Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1895 — A FLOATING THEATER. [ARTICLE]

A FLOATING THEATER.

Russia Has Ona, and tha United Statas May Follow Suit. The Washington Post is authority for the statement that a number of theatrical ladies and gentlemen in this country contemplate chartering a steamboat and establishing a Boating theater, which shall be at the same time the hotel and the meuns of transportation of the actors, on the co-operative principle. The idea is not original. A St. Petersburg syndicate has already had a great steamboat of the character built, some 400 feet in length and 40 feet in width. The steamer is just about to start out on a tour of the Volga, and as many of the Volga cities and the towns of its navigable tributaries are without theaters, it is believed the venture will prove a gold mine to its projectors. The Russian floating playhouse is so constructed that an audience of 1,000 can be comfortably seated. A large mass of scenery is carried for the production of an extensive repertoire of Russian comedies and dramas and French operettas The quarters of the actors, actreses, supernumeraries, stage hands, orchestra and ull the crew are in the extreme bow of the vessel. The extreme stern is taken up with the machinery, which is of the lightest possible kind, so that its weight will not throw the bow in the air. All tha fuel is carried under the Ijody of the theater, which occupies four-fifths of the entire length of the boat and all of its width. From the lowest point of the orchestra to the roof is fifty feet. The stage is a trifle less than thirty feet in width, and all the scenery is let down from the flies. The wings are just wide enough to admit of the entrance and exit of the players. Of course the scenic effects are limited by the lack of room, but a! much smoother performance can be given than in the moagerly equipped theater of the small town. The players are not fagged out by a tiresome journey or made unfit for first-cluss work by the faro of indifferently conducted hotels. If such a boat were built by a syndicate in this country its construction would necessarily bo based upon the requirements of the largo canals. Using the stern paddle wlioel it would be possible to construct a boat of great beam and length, yet one which would draw comparatively little water. It is suggested that, starting from New York, such a vessel could make a trip up along the north shore of Long Island Sound, stopping at the towns on the (Connecticut and Rhode Islund coast; thence back to Now Yorkj and after doing Now Jersey towns,up the Hudson, slopping at the various places up to Albany and Troy. From Albany to Buffalo the Erie Canal can be used, und once in the lakes a cracking business would lie open to the adventurous thospiuns.