Life, 1894-02-22 · page 10 of 16
Life — February 22, 1894 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "St. Valentine's Day at the Bend" This cartoon satirizes a theatrical production called "The OSallalla" (an opera about Native Americans). The caption reads: "Tom (to Alice): If he knew he had that pinned to him he'd be wild." The joke appears to target the opera's management and artistic choices. The text criticizes the production for poor casting and staging decisions—particularly that actual Native Americans would find the portrayal offensive if they saw it. The crowded, chaotic street scene illustrated suggests the opera's attempt at authentic "Indian" representation falls comically short. The broader satire questions whether American theater should rely on European operatic conventions when depicting American subjects, implying that unexamined artistic pretension creates unintentional comedy rather than genuine drama.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
~ LIFE ~ “THE OGALLALLAS.” IFE would be less American. than he wishes to be, if from the critical point of view he were not more tender with the offspring of American genius:than with products of effete Europe. But this indulgence is not absolute. It may extend to winking the other eye but not to closing both of them. He holds that honesty is quite as much an American quality as patriotism, so he is forced to confess, more in sor- row than in anger, that the new production of that thoroughly American organization, ‘t The Bostonians,” is not all that it should be. The principal fault lies with the management. They should have known better than to entrust the important part of Arthur Cambridge to such a very light-waisted tenor as Mr. Edgar Temple. The contrast between his effeminacy and the robustness of Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Cowles may be very effective, but it spoils the performance and excites the risibles of the most indulgent spectator. Vocally and physically, he isas much out of it as a feather-weight would be if opposed to the Hon. James Corbett. The opera deals with the Indian throughout and shows that gentleman, clean and picturesque. In the case of Mr. MacDonald, who represents War Cloud, he is a real Indian marquis with an cighteenth-century courtliness, which, pos- sessed by actual Indians, would make them more popular — than they are on the frontier. No MbeovaN ST. VALENTINE’S DAY AT THE BEND. If HE KNEW HE HAD THAT PINNED TO HIM HE'D BE WILD, Tom (to Alice) : one would ever accuse this War Cloud of stealing the commandant’s red setter to make soup for the tribe. Mr. Cowles as Cardenas, the Mexican Bandit, is a person one would rather meet at Police Head- quarters than in a lonely mountain passat midnight. The little music that falls to these artists is done well. Bertha Waltzinger has the leading female ré/e and suffices to its requirements. Mrs. Jessie Bart- lett Davis is one of those charming squaws one never sces off the stage and seldom upon it. From the scarcity of models they are rarely seen in pictures and would, we fancy, create quite a sensation if turned loose among real Indians. The music of the opera leaves little strong impression, a defect due perhaps to faulty orchestration. The extensive use of brass and bass would go to indicate that Mr. Waller, the composer, has sought to gain a characteristic effect. How far he has succeeded we are unable to say, owing to our entire ignor- ance of the musical literature of the Ogallalla Indians. test of his work will occur when the opera is taken on a tour of one- night stands through the Indian Territory, The book is not brilliant and does not seck to be very funny, which is in its favor and in which it succeeds admirably. The plot is flimsy, but the language is good. The crucial comicbooks.com