Niblo’s Garden: Gabriel Ravel Benefit

“RAVELS ADIEU.—This is the last night of the RAVELS. The RAVELS known and seen of all men, are a name unto themselves and a wonder to several generations. They have danced and piped before our fathers, ourselves and our children, until their grimaces are household words, their antics legendary about the hearthstone, their comicalities the very exponent of all that is genuine in theatric jollity. Annually the cunning WHEATLEY draws them to the pleasant Niblonian stage whereon they do grotesque things for a great deal of money and unlimited applause. This year has been no exception. They came, they drew immense houses, made a great deal of fun and money, and to-night they close their engagement. That they will have a full house, who will doubt? That they will be called with lachrymose enthusiasm before the curtain, is a matter of course. Good by [sic], venerable men. You have, indeed, (and in story,) come down to us from former generations, supple and strong; may you continue to be agile and blithely gymnastic, that not only we, but our children and our children’s children, and, if not stretching ourselves too much, we would add, the offspring of our children’s families, may be delighted, as were our fathers and those who preceded them.”