The year that “Mother Goose” came to New York saw the introduction of a French troupe of Pantomimists, known as the Ravels.  In imitation of these performers Fox introduced in the ’fifties ballet Pantomimes, and several Ravelsque pieces like “The Red Gnome” and “The Schoolmaster” with good results.

In 1862 Fox was at the Bowery Theatre, and, during his occupation of the same, he did much to popularise Pantomime.  Half a dozen years afterwards we find him at the Olympic Theatre, New York, where he produced “Humpty Dumpty,” which ran 483 nights, and for five years, till 1873, it held its place, on and off, in the bill.  Altogether it was played 943 times.  Fox, from this, was known as Humpty Dumpty, and, strangely enough, also, the Americans for long enough afterwards called every Pantomime “Humpty Dumpty.”

Fox was a very good mimic, imitating all the Hamlets of the day, besides being a good melodramatic actor.  He died October 24th, 1877, at Cambridge, Mass., of softening of the brain.

Tony Denier, a pupil of the Ravels, and a quondam friend of Fox, next took Fox’s place in the estimation of the American public.  Of Denier, we are told that he arrived in Boston in 1852, with the proverbial half-crown in his pocket.  He was of French extraction, and descended from one of the best French families.  In 1863 he was with P.T.  Barnum, and appearing as a one-legged dancer.  In 1868, he went into Pantomime, toured “Humpty Dumpty,” and for some twenty years afterwards kept the Pantomimic ball merrily rolling until his retirement at Chicago into private life.  Denier made Harlequinade tricks a speciality.

Pantomime in America may be said to have lived about a quarter of a century; but in the autumn of this year (1901) Pantomime, as we now know it in this country, made its first appearance at the Broadway Theatre, New York, when last year’s Drury Lane annual, “The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast,” was successfully presented.  It is very probable that this class of entertainment will become very popular in America.

CHAPTER XXI.

Pantomimes made more attractive—­The Restrictive Policy of the Patent Houses—­“Mother Goose” and “George Barnwell” at Covent Garden—­Lively Audiences—­“Jane Shore”—­“Harlequin Pat and Harlequin Bat”—­“The first speaking opening”—­Extravagence in Extravaganzas—­The doom of the old form of Pantomime—­Its revival in a new form—­A piece of pure Pantomime—­Present day Mimetic Art—­“L’Enfant Prodigue”—­A retrospect—­The old with the new, and conclusion.

Pantomimes, as they grew, were made more and more attractive, “new scenery, decorations, and flyings” were introduced, and with new “flyings,” of course, more accidents.