MR BREWSTER AND H.M.S. PINAFORE.

West Coast Times, Issue 3414, 11 March 1880, Page 2

MR BREWSTER AND H.M.S. PINAFORE.

[New York Times.] The town of Lynn, Mass., is one of the most quiet and old fashioned of New England towns. Nevertheless, Lynn has an opera house. The building was formerly the Congregational lecture room, aud was used for town meetings, but early this fall it was resolvedto convert it into an opera house suitable for the performance of | " Pinafore " and other strictly moral plays. Naturally, there was a great deal of opposition to this on the part of the older inhabitants. Tho most energetic of the anti-opera house party was Mr Brewster, a prosperous varnish dealer, and a direct descendant of an

original Plymouth pilgrim. He said Ihat no man descended from one of the noble band that landed on Plymouth Rock coald approve of planting a sink of iniquity ihat in time would grow into a grove of Baal, in the branches of which the wicked young women of the ballet would sooner ■or later roost. This powerful metaphor failed to covince those who advocated tho opera house scheme, and they openly said Mr Brewster was an old fogy. As for the Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock, they sacrelegiously remarked that anybody could have performed the simple feat of landing on a rock, but that if Plyraouth Rock had landed on the pilgrims, there would have beea some reason for regarding th:it mass of granite with approval. The final result was that the opera house party gained their end, and the old lecture room was transformed into a very respectable imitation of a small theatre. A company had engaged to produce " Pinafore" .it Lynn on the Ist November, and it Was at one time feared (hat the opera house would not be ready for them. Tho seats were wooden chairs with perforated bottoms, and on the 30th day of October they were still unvarnished, owing to an oversight on the part of the building committee. It was obvious that no time was to be lost ;" the committee therefore went to Mr Brewster, and explaiued that they wanted a quantity of the best; varnish without delay. Somewhat to their surprise, Mr Brewster consented to sell the varnish, and even showed a good deal of energy in the matter. This injured him in the estimation of the opponents of the opera house, who said they could not understand how so good a man could sell his principles ns well ns his varnish. All the opera house people laughed derisively, and said " Ah ! Ah !" some of them going so far as to say that a descendant of thg Pilgrims could always be counted upon not to permit his principles to in'erfere with his busiuess and that the only really earnest moralists were those who built opera houses and attend representations of " Pinafore. " The house was varnished on tho last day of October, and the next evening it was opened by tbe new " Pinafore" Company. Every one of the 700 seats was occupied, and it must be admitted that among the audience wore many of the town and their wives and daughters. The first act of the play was listened to with the most serious attention and when the curtain fell not a single person went out for cloves. The manager was delighted and remarked to the leading actor that ho had never seen as intelligent an audience in the whole course of his life. The second act was received with the same quiet and atteuiiou, aud there was even a look of painful auxioty in the fuce3 of several of the men in the audience. Sir Joseph began to feel annoyed at the solemnity of the audience, and asked the manager if the people look him for an uudortakeraud believed they were attending a blanked funeral At tho end of the act there was the same absense of any apparent thirst among the young men that had been noticed after the first act, and the actors began to entertain gloomy doubts as to whether beer was obtainable in Lynn. The play came to an end and the curtain fell amid a silence as of the grave. The orchestra rose and, but the audience sat still. The manager came to the footlights and announced that the play was over, and, as the announcement had no apparent effect, begged to be informed whether tho opsra house was a deaf and dumb asylum, or whether hinself had suddenly become stark mad, It was then that Enquire Standish beckoned him to his side, aud explained that the audience would gladly retire if any way could be. devised of separating them from their seats. No less than 8 gallons of turpentine were bought of Mr Brewster that night, and used in detaching the ladies from the seats, to which the undried varnish had glued them. When the ladies had all disappeared, the male part of the audience, with many irreverent exclamations and cries of anguish, tore itself loosa and went home through the back street. The opera 11011*0 has remained closed ever since the opening night, and it is the belief of Lynn that Mr Brewster, who mixed the varnish, and was subsequently found in his shop nt eleven o'clock at night, ready to sell turpentine in quantities to suit purchasers, deliberately brought about tho catastrophe that broke up the " Pinafore " season at Lynn.