G4 THE AET OF TRARflXG AKIMALS. 



reported to stop immediately upon hearing the hail of any of 

 the banditti who infest those regions — habitual experience of 

 the customs of those gentry having taught them to come to 

 a stand still. 



There is an amusing, though, possibly, not strictly authentic, 

 story told in connection with the performance of the pantomime 

 cf Humpty Dumpty, some years ago, in this city. In this 

 '.spectacle a small mule was made to appear quite comically by 

 the dexterity of his heels. During the season the regular ani- 

 mal fell ill, and an amateur was substituted. When one of the 

 characters touched the new mule to make him kick, he began 

 in admirable style. He kicked off the fellow and kicked him 

 twice before he touched the boards. Then he ran toward 

 several of the other dramatis personse, and kicked them. Every 

 movable object on the stage, animate or inanimate, he kicked off. 

 Next he began on the scenery. He kicked down a whole for- 

 est, three good sized cottages, a picturesque cascade, a granite 

 prison, a robberis cave, a royal palace, the Rialto and Vesuvius 

 in eruption, and was about to attack the grand transformation 

 scene from Midsummer Isight's Dream, when a rope was thrown 

 around his neck, and he was di-agged off by the whole strength 

 of the company, assisted by all the able bodied supernumeraries. 

 The audience, many of whom supposed the obstreperous mule 

 part of the performance, were delighted at his energy, and 

 dsmanded with deafening plaudits, a repetition of the scene. 

 The uproar was so great that the manager came out and said 

 that an mtermission of fifteen minutes would be given to enable 

 fjcme of the actors to recover the breath that the active mule 

 had kicked out of them, and pledged his honor that the brute 

 jhould never make another appearance on the Olympic stage, 

 At this the audience roared louder than ever, and for nearly 

 half an hour the performance was suspended by the universal 

 guffaw. Every night afterward while the piece ran, the kicking 

 iiiule was called for, and the manager of the theater it is said, 

 In consequence, had to insert an advertisement in the daily 

 papers, stating that the animal was mysteriously knocked in 

 .he head the same night of his highly successful debut, 



