He also had a number of artful little schemes which he
called 'wheezes', the most successful of these being a lecture on
The Religious Teaching of Shakespeare', which he invariably
delivered on a Sunday afternoon in the theatre of any town he
happened to be in, and not infrequently when requested occupied the
pulpit and preached capital sermons. By these means Mr Wopples kept
up the reputation of the family, and the upper classes of all the
towns invariably supported the show, while the lower classes came as
a matter of course. Mr Wopples, however, was equally as clever in
providing a bill of fare as in inducing the public to come to the
theatre, and the adaptability of the family was really wonderful.
One night they would play farcical comedy; then Hamlet, reduced to
four acts by Mr Wopples, would follow on the second night; the next
night burlesque would reign supreme; and when the curtain arose on
the fourth night Mr Wopples and the star artistes would be acting
melodrama, and throw one another off bridges and do strong
starvation business with ragged clothes amid paper snowstorms.
Kitty turned out to be a perfect treasure, as her pretty face and
charming voice soon made her a favourite, and when in burlesque she
played Princess to Fanny Wopples' Prince, there was sure to be a
crowded house and lots of applause. Kitty's voice was clear and
sweet as a lark's, and her execution something wonderful, so Mr
Wopples christened her the Australian Nightingale, and caused her to
be so advertised in the papers.
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