1880-10-09-New York Tribune-Deseret

Deseret

New York Tribune, 9 October 1880, p. 4

Deseret

The new American opera "Deseret," by Messrs. W. A. Croffut and Dudley Buck, will be brought out at Haverly's Fourteenth Street Theatre on Monday evening. This is the first work of any importance produced by Americans in the vein of which Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan have been so successful with "H. M. S. Pinafore" and "The Pirates of Penzance;" both composer and author are widely known Mr. Buck as the composer of the Centennial Cantata and of a large number of songs and of some of the best church music that we have, and Mr. Croffut as the author of the popular "Bourbon Ballads" recently published in The Tribune. The opera itself deals with subjects which are purely American—Mormonism and the Indian question.

The curtain rises on a camp of United States soldiers near Salt Lake City, who proceed to sing a chorus in praise of Army life, after the fashion of gthe orthodox chorus in Italian opera, whether it be of soldiers, peasants or brigands Lieutenant Montgomery, the brother of the heroine, and in spite of his being an Army officer, the son of a Mormon elder, remarks that there is one thing better than being a soldier, and that is being an Indian Agent. For has not Joseph Jessup, the Agent at the post, saved $25,000 the first year out of a salary of $1,500! But Jessup has hoodwinked the Indians and the commandant, and nearly every one else about the post, and is in high favor. The soldiers go off and he comes on, opening with this song:

Ha-ha! I've cleaned the Injuns out!

Their plight is awfully funny!

They've put their belfry up a spout

And I've got all of their money!

They flock in squads around the fort

As ragged as they can be,

But out of their poverty they support

Superior chaps like me!

Live Injun—bad Injun!

Dean Injun—good Injun!

Dances

Hump-te-lump-te-lee!

Ha-ha! The happy hunting ground

Is being rapidly planted,

With these red weeds that grow around

And don't appear to be wanted!

O, sweep 'em off! And leave the room

For civilization's tree—

Upon whose topmost branches bloom

Superior flowers like me!

Live Injun—bad Injun!

Dean Injun—good Injun!

Hump-te-lump-te-lee!

Major Clem, the commander of the post, appears and reveals to Jessup his love for Rosamond, Montgomery's sister, who is destined by her cruel parent to become the twenty-fifth wife of Elder Scram, of the Mormon Church. Jessup promises him his help, and anounces his detrmination to make war on the Mormon faith, by blackmailing the Elder by a threat of an indictment for bigamy. Rosamond enters, looking for her brother, and she and Clem have a love scene. Clem goes off to his tent, and Elder Scram arrives in time to catch his future bride just as she is going, and gloats over the prospect of having "a new bird for his cage." Rosamond hurries away, followed by Scram, and the soldiers again come on, asking for Arabella, the daughter of the regiment, a sort of military "Maid of All Work." She enters, and, advancing to her wash tub, sings:

I'm cheerful and happy in doing my duty—

Devoted all day to the good and the true;

I stand at the tub in my natural beauty

To wash out the ducs of my darlings in blue.

Chorus with Arabella:

The regiment's daughter,

With soap and hot water,

From scrubbing and rubbing will never refrain,

And that is why all her

Acquaintances call her

The pet of the army, the sylph of the plain!

I marched with the lads on the far rolling prairie,

Where no other lady for months you would see,

And when they thought sadly of Mattie or Mary,

I always cried, "Darlings! cheer up! Look at me!"

Chorus.

The regiment's daughter,

With soap and hot water, etc.

As he finishes, Scram's four-and-twenty wives march in in boarding-school order, marshaled by the First Wife, and dragging a solitary baby-carriage. The soldiers invite them to linger with them and join in their singing, but they must not stay. They must go back to their husband in the city. B ut as they are about to leave, a band of Indians, headed by Setting Hen, come in to complain to the Major of their ill usage. From this point the act is a capital satire on the treatment of the Indians by the Government and its Agents. Setting Hen details his grievances, act the act closes with the following chorus, the "How! How!" of the Indians being the comment on the verse as it proceeds:

Lo! the mighty Yankee Nation,

Loves to drive the Indians on (How! How!)

