tices are rather ingenious. The fact is, I'm no
judge of acting, and don't know how Miss Pelican will turn out. If well,
why there's my notice of June the 1st; if ill, then June 31st comes in
play, and, as there is but one copy of the Sentinel printed, it's an
easy matter to destroy the incorrect one; _both can't be wrong_; so I've
made a sure thing of it in any event. Here follows my musical critique,
which I flatter myself is of rather superior order:

THE PLAINS. ODE SYMPHONIE PAR JABEZ TARBOX.--This glorious composition
was produced at the San Diego Odeon on the 31st of June, ult., for the
first time in this or any other country, by a very full orchestra (the
performance taking place immediately after supper), and a chorus
composed of the entire "Sauer Kraut-Verein," the "Wee Gates
Association," and choice selections from the "Gyascutus" and
"Pike-harmonic" societies. The solos were rendered by Herr Tuden Links,
the recitations by Herr Von Hyden Schnapps, both performers being
assisted by Messrs. John Smith and Joseph Brown, who held their coats,
fanned them, and furnished water during the more overpowering passages.

"The Plains" we consider the greatest musical achievement that has been
presented to an enraptured public. Like Waterloo among battles; Napoleon
among warriors; Niagara among falls, and Peck among senators, this
magnificent composition stands among Oratorios, Operas, Musical
Melodramas and performances of Ethiopian Serenaders, peerless and
unrivaled. _Il frappe toute chose parfaitement froid._

"It does not depend for its success" upon its plot, its theme, its
school or its master, for it has very little if any of them, but upon
its soul-subduing, all-absorbing, high-faluting effect upon the
audience, every member of which it causes to experience the most
singular and exquisite sensations. Its strains at times remind us of
those of the old master of the steamer McKim, who never went to sea
without being unpleasantly affected;--a straining after effect he used
to term it. Blair in his lecture on beauty, and Mills in his treatise on
logic, (p. 31,) have alluded to the feeling which might be produced in
the human mind by something of this transcendentally sublime
description, but it has remained for M. Tarbox, in the production of
"The Plains," to call this feeling forth.

The symphonie opens upon the wide and boundless plains in longitude 115
degrees W., latitude 35 degrees 21 minutes 03 seconds N., a