when he paid $72 for a seat at the opening of the opera house people
were sure that he was at least a duke. He disappeared as mysteriously
as he had appeared. It was learned afterward that this mysterious
person was Coal Oil Johnny out on a lark. The first regular company to
occupy this theater was the Macfarland Dramatic company, with Emily
Melville as the chief attraction. This little theater could seat about
1,000 people, and its seating capacity was taxed many a time long
before the Grand opera house in the rear was constructed. Wendell
Philips, Henry Ward Beecher, Theodore Tilton, Frederick Douglass and
many others have addressed large audiences from the stage of this old
opera house. An amusing incident occurred while Frederick Douglass was
in St. Paul. Nearly every seat in the house had been sold long before
the lecture was to commence, and when Mr. Douglass commenced speaking
there was standing room only. A couple of enthusiastic Republicans
found standing room in one of the small upper boxes, and directly in
front of them was a well-known Democratic politician by the name of
W.H. Shelley. Mr. Shelley had at one time been quite prominent in
local Republican circles, but when Andrew Johnson made his famous
swing around the circle Shelley got an idea that the proper thing to
do was to swing around with him. Consequently the Republicans who
stood up behind Mr. Shelley thought they would have a little amusement
at his expense. Every time Mr. Douglass made a point worthy
of applause these ungenerous Republicans would make a great
demonstration, and as the audience could not see them and could
only see the huge outline of Mr. Shelley they concluded that he was
thoroughly enjoying the lecture and had probably come back to the
Republican fold. Mr. Shelley stood it until the lecture was about
half over, when he left the opera house in disgust. Mr. Shelley was a
candidate for the position of collector of customs of the port of St.
Paul and his name had been sent to the senate by President Johnson,