The multitudinous orchestra came out in a crowd--the big fiddle man took the emerald epidermis from off his high-shouldered instrument, and after a half hour preparatory tuning, and forty-one pages of excruciating overture, the little bell _didn't_ ring (they never ring a bell at this aristocratic establishment--it smacks of the kitchen), but with a creaking of pulleys, a trampling of feet, a rattling of ropes, and a noise like a full-grown thunderstorm, the curtain went up.
Magnificent forest scene--two blue-looking trees on one side--a green baize carpet to represent grass--blue calico borders over head to suggest sky--a bower so low the hero thrice knocked his hat off going under to see his "lady love," and a mossy bank in one corner, made of canvass, stretched over a basswood plank, and painted mud color.
Audience all silent, waiting the coming of the "Evening Star," the lovelorn heroine of the piece--at length she comes--with a hop, step, and a jump, she blushingly alights in the middle of the stage--applause--she teeters--cheering--she teeters lower yet--prolonged clapping of hands--bouquet hits her on the head; she picks it up and teeters lower still--a dozen or so more fall at her feet, or are scattered indiscriminately over the fiddlers and the boys in the front row--somebody throws a laurel wreath--she again teeters to the very earth, so low that I think she will have to sit flat down and pick herself up by degrees at her leisure, but she ultimately comes up all right.
Melodramatic villain comes on with a black dress, and a blacker scowl on his intellectual visage--has some hard words with the heroine--she calls him a "cowardly wretch," a "vile _thing_," defies him to his teeth, tells him to do his worst, and finishes in an exhausted mutter, in which I could only distinguish disconnected words, such as "poison," "vengeance," "heaven," "justice," "blood," "true-love," and "death."
Despairing lover appears in the background, remarkable principally for his spangled dress and dirty tights, at sight of whom the defiant maid immediately changes her tune, and prays powerful villain to spare her beloved Adolphus--powerful villain scowls blacker, and turns up his lip--heroine gets more distracted than before--scowly villain won't relent--suffering young lady piles on the agony, and implores him "to save my father from a dungeon, and take this wretched hand."