlds Fair The committee found it the best They tad no room for anything that was not the best And the best Ayerii Sarsaparilla received the medal and awards due its merits Remember the word best is a bubble any breath can blow but there are pins to prick such bubbles Those others are blowing more best sarsaparilla bubbles since the Worlds Fair pricked the old ones True but Ayers Sarsaparilla has the medal The pin that scratches the medal proves it gold The pin that pricks the bubble proves it wind We point to medals not bubbles when we The best sanaparilk is Ayers vK.