Budworth’s Minstrels

“If grotesque burlesque acting which has for its object the portraying, in a somewhat exaggerated manner, the eccentricities and waggeries of negro life upon a Southern plantation, constitutes what is termed ‘negro minstrelsy,’ then the Budworth Minstrel troupe of this city are unrivalled for proficiency and excellence in this particular branch of Ethiopian mimicry. The large and select audiences that nightly fill this favorite temple of Momus attest how highly a discerning public appreciates talent of this particular order, whether it be in the shape of cork burlesque, songs, jokes, jigs, or ballads. Last evening the house was, as usual, crowded to its utmost capacity with an audience who, despite their efforts to the contrary, were kept in a continual roar of laughter by the whimsicalities, droll sayings and queer antics of the Messrs. Budworth. The inimitable, original and unadulterated ‘Echoes from Fatherland,’ by J. H. Budworth, was encored three several [sic] times, and each time received the applause it so justly merited, and the most staid could not refrain from indulging at times in the most uproarious laughter. The comic interludes of ‘I Am Here’ and ‘The New Post Office,’ have been added to the bills; and the dusky inhabitants in the moon still astonish and delight the audience nightly by performing feats of such a startling character that terrestrial bipeds are apt to marvel much whether they are real flesh and blood or only shadows.”