Life — March 11, 1886 — page 7: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BEFORE THE BALL. CAN see you soon advancing’ Through the.ball-room and the dancing, Where the social stars are prancing To a soft, voluptuous air ; I can see the smiles of greeting, See eyes kindle in the meeting With your own, that seem entreating, Lady fair. Ah! too well I know how snaring Are your glances to the daring. Just last August I was swearing No one could with you compare ; Yet I did not call you cruel When you jilted me, my jewel ; No, I calmly took my gruel! Lady fair. Ernest De Lancey Pierson. CENE: Jones's dressing-room. Brown: “ Ah-h, Jones, what have we here ?’ Jones: “ Oh, that’s a tidy I bought at the church fair, don’t you know. Charming girl—Miss De — \ \ wee Johnson—bought it at her table, you know. Really could n't help myself, she smiled so sweetly and said I'd find it so useful.” Brown: ‘Did she though! Why man, it’s one of these crocheted washrags.” “ ONE OF OUR GIRLS "—Bridget. Applicant (to St. Peter): St. Peter: Applicant : St. Peter: CHicaco? Applicant : St. Peter (dubiously): Yees, YOU CAN COME IN IPF YOU WANT TO, Mr. SMiTH, BUT I GIVE YOU FAIR WARNING YOU WON'T LIKE IT HERE. A FAIR WARNING. Cay I come 1N? WHO ARE You ? My Name 1s SmitH, I'm FROM Cuicaco, Yes, SIR, appreciated when they are contrasted with every-day hum- drum-ness. That is true art, Tootsy-Wootsy. But in . “Engaged” there are no contrasts. It is one vast exaggera- tion, without a touch of human interest. “A perpetual smile lasts tod long. The fairest falsehood deludes but for | | comedies produced. Then we may agree with him. a moment.” That is what a butterfly Frenchman said, and he ought to know. We must have something human, must n’t we, Tootsy- Wootsy—you and Jack and 1? If Mr. Gilbert had only introduced, as a set-off to his exaggerations, a youthful, affectionate couple, whose future we could settle for our- selves in placidity, mutton chops and half a dozen children, how much more we should have appreciated his irony—he meant. it for irony, my dear—should n't we? Mr. Gilbert is one of those light, unmeaning things that laugh with all and weep with none, and he langhs always in the same strain. In “ Engaged” there is not one new char- acter. We have seen every one of his creations half a dozen times, and prefer them accompanied by Sullivan’s pretty music, don’t we? Gilbert wants to make artless little things like my girlish Tootsy-Wootsy believe that he is disgusted with the world, but he isn’t. Not one bit of it. No man in London has a keener appreciation of £ s.d.than he has, There is only one thing on this earth that he prefers, and that is W. S. Gilbert. My dear child, tell Jack to go and see “ Engaged,” and if it disgusts him with woman-kind, let it do so. It didn’t disgust me, and I’m a bachelor. Please remember that. If Gilbert wants us to think that this world is such a very un- pleasant place, he must manage to get a few more of his Tun- derstand the spirit that prompted you to write me, Tootsy- Wootsy. I think that there is only one good-natured female character in “ Engaged,” and that the others are heartless, to the exclusion of humor. The amusing element is found in Mrs. Agnes Booth, who, as Belinda Prelurne, is excruciatingly funny. The episode with the tarts and ginger-wine is something more than or- dinarily laughable. I liked Kelcey, too, as Cheviot Hill, didn’t you? But of course you did. All girls do. I am convinced that you and Jack would n't agree on that subject. Miss Annie Russell, as the lowland lassie, imitated the Scotch accent remarkably well. Miss Maud Harrison, as Minnie Symperson, was as coldly unsympathetic as Mr. Gilbert intended her to be. Mrs. E. J. Phillips had little to do, but was amusing enough in that littleness, and Mr. C. P. Flockton, as Be/vawney, made himself up as Irving with energy but irrelevance. Those are my views, Tootsy-Wootsy. If I have consoled you at all, 1 am thrice happy. There is more consolation where that came from. Alan Dale. comicbooks.com