J.C. Hemingray performs Othello in local play

Success, the fullest measure of it, attended the efforts of the Probationary Troupe on Monday evening. Indeed, it is seldom, very seldom, that we have known the crude attempts of amateurs to so fully realize the creation of the tragic or comic drama. Where all did so well, so much better than could have been anticipated, we can hardly reconcile ourselves to the task of distinction; and as the object was so good a one and the success so commensurate, we may be excused a very lengthy notice of the pieces produced and the dramatis person.

Firstly, The address by Colonel Vaughan was such as would have been expected from his ripe intellect and experience. Apt in illustration and conclusive in argument, it assigned the proper sphere to education, and gave to books a prominence to which they are so justly entitled. And here, we, as well as the senior, may be pardoned a brief digression, and a borrowed raphsody [sic] relative to that combination of rags and lamp black designated as books. The period written of being dramatic we may quote from Sir Edward Mortimer, in the "Iron Chest," as follows:

"Books, my only commune now, will sometimes rouse my beyond my nature. I have been so warmed, so heated by a well turned raphosody [sic] rhapsody, that I have deemed myself the hero of the tale so glowingly described."

So it must be with all sensitive or imaginative minds; and to this pleasant bookish recreation is the Mercantile Library dedicated; and by the success of Monday evening is placed beyond the perils of failure and upon a basis as enduring as the city itself.

But to the plays and the players:

Of the opening address we have spoken. Then came the first act of Othello, "one of Shakespeare's best plays," in which the various characters were presented in a manner extremely creditable to the pupils and evidently to the satisfaction of the tutor, Charlie Fyffe, who, according to the bills, smiled on them from the front row. To our mind, Iago is always in the foreground—a cool, plotting, calculating villian [sic] villain—while all the rest are merely thrown in to exhibit the degree of influence he can exert. To say that Benjamin was good as the "Ancient" would not be doing him justice. He exhibited a thorough knowledge of the character, combined with an acute sense of the "stage business" necessary to a successful rendition. His action was admirable, his elocution excellent, his personal, the Iago himself. Judge Hemingray's Othello was good; though the lawyers say that he couldn't divest himself of the idea that Tom O'Brien was foreman of a jury upon which hung some important case. But we do not propose to criticise, for flaws may be sometimes detected in the brightest steel. We remember the object and our professional acrimony is tempered. Judge Hemingray's idea and rendition of the dusky Moor was very commendable. He dressed and looked the part well, and, speaking in the parlance, was "well up in his lines and business." Miss Town's "Desdemonia" evinced a careful study and an excellent knowledge of the part; she was extremely well dressed and acted finely. Lecompte, "Brobantio," was capital—the very chap himself. In all the parts, the cast were well filled, but our space will not permit a more extended notice. In Box and Cox, Webb and Marc were peculiarly at home, and their "gags" so appropos, that they would have set any "table in a roar." Miss Daniels, as "Mrs. Bouncer," was a feature of the performance, and her aptitude for the part might be envied by many an "old stager."

The "Spectre Bridegroom" was well done. Wright carried out "Nicodemus" in look and walk. Callahan's Auldwinkle" was a capital specimen of the rollicking, impatient fiery squire; McDowell's "Dickory" full of fun; natural; the two keeping the house in a continual roar. The ladies, the Misses Collins and Dunlap, entered into the piece with a spirit and zest which called forth frequent and loud applause. And rightly too. Miss Collins was spirited, self-possessed, effective, and Miss Dunlap filled her part to the life. Both looked beautifully.

The music was, of course, excellent, and Judge Brewer's recitation of Poe's master piece, "The Raven," such as might have been expected from his cultivated talent and excellent taste.

The Association may well feel proud of its first attempt, and we hope the experiment will be repeated as soon as circumstances will admit.