Articles on the welcome end of burlesque performance in New York City

“The good result has been accomplished with less difficulty than we had anticipated. Our unwelcome guests, having at last exhausted public patience, have received formal notice to quit. Their share in the theatrical revels of New-York is nearly at an end, and we now await with cheerful confidence the announcement that ‘Mr. Henderson’s steamship stops the way.’ Wallack’s Theatre, the last to submit to the unwholesome fascinations of the foreign manager, is the first to free itself from his fatal embrace. A new declaration of dramatic independence will be read there next Monday, when the house will be occupied by a company whose character may do much toward restoring its former repute. The work must, indeed, be slow. Mr. Wallack’s abrupt abandonment of the principles upon which his theatre was raised to distinction, and the dismemberment of the fine body of artists through whose exertions its title to eminence was preserved, have shattered the faith of his old clientelle, and sent them wandering in search of a new shrine. Only a few weeks ago we had occasion to remark that he had committed an error he could never wholly repair, and the result proves that this apprehension was not unfounded. As soon as the disastrous consequences of introducing English pantomime and burlesque had revealed themselves, Mr. Wallack’s representative made earnest but unavailing efforts to reassemble the old company. Failing in this, he judiciously invited the coöperation of the excellent Boston troupe now with us. We believe, however, that he will persevere in the endeavor to adjust the affairs of the coming season on the familiar basis of last year’s operations, and that every practicable exertion will be made by renewing the agreeable associations of the past, to extinguish the recollection of this one unlucky misadventure.

“A single theatre now reluctantly prolongs the existence of British burlesque in this City. All doors, excepting those of Niblo’s Garden, have been closed upon it, and at the end of this month we shall have the satisfaction of recording its dismissal from this last stronghold. After that, we shall hear of it no more. It is useless to hope that the evil it has done will not survive it for a considerable period; but our managers have yet time to repair the worst of the mischief, if they sincerely desire to do so. There seems, indeed, to be but one course open to them. Mr. Henderson, unblushingly erect at the head of his Amazons, may cry ‘after me the deluge,’ but his victims, we imagine, have no mind to be swallowed up in the vortex of his descent. They must resume the prudent and honorable system of offering such entertainments as shall satisfy the taste, the intelligence and the artistic sense of the community, without ever appealing to the coarse instincts and depraved appetite of the vulgar. Abnormal theatrical stimulants may for a time create an artificial and delusive prosperity, but as with all excitements thus unnaturally produced, the deathly reaction is inevitable. Managers whose aspirations are limited to the acquirement of rapid gains without regard to the true dignity of the drama or the decencies of their calling, will of course give no heed to the lesson which the inglorious career of these foreign showmen and women has taught. For those whose purposes are less trivial and whose ambition reaches to the future, it will stand as a perpetual warning.”

“The most contumacious of the older cynics has declared that no idea of Paradise would be perfect to him unless he were permitted to witness the tortures of the damned writhing in Pandemonium below. The cynical seeker of theatrical comfort in the present day may realize this conceit, if he choose, by visiting Niblo’s Garden, where himself surrounded by every clement of coolness known to modern times—free ventilation, fans, puffs of curious and complicated design, Mr. Farnie’s pretensions to wit and those of Mr. Henderson’s burlesque company to genius—he may behold the struggles of vast numbers of fellow beings condemned to unite hour after hour in the most vehement and exhausting physical labors that human ingenuity can devise. The partially extinct blondes fight for supremacy, hip and thigh, with the newer performers of the Lauri Troupe, who, in turn, are making more extravagant leaps than ever toward the attainment of popular favor, in rivalry of their French friends, the Clodoche quartet. How enchanting, in these nights of thermic agony, to be able to lean back, in the spirit of the Chinese philosopher upon an airy orchestra stall, and rejoice that you have people to do all this for you. The period of salutatory suffering will not be much further prolonged. It closes with this month, and on the 1st of August, ‘Arrah-na-Pogue’ will be brought out with a cast which certainly shows good intentions on the part of managers.” Concludes with brief discussion cast arranged for Arrah-na-Pogue.