Newcomb and Arlington’s Minstrels

"Messrs. Newcomb and Arlington’s Minstrels, at the Twenty-eighth-st. Opera House, have had a jovial week of Negro Minstrelsy, in the sunshine of popular favor. Their little theatre is neat, clean, comfortable, and cheerful. Their company is numerous and well-selected. Their entertainment is continually varied—none but positive and palpable hits being retained in its programme. It will naturally be inferred that their performance possesses extraordinary claims upon the attention of lovers of Ethiopian drollery. Mr. Arlington himself has made a marked impression, with his capital speech, in burlesque of the Advanced Female and her shriek for freedom, votes, trousers, and unlimited license. There is a kernel of sober truth in this volatile mummery; and therein resides its sting. The corps of singers and jesters comprises persons of real and tried talent. We are glad to record a prosperous re-opening for Messrs. Newcomb and Arlington’s Opera House, and to wish them a successful season.” 

“Among the amusements which, in defiance of stricter taste, good nature will smile at, are the parti-colored entertainments of those omnipresent musicians the negro minstrels. Newcomb & Arlington’s Company, at Twenty-eighth street, are a fair instance of what may be done in this line. The ballad part of the entertainment is always agreeable; the melodies simple, pleasing and well sung, and the songs tasteful and pure in feeling. A more exacting musical criticism might, however, deprecate the too liberal use of the falsetto in some of the glees. The end-men are absurd, of course, but with a frank, hearty, rollicking swing and excess of absurdity which is quite infectious. Walter Bray is really droll as Bones, and puts a remarkable dramatic force into his character-singing of the wild, melancholy plantation melody, ‘Carry the news to Mary,’ which is peculiar in its way. The comic oratory is frequently clever in its hits at popular follies. The whole entertainment would be more amusing if less stress were laid on the robustions and childish rough-and-tumble of the negro farces which form a staple of all these entertainments, to the damage of the musical element. Like the little boy at church who found the sermon too long, we wish there might be ‘more of the tootle and less of the other thing.’”