[
    {
        "id": 209582,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1982",
        "page_number": 239,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "CARL T. SMITH\n\nTHE HONG KONG AMATEUR DRAMATIC CLUB AND ITS PREDECESSORS\n\nTHE PROLOGUE\n\nTo set the mood for an article on Amateur Dramatics in Hong Kong, I quote a prologue to the performance of \"the screaming farce\", 'I've Written to Brown' presented on 21 April 1871 by the Hong Kong Amateurs.\n\nLadies and Gentlemen, the pleasing task\n\nIs mine tonight your kindly smiles to ask,\n\nFor those who now behind the curtain wait,\n\nWith biding, anxious hearts to learn their fate.\n\nSo let your verdict generous be, the while\n\nWe strive a pleasant hour to beguile.\n\nBut who can now a pleasant hour boast,\n\nWith thirteen steamers daily up the coast\n\nSharebrokers pressing one to sell or buy\n\nWith telegrams cach minute from Shanghai\n\nWith stern Welsh witnesses, who'd rather brook\n\nA Judge's ire than kiss a dirty book,\n\nAnd, by their word prepared to stand or fall\n\nSay they'll be if they will swear at all!\n\nWith piece goods market all to pieces gone,\n\nThrough sales of damaged shirtings ex the Don,\n\nAnd, piling agony, beyond endurance\n\nWith Oily Phantom's new Chinese Insurance;†\n\nWhere, of our interests most august protectors,\n\nThey've such a crushing army of Directors!\n\nSince last we met, though some enlivening rays\n\nOf social light have cheered our nights and days,\n\nA quiet Picnic to Victoria Peak\n\nPhotos in High Life, taken once a week\n\n†The American firm of Olyphant and Company organized in 1871 at Hong Kong the Chinese Insurance Company. It was the first insurance company on the China coast to cater especially to Chinese shippers and merchants. Its Board was composed of both Chinese and foreigners.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 209609,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1982",
        "page_number": 266,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "244\n\n1870/71\n\nP\n\n1871/72\n\n1872/73\n\n1873/74\n\n—\n\n1874/75\n\n—\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\n25 Nov. 1867 first performance of season at Club Lusitano Theatre:\n\n\"All that Glitters is not Gold\" comedy (J. M. Morton, 1851)\n\n\"Cox and Box, married and settled\" farce (F. C. Burnard and J. M. Morton, 1867)\n\n19 Dec. 1867 Hong Kong Amateur Theatrical Society second performance:\n\n\"Romeo and Juliet\" burlesque\n\n\"Little Toddlekins\" farce (J. Mathews, 1852)\n\n4 Nov. 1870 Amateur Dramatic Club first performance of season at Theatre Royal, City Hall.\n\n\"Diamond Cut Diamond\" farce (W. H. Murray, 1838) \"Orpheus and Eurydice\" burlesque (H. J. Bryon, 1863)\n\n20 Apr. 1871 \"I've Written to Brown\" farce (T. J. Williams, 1859) burlesque by Francis Talfourd.\n\n28 Apr. 1871 \"Ici, en Parlais Francais\" (T. J. Williams, 1859)\n\n\"Shylock, or the Merchant of Venice Preserved\" burlesque (F. Talfourd, 1853) also given in 1867.\n\n-\n\n26 Jan. 1872 - \"The Two Bonnycastles\" farce (J. M. Morton, 1851)\n\n\"Masanielle\" burlesque (R. B. Brough, 1857)\n\n21 Feb. 1872 - \"The Rifle and how to use it\" farce (J. V. Bridgeman, 1859)\n\n11 Apr. 1872 \"Castles in the Air\" comedy (T. W. Robertson, 1854)\n\nInstead of \"Castles\", the production may have been \"Caste\" by T. W. Robertson (1867)\n\n3 Jan. 1873 - \"Locked In\" farce (J. P. Wooler, 1870)\n\n\"The Cricket on the Hearth\"\n\n13 Feb. 1873 \"Kenilworth, or Ye Queen, Ye Earl and Ye Maiden\", burlesque\n\n13 Apr. 1873 \"The Blighted Being\" farce (T. Taylor, 1854)\n\n\"Checkmate\" comedy (Andrew Halliday, 1869)\n\n30 Oct. 1873\n\n1853)\n\n\"Plot and Passion\" (T. Taylor and J. Lang, 1853)\n\n15 Nov. 1873 \"The Spitalfield Hospital\" farcical comedy\n\n\"Not such a Fool as she Looks\" (H. J. Bryon, 1868)\n\n2 Mar. 1874 —— \"A Romantic Idea\" (J. R. Planche, 1849)\n\n\"The Steeple Chase\" (J. M. Morton, 1865)\n\n5 Apr. 1875 - \"Ticket of Leave Man\" (T. Taylor, 1863)",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    }
]