Maguire and Risley’s Imperial Japanese Troupe

“The tendency of the thermometer last evening caused the fans on the stage and among the audience of the Academy of Music to be plied more vigorously than ever, and it was sufficient to throw one into a profuse perspiration to see a petticoated individual tossing tubs, ladders, bridges, &c., on the soles of his feet; another showing from a bamboo pole how near a person may go towards breaking his neck without actually accomplishing that laudable object; a group squatted in a corner evoking from funny looking instruments dismal sounds suggestive of ungreased wheels, saw grinding, feline disturbances or other pleasant noises, and the descent of little All Right from his dizzy position beneath the dome. The reception which this troupe has met with in America will, on their return to Japan, do more towards breaking down the barriers of exclusiveness towards Americans so long dominant in that country than a score of treaties.”

“A large and brilliant house last evening attended the wonderful performances of Maguire & Risley’s imperial troupe of Japanese. Several new feats were introduced, and revolving pyramids, dancing drums, top spinning, slack rope dancing, the floating bridge, and last, though not least, the terrific flight of little All Right from the dome of the Academy to the parquet, kept all the lookers on in a cold perspiration. Not even Ching Hoti, the attraction at the Court of the Emperor Groon-to-twan, could create such a furore as these tawny, slipshod children of the Tycoon have in the metropolis. To Professor Risley is due the honor of bringing them out from the jealous empire where for two hundred years the most rigid blockade against foreigners was maintained.”