AustLit

Described in the Fitzroy City Press as 'a cleverly written sparkling farce comedy [with] up-to-date shafts and present day incongruities' (10 April 1915, p. 5), the play's success was seen by a theatre critic from the Argus as being very much the result of its extravaganza ('of which Adams is chief exponent') and the humour arising out of a number of proverbial malapropisms. The critic goes on the record:

The dialogue is simple and straightforward, and although the period of the comedy is dated 1865, much of the slang phrases of to-day are introduced. [Although] the verbal exchanges between the characters labour from a lack of wit, and many times points are so finely drawn as to lose intended effect.... there is no question that the comedy succeeded in its object of light entertainment, and caused continuous merriment throughout (5 April 1915, p.9).

The Bill Adams story appears to have been first introduced to Australians on the stage in the form of a recitation presented by G. H. Snazzle in the early 1890s:

'It must be nearly a quarter of a century ago since the late G. H. Snazzle, during his first visit to Australia, shed a ray of light upon an episode of British history, which had till then, apparently, been a subject of universal misconception. Prior to that time admirers of Britain's departed heroes had given the credit for the great victory at Waterloo to the Duke of Wellington. It was left to Snazzle to discover that all the eulogies of that famous General, by historians who were usually regarded as accurate recorders of events, must have been misapplied. He unearthed the celebrated Bill Adams, who had, in regard to that particular battle, the best evidence that history was incorrect, viz., his own personal knowledge! And so it came to be accepted - on the testimony of no less a person than Bill himself - that the victor in the fight was NOT Wellington, but BILL ADAMS' (Argus 20 March 1915, p.24).

Lumsden, who was also a well-known magician (at one time being billed under the name Czerny), is recorded as having performed a recitation of the Bill Adams story as part of his amateur shows during the early to mid-1890s.