And no treaty stipulation

Makes it blush for what is done (How! How!)

When it wants a reservation,

Off it starts them on a run,

To hunt 'em down—

And thinks it lots of fun!

Robbing Indians isn't stealing;

You can never wrong a Red! (How! How!)

Killing one don't hurt their feeling,

And he's nicest when he's dead (How! How!)

They ain't fit for honest dealing,

So our pioneers are bred

To hunt 'em down—

It's an awful waste of lead.

Keep away your school book teaching—

If you educate their eyes (How! How!)

They'll detect our overreaching

When we furnish their supplies. (How! How!)

At your namby pamby preaching

Cannot make a savage rise;

To hunt 'em down

Is the way to civilize!

The second act discloses a parlor in Scram's house, out of which twenty-four doors lead to the respective apartments of his twenty-four wives, and over each door is a window. Scram enters, and, summoning his wives, announces that he has invited some Gentile friends to come that evening, that they may see "how happy an Apostle's wives may be." The wives are delighted and go off to dress, followed by Scram, who goes for his "other boots." Jessup is the first to arrive, and discovers in the first wife, whom he finds alone, an old love from his New Hampshire home. They fall into each other's arms with rapturous joy, and she promises to elope with Jessup' that very night. The other wives come in, the visitors, who are the United States soldiers, appear, and they have a dance and some singing, after which the visitors depart. Scram then breaks to the assembled twenty-four his intention of marrying a twenty-fifth wife, Rosamond, and is assailed with a torrent of abuse. He manages to escape, and the wives retire weeping to their apartments, leaving the room in darkness, save for the moonlight streaming in through a window, at which Jessup presently appears. Stepping into the room and tuning his guitar, he begins a serenade. But as he sings, all of the twenty-four appear at the windows in their nightcaps, and each thinking the serenade adressed to herself, they all join in the chorus:

Jessup:

O, fair one, come away, and together let us stray,

Where the soft moon is shining white and still,

Where the purple violet with the early dew is wet,

And the mule team is waiting on the hill.

Wives:

O, I will, I will, I will!

Very joyfully I will,

Where the mule team is waiting on the hill!

Jessup:

O, wander, love, with me, where the heart is warm and free,

And gthe red rose is sweet above the rill;

Where the glow-worm is alight, like a spirit of the night,

And the mule team is waiting on the hill.

Wives:

O, I will, I will, I will!

Very joyfully I will,

Where the mule team is waiting on the hill!

Jessup:

O, hasten, darling! come! let Affection build a home,

Where the lark woos the dreamy daffodil,

Where the twinkling stars above seem to wink the way to love,

And the mule team is waiting on the hill.

Wives:

O, I will, I will, I will!

Very joyfully I will,

Where the mule team is waiting on the hill!

In the third act Jessup sends a letter to the First Wife arranging the elopement, but Montgomery intercepts it, and to pay him off for his roguery has twenty-four copies made on manifold paper, and sends a copy to each wife, so that Jessup, instead of getting only the First Wife, has the whole twenty-four on his hands. But he makes the heroic determination to take care of them all, and packs them all into the stages and goes off with them. Scram soon appears, mourning the loss of his wives, and carrying the baby. The worst of it is, he does not know which is the baby's mother, and sings:

Her eyes are like Polly's,

Her ears are like Annie's,

Her mouth is like Mollie's,

Her feet are like Fannie's,

'Twas born in September,

We hadn't any other,

But I don't remember

Which one was its mother!

Her hair is like Hattie's,

Her form is like Flora's,

Her chin is like Mattie's,

Her nose is like Nora's,

'Twas born in September,

The first, but—oh, bother!

I do not remember

Which one was its mother!

Meanwhile the Indians have found Jessup out, and have been chasing him. The bereaved wives return to Scram, who finds that rosamond and Clem have run off and been married, and the curtain falls with the return of Jessup, who is not scalped, after all, as he deserves to be.