"A MESSAGE FROM MARS."

This clever comedy-drama waa produced last night by the Allan Hamilton Company, and the performance must be pronounced a decided success. It went throughout without a hitch, and the acting was certainly much above the average of that usually witnessed in Masterton. Horace Parker (Mr Robert Inmau) was the coldblooded, selfish hero, whom it was the duty of the Messenger from Mars (Mr Geo. Bryant) to convert—a task which appeared impossible after one had witnessed the heartless way in which he received,the loving caresses of his fiancee, Minnie (Miss Fanny Ekris). But the Messenger's own banishment from Mars to- thisdearth (which in Mars is always spoken of as "H ") can only end when he lias converted from his selfishness the most selfish man in London, the said Horace Parker. The second act of the play consists of a dream in which the Messenger compels Horace to reluctantly relieve the distresses of several poor folk who successively appear in the London street during a night of heavy snowfall. The Messenger causes the wall of a mansion, in which a ball attended by Horace's quondam friends is being held, to become transparent; and he sees them and hears them talking of him without reserve, and he thus learns the contempt in which lie is held. During the dream he is rapidly reduced to poverty, and is glad to earn a small coin by sweeping snow in partnership with, the Tramp (Mr Fitzgerald), to whom he had refused pecuniary help in his own prosperous days. This is the turningpoint, and from theuce his character changes, and he becomes as kindly generous as he was befdre selfish and miserly. In the third act he finds that his adventures in the second have occurred in a dream, but he faithfully carries out his new principles of altruism. Aunt Martha (Miss Khadijah Cooper) was admirably played, and her indignant scoldings of the selfish Horace in the first act were made up for by her recognition in the third, that he must have been really generous all the time—but concealed it. Arthur Dicey (Mr Augustus Nevillo) and Bella (Miss Hilda Fraser) were wellportrayed characters; and so were the smaller roles of Dr Chapman (Mr Lance Vane), Mrs Clarence (Miss Beatrice Us'.ier), and the Policeman (Mr Harold Carr). Messrs lumau, Bryant and Fitzgerald, and the Misses Err is and Fraser all did credit to the characters which they represented. There were a dozen "other characters, all ably played. Two small defects we noted: The music was too loud during the second act when the wall was rendered transparent, aud the light which illuminated the Messenger from Mars surely should have been the same as that of the red planet. The scenery was far above the average, and the staging was generally good. To-night "Home, Sweet Home," will be staged, and a full house may be looked forward to.