Page:Ainsworth's Magazine - Volume 1.djvu/187

Rh incumbrances also; then stretching his arms, clenching his fists, opening his eyelids to their widest span, and bending himself for ah effort, he rushed from P. S. to O. P., roaring, with a voice which appeared to issue forth from between sheets of brass,

His attitude at O. P. was immense: no man of woman born could look more like an American leopard or Bengal tiger howling for his prey; but the prodigious effort exhausted him, and his voice, when he inquired how I liked his style, "piped and whistled in the sound."

A nigger, loaded with stage dresses, here came on with "The manoga send a compliments, an' say a respecfully thank the genelmen not make such a d— noise."

The prompter then made his appearance, and ordered the men "in the flies to let down the rag," or curtain; and immediately after, the doors being opened, the independent citizens came rushing into the house, which they soon filled, as a Surrey manager would say, "to suffocation." Three cheers were immediately given for the large gilded eagle over the proscenium, and a call made for all the national airs—"Hail Columbia," "Yankee Doodle," and "Washington's March." The prompter directed the carpenters to "set the first act," pulled a bell-handle with "lights up" engraved on it, and shortly after kicked the "call-boy," and told him to announce "second music" to the green-room. Winnerbag invited me into his dressing-room, where he was preparing to figure as the Lieutenant of the Tower and the Duke of Norfolk. Richmond, King Henry, and two others, were also closeted in this apartment.

"Tailor," said the Indian Duke of Norfolk, "what dress am I to go on in?"

"Why don't you say act in?" interposed the Earl of Richmond.

"He doesn't act, but he goes on," civilly explained King Henry.

"You wear the same dress as usual, sir."

"What, that eternal chest of drawers!—Isn't this too bad? I almost always have to wear this Spanish dress, because they estimate me too sizeable for the others. So as it serves me for as large a wardrobe as this tailor and two helps could pack into two pair of drawers, or four long ones, let them do their tightest; and as the whole darned suit is the colour of mahogany, with a sprinkling of satin-wood, I call it the Spanish mahogany chest of drawers."

Hark! King Richard is dressing in the next apartment; and as he pulls his boots on he is abusing, with measureless discontent, his nigger, for not making the brandy sangaree strong enough, or warm or sweet enough. The partition between the rooms is thin, and we can hear the manager enter, and very respectfully inquire if the play may commence—for. Mr. Cobarn is a great star, and, as Richard, he is determined to be every inch a monarch.

"I have hinted gently, before," said King Dick, and took an immortal oath to it too, "that I wont begin for twenty minutes."

"What am I to do, sir?—the audience will wait no longer."

"Pshaw! a figo or Spanish fig for them;—they can't help themselves. I've not got the steam up yet."

"The volunteer firemen have commenced kicking the panels, and four ornaments have already fallen into the pit; the portrait of Quincy Adams, under the nigger gallery, has one eye poked in."

"Don't tell me of poking a picture eye in; it isn't a genooin gouge. You put me in mind of a Kentuck I saw yesterday, with a little dog that had a whittled tale. 'Stranger,' said the Kentuck, 'I'll bet you five dollars you can't tell whether that dog had his tail cut off or driv in.' The Kentuck was trying hard for a dodge, as the tail was neither cut off nor drove in, but eat by another dog in a sham fight."

"What am I to do, Mr. Cobarn? the Franklin firemen on the P. S. side will chew up all their tobacco, and fire it at the eagle."

"Tell them to hold on with all their might, while I have another sangaree;—let them take their change out of that!"

"Very well, sir; I'll say you're not arrived."

Out rushed Richmond, Henry, Norfolk, and myself, to be witness to the enactment of this mimic excuse; the prompter's little bell went tingle, to stop the music, and the manager (an English citizen) strutted through the stage-door towards the