Show i AMUSEMENTS 1 r I ONEILbS XTpHTE JEISTOA great surging a audience black with numbers above and below I assembled at the Theatre last eienjng to say welcome to Mr James ONeill on the occasion of his longd jferred but eagerlyexpected first visit to this city There had been the old experience of delay on the Central Pacific and but for a special sent up by the Utah Central the people due here in the morning would not have reached town in time to perform last night But by hard endeavors they and their wealth of trunks and scenery were landed at the Theatre just before 7 and a small army of men at once started to put things in pltice It was close upon 9 oclock befQre the curtain was lifted but as the play progresed the grand scenery f made the audience marvel hcw it had been gd ten intoshape in time to play at all It was near midnight when the final cumin fell but it is safe to say 110 one took noteof the time and that no I one had any thought except for the exceeding ex-ceeding strength beauty and finish of the performance If there are any who remained avijay last evening under the impression that they had before seen Monte Jnsto they should visit the Theatre this evening and be undeceived They will find that they may have seen outlines or suggestions of Dumas wonderful story presented by various road companies but that Mr OKatll tveo them > for the first time II the real Monte Cristo This is true not onlv of hill own finof > Vmrnft ariri > tin i nf oJ U the leading part but of the support t e I mountings the scenery and the detail throughJut It is such a presentation in all these regardsand particularly in 1 the sceneryas one would expect to see in the metropolis when the play was up for a run it is a great performance throughout and one that cannot fail to stimulate interest in the work from which it is so well adapted for al thougn there is necessarily a great deal in the novelsuch as the character of Haydee left untouched the adapter has seized se well the dramatic parts andjcennected the main threads of the story that Dumas himself could hardly suggest how the stage version could be bettered The copy used by Mr ONeill we understand is almost identical with That so long played by the lamented Fecas r Mr uNeilJs school is the biea class I quiet and polished style of acting made familfer to us by Charies K Thome Jr and the Union Square artists ot his period pe-riod By many he is thought to be the best astor of ms style since Thorne and it is certain that in magnetism and general gen-eral eff ctlveness he sways an audience greatly like Thorne used to in the Dan ieh lf and the Chevalier though his methods are somewhat more fiery In too various phases of character created in Monte Cristo first as the freehearted Dantes next as the prisoner then as the abbe and finally as tbe avenger he bore himself as the ideal ef the author and was rewarded with many bursts of applause and curtain calls without number It is difficult to see how the role throughout eoulti have been im preyed Hia support has sojfae excel lent features though not hgpnd the possibility improvement jrae Noir tier of Mr Shannon the Vcftrousse of Mr Shewell the VillefdfSof Mr Gould he Mercedes of May Wilkes and the Carcente of Kate Fletcher were all happy instances of intelligent acting and harndsome dressing the Danglars of Mr Manning was somewhat wooden and thfl Fernando of Mr Dana might have been improved The scenery was most magnificent and the sky effect in the night scene at Dantes wedding the I I storm and the rolling of the waters when he escapes and the gorgeous illuminated gardens were all icoeived with deserved rounds of applause The play > is on again tonight and despite the wish to see Mr OINeiU in An American King Mo eta Cristo made so great an impression laU evening that it cannot fail to draw heavily again There was a good deal of complaint last evening over the closing of the east doors and the large south doors in the interior The large audience took an interminable time to disperse out of the narrow means of egress provided |