Devil’s Auction

“The ‘Devil’s Auction,’ although the articles put up for sale are few in number and of small value, still continues to draw like a steamboat on a pleasure excursion. Seizing upon the model and the grand idea of the Black Crook, of a flock of pretty women, and a liberal display of their beautiful arms and legs, and graceful attitudes, singly and in all conceivable combinations, in ‘the poetry of motion,’ the managers in the ‘Devil’s Auction’ have ‘struck ile,’ and equal to a petroleum well at forty barrels a day. So they keep it going—the leg-itimate drama, and why not? Do not the merchant and the manufacturer consult the public taste in the selection of their wares? If sensation novels and sensation fashions have brought in the age of sensation dramas, they must run their course. We know from Addison’s Spectator, and from our own experiences a hundred and fifty years later, how vain are all criticisms on hoop skirts and monstrous head gear, and so it is with the theatres. When pretty legs draw better than Hamlet, Hamlet and all such old fogies must stand aside.” 

“The new magical fountain that has been introduced in the spectacle [of ‘The Devil’s Auction] is a beautiful blending of the scientific and the artistic. The action of colored lights upon bubbling water gives to the sprays all the hues of a rainbow.”

“Brains versus legs! The conflict was one of short duration, and resulted in the complete triumph of the physical understanding. The sheriff and the treasurer of the ‘Devil’s Auction’ continue every night to sell enchanted gifts and hundreds of tickets, and Banvard’s has become the Mecca of all Mussulmans or Gothamites that delight in the Terpsichore and nature unadorned. Hundreds of lorgnettes analyze Sohlke’s dashing Hungarian polka (by the way the most brilliant piece of dancing on the American stage), Blasina’s graceful artistic steps; light as those of a fawn on its native heath; Diani’s charming naïve face, Eugenia Lupo’s characteristic, finished style, and her brother’s admirable school of wonderful agility. Seldom, or perhaps never before, has the New York public been presented with such accomplished danseuses. But Giuseppina Morlacchi stands first of all, the very embodiment of the poetry of motion. Her new ballet ‘La Fontaine d’Amour,’ is a series of the most beautiful tableaux, and the delicacy and exquisite finish of each step is something different from the gross and ordinary acceptation of the ballet. The new magical fountain, introduced at the end of the piece, is a dazzling scene, and the effect of the different colors on the sparkling drops is particularly beautiful. The grouping of the figures, like pieces of statuary seen through the crystal mist, is sufficient to cause a sensation and attract crowd to even Banvard’s.”