San Francisco Minstrels

“’Let Me Be’ still holds its ground at the San Francisco Minstrels. The popularity achieved by this laughable song is equal to that which attended ‘Shoo Fly’ last season.”

“SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS.—‘LET ME BE.’—The inimitable quartet—Birch, Wambold, Bernard and Backus—who nightly put on faces of mourning to amuse their thousand and one admirers, have got a programme of the rarest description this week at their cosey [sic] hall. ‘Let Me Be,’ Rollin Howard’s latest production, is the main attraction. Between it and ‘Shoo Fly’ there is a sort of Damon and Pythias friendship, and where the mellifluous tones of the one are heard there we may hear the respendent [sic] cadences of the other. ‘Laughing Gas,’ ‘The New Commissioner’ and ‘Moving In,’ are also on the bill, with a very great many others too numerous to mention. For intelligent interpreters of the cork drama and successful producers of broad grins commend us the San Francisco Minstrels. Mourning is generally supposed to be the semblance of woe, but their inky physiognomies out-Momus Momus himself.”

“There are times when the whole spectacle of mundane affairs becomes vapid and the drudgery of life grows intolerable. At such times we remember the characteristic mirth and ability of the San Francisco Minstrels. Care, no doubt, blacks his face and flourishes among the conundrums—for his spirit is omnipresent; but here he is never seen. We find nothing but fun at the merry hall of the San Francisco Minstrels. Their songs are gay; their hits at floating follies are sharp, and often happy; and their nonsense, pure and simple, is a treat—more particularly when one is tired of the dullness of wise people and the trivialities of an existence of toil and routine. We commend such as want to laugh, and forget care, to the entertainment given by Messrs. Birch, Wambold, Bernard, Backus, and their numerous and clever allies in Negro Minstrelsy, at 585 Broadway.”