Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1877 — Mark Twain’s Drama. “Ah fin.” [ARTICLE]

Mark Twain’s Drama. “Ah fin.”

“ ‘This,’ said Mr. Liemens, ’is it very remarkable pl ay. J don’t mow as you; noticed it ns it west along; but it is. The eonstruction of the play and the development of the story are the result of great • raienreli, and erudition, and genius, mid ' [ invention —and phigiiirism. When tho nit- ! thors wrote it they thought lin y would put. 1 in a great 10l of calastruphes und murders and such things, because they always enliven on evening so; hut we wanted to have I some dis-ster that wasn’t hackneyed, and i after n good deal of thought we bit upon tire ; breaking dowpof a stsge eoneh. The worst. | nf getting ft good original ideil like that is | the temptation to overdo it; and in fact when the ph'y was all done we fonnd that , we bar] got that stage coach breaking down seven times in the first act. It wastoeoum right along here every seven minutes or so I and spill all the passengers oVer on tl-.e musicians. Well, you see, that wouldn't do; it made it nicnotonous for the musicians; ■ und it was too stagey; arid we had to niudil’y 1 it; and there isn’t anything left of the oi ig- • inni plan now except one breakdown of the coach, and one carriage breakdown, and one pair of runaway hcr-es. Maybe we I might have spared even some of these; but you see we had the Imrae®, and we didn't like to waste them. “ ‘I wish to say also (lint this play lx di-1 dnetic rather then anything else. Ris intended for instruction nitlier —ftrt'-j amusement. The Chinaman isl getting to lie a frequent figure in the United States, an i is going to be a great political pl-oblcm, aUMljve tltppgbXit \yell for you to see him on the'sbige before ,i cKT’rotFlfU 1 ffWI ii'fllx that problem. Then for the instruction of the yourg we have introduced a game of poker. There are few things that are so unpurdonubly neglected in our country as poker. The upp'-r olas's know very little about it. Now and then you find ambassadors who have a sort of general knowledge of the game, but the ignorance of the people at large is fearful. Why-, 1 have known clergymen, good men, kind-hearted, liberal, sincere, and nil that, who do not know the meaning of a ‘flush.’ It is enough to make one ashamed of one's species.' When our, piny was finished, we found it was s-> long, and so broad, nod so deep—in places—that it would have taken a week to play-if. I thought that was nil right; we could put “To bo continued” on the curtain, and run it straight along, bill the managers s -.id no; it would get us into trouble with the general public, and into trouble with tho General Government, because tlie Constitution i forbids the infliction of cruel or unusual puntshme..*; so he cut out, and cut out, and the more he cut out the hotter th( play got. I never saw ft piny that was so much improved by being cut down; and 1 believe it would have been one, of the very best plays in the-world if his strength had held out so that he could cut out the whole of.it.’’’