OUR LONDON FLANEUR.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 298, 18 December 1886, Page 5

OUR LONDON FLANEUR.

Tno Gossip of Clutl and Saloon.

London Without a Bio "ShoW'-Richar Belt's Ability as a Sculptok Proved at j Last —No "Ghost*" in Prison — Our \ Criminal Populace Decreasing — The j f Silent System Pbonouncisd a Sl-cckss— Coleridge on pbntosvillb— Lord ailes I bory's Funkbal Society and thh New i Mahciii^nkss Thp.ke Dowager Lady As— Kpfisct ok Puhlicit.on of DiLKE'a .- otes The Salaries oic " iisATBiCAL and MusicII LL '■>"TAIiS" X FR-NCE AND S.N'GLAMD— i Ukath of Poou Fred albeut. London, October 29. ! London tradesman and hotelkeopevs are ! b^-jinning t;j iouk a= well they may — over the prospect of there being no exhibi tion at South Kensington next summer. j The big shows of the last four years have been the means of attracting foreigners, provincials, and tourists innumerable to the metropolis, especially during the autumn, and to have such an immense source of rownue suddenly cut off is a very serious thing. True, the " Imperial Institute "— an emasculated edition of the " Colindies " —will be open, and so will the " American Exhibition " at E-trlscourt; bat thoredoesn'i. promise to ba much In cither of these to " fetch " strangers. The American Exhibition waa a capiri>.l idea, and if it, had buen oountenaucsd by tho United States Oovoni , ment, might have proved v big "draw " As a small private speculation, in tho hand* of persons with neither much oxp'jrißnc: nor coin, X does not, however, i-.ppoar liitelj to havo a great future before it. No, the big " show " of next auminei (so far tw England is concerned) will indubitably beat Manchester, and to " Cott-.mop-jiia " instead ot to the metropolis tourists and pleasure ncokers will becuKe themselves.

The question of poor Richard Belt's ability as a sculptor has boon finally set at rost sinco his imprisonment. tiven after the. grant civil action, in which the unfortunateram's professional reputation was supposed to be whitewashed, Mr Lawes aod a nura ber of othor rivals persisted that ho was entirely uliable to sculp the smallest thing without substantial "ghostly" assistance Well, ono m;iy, 1 think, ba certain that tbo only ghosts which can penetrate within Belt's cell at Pentonvilioare tho " gho«ts of a happy and prosperous past," yet it is an nounecd thai: Iho tculptor has carved some decorations of the highest artistic merit, for tho prison ch.ipei. Even one of Belt's bitterest enemies, who paid a visit ro the prison chaplain specially in order to got a Mght of the woik, feelb himself constrained in common honour to admit its excellence. Poor gelt !

T.trtiir.i: of prison 3, what are wo to think of tho striking decrease of tho criminal population ot England und Wales during tho last decn.de. In ISSS there were only 0.i.51) males in our convict prisons as against !0 SIS in 1577 ; moreover, tho sentences passed during '85 wore 23 por cent, lower than during any previous year, and only half of the number sentenced to penal servitude. 20 years before. Can ie bo that the world ia indeed growing bettor, or are our police»imply un-ible to cops with the shrewder rasOilu of today. I confess I lean to the hitter view. The directors of convicr prisons attribute the giatifying decrease in their proteges to tho success of the " silent system," about which such an outcry waraised when it was initiated in 1840. At first, you may remember, every prisonor sentencid to a term of penal servitude had to do 2 ycus' solitary coniinomont; but this was found to bo far too long, and by degrees the period ha- been reduced to 9 months.. "JVttN of Pentonville .Model Prison, which was built specially tor a trial of the eiient syntoni, that Coleridge wrote --

"As ho wor.tthrough Colilba'.h Fioida Jiosaw Aid. the devil was pleased, for it i?ava him a For iniiii ovlng hio p> isons in hell," Uickons, too, h'.d a profound disbelief in whnt wa.i then termid " Whumoliffo's newfunglod idea," ai:d openly d-rided the probable r&sultg in a well-known chapter (the eixty-iirot) of— David Ooppernald."

At the funoral of tho third Marquia of Ailosbury, on Friday last, tho now peer (Lite Lord Bawnake) wa« mo 4 cordially recnived by the gentry of Wiltshire, who.jro, however; in a sad stew to kniw what course to p'irpuo wiih regard to iho new M>irchk>ness (nee Dolly T. s'er, a late chorus girl at tho Comedy Theatre). * The Wiltshire folk feal anxious bolh to forget, and forgive the young man's " wild oats,'1 and Would like to give him every chanca in the future. Noverