Wood’s Minstrels

Two Ads.  First gives time, price, names, works. “Grand Ghost Matinee Saturday afternoon, Sept. 5.”  Second ad is specifically for Sat matinee.  “Mr. Wood respectfully announces that for the accommodation of Ladies and Children who are unable to attend in the evening . . . he will give A Grand Matinee.”

“The Ghosts still run at . . . the burlesques at Woods and the Bryants.”

"The most startling illusion ever presented to the public: The Ghost!”

     "If there were any doubts existing as to the great increasing popularity of Wood's Minstrels, a visit to this marble hall of minstrelsy would at once remove all doubts. On each and every evening that this model troupe appear, a crowded and very brilliant house is in attendance, the majority of which is principally composed of the fair sex, who are always great admirers of ballad singing.  Messrs. Wambold, Henry, and Lockwood are very pleasing singers, and delight all by their sweet and, at times, enchanting vocalizations. The twin comedians, Eph Horn and Frank Brower, appear each night in their several comic acts. Had Marcus Crassus, the Roman who was never known to laugh, had the privilege of witnessing the fun provoking abilities of these two “comicks,” the morose spell that bound the rigid lines of his face would have been exorcised, and hiss unenviable soubriquet never reached posterity. Why, the man who could sit out a performance at Wood’s, without laughing, ought to be feared. On his approach, pockets should be buttoned and canes closely clenched; for, to make a paraphrase--The man that hath no humor in himself,/Nor is not moved by wit and droll conceits,/Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spolis./ We will not dismiss the minstrels this week without noticing for the first time a very talented and worthy gentleman connected with the troupe, and one who, in some measure, contrives to add to the attraction of this place of amusement. We refer to Mr. M. Lewis, the gentleman who does the “wench business” and to whomthe female parts in the afterpiece are allotted.  His lithe figure and lightness of foot adapt him peculiarly to the assumption of female characters, in which he seems to delight. As a danseuse he has evidently received a thorough education. In pas and pose, he displays all the grace required by the classical school, and the agility and swiftness of movement, which have crowded the stately old minuets out of existence. If we have not referred to him before, it is not because we have failed to see the unusual accomplishments of which he is master, or mistress. He pays great attention to his dressing and make up, so much so that nineteenth-twentieths of our ballet ladies at the different theatres could learn a profitable lesson from him, not only in the care and putting on of the ‘tacks’ and ‘flies,’ but in the manner in which he keeps them so clean in appearance. The ghost business continues to be as attrqctive as ever. Matinees were inaugurated on Saturday, the 5th, and will be continued each week.”