December 30, 1887

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, on December 30,1887 ran an article with the headline "Cruelty to Stuffed Cats."

The back story runs this way:

'The following cat story of Old Brooklyn is courtesy of The Brownstone Detectives, who first published this tale in March 2017. I take the story one step further by exploring the history around the Grand Street Museum and the land on which it was once located.

'Agent Clark Investigates a Report of Cruelty to Cats

'In December 1887, Agent Frank Clark of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) received a letter from a resident of the Eastern District in Brooklyn notifying him that cats were being abused during the production of a musical comedy called the “Soap Bubble” at the Grand Street Museum in Williamsburg. According to the letter writer, a large number of cats were being used as shooting targets by the actors during the first act of the play.

'The “Soap Bubble,” a musical farce about the manufacturing and advertising of soaps and speculation in soap stocks, was written by western journalist Montgomery Phister and produced by T.J. Farron, who played Chops the barber in the play. Farron and his partner P.F. Baker were popular blackface minstrels who often dressed as black women.

'Determined to put a stop to this cruelty, Agent Clark bought a seat in the front row of the orchestra in order to best witness the feline abuse. Soon after the first scene opened, he saw cats by the dozens falling from the scenery to the stage, while the actors fired away with guns and revolvers.

'Most of the cats lay still where they fell, but Clark noticed that a couple of cats crawled across the stage. Eventually, Clark figured out that he had been duped: with the exception of two cats that walked off the stage, the rest were stuffed cats ...'
And the almanackist says Goodbye to an old year, with a smile.