San Francisco Minstrels

“The San Francisco Minstrels continue their entertainment with their usual success. No place of amusement in the City seems to enjoy a prosperity equal to that in the beams of which Messrs. Birch, Wambold, Bernard and Backus are perpetually basking. For upward of five years their success has been unchanged. The amusing character of their representations, it is true, has not been modified either, and without regard to appearances of programme the certainty has always been had that an evening of mirth could nowhere be looked for with better chances of satisfaction. At present, their troupe is strengthened, and the bill it interprets is exceptionally varied. It is, indeed, in all respects the most attractive by its songs, pleasantries and comic acts, ever offered.”

“It is worth while to visit the San Francisco Minstrel Hall, if only to hear Mr. Bernard ‘give out’ the sentimental songs. The matter-of-course manner furnishes a most comical contrast with the immediate surroundings of unmitigated nonsense. Nor is this the only good feature of the entertainment. As compared with other Ethiopian bands, this one has the superiority in individual character and in original humor. Many of the members, that is, are exceptionally strong in distinctive personality and comic faculty. Backus, Birch, Bernard, Wambold, Queen, West, and Howard may be mentioned by way of illustration. Then, also, the performance that they give is made up of short acts, which are done quickly. ‘Much may be seen in that.’ The charm of a minstrel entertainment is that it shall be full of funny features and have no ‘waits.’ That condition if fulfilled by the San Franciscans—with whom, in company with a large assemblage, we passed Saturday evening very agreeably, in spite of the chill rain that made our streets so murky and desolate. The performance was built on the old model. Part first consisted of comic and sentimental songs, interlarded with jovial colloquy—this latter being enlived by a good deal of native wit. Mr. Birch released some excrutiating [sic] puns. Mr. Backus gave a faithful and amusing picture of festivity in the rural districts, together with imitations—quite exact and very funny—of several eminent actors. The hits of the evening, in the matter of ballad singing, were made by Mr. Wambold and Mr. Dwyer. These ballads infuse a singular, plaintive vein of melancholy into the otherwise boisterous entertainment, which affects the mind like some sudden, unexpected sad thought flashing in the midst of a rosy novel. One of the neatest efforts of the evening was a song and dance by Queen and West, who have acquired a remarkable dexterity in simultaneous movement. Mr. Birch acted well, as he always does, in the farce of ‘Quiet Lodgings,’ and the whole company united in a sketch ‘The Ring at School.’ The comicality whereof consists in the reproduction of mischievous boyish pranks by men who have not forgotten the deviltry of boyhood. If there be a defect in the entertainment given by these followers of the Cork, it is an occasional flavor or coarseness, arising from excess of animal spirits. Aside from this, however, their performance is excellent of its kind, and it contributes in large measure to the stream of current amusement, the element of mirth.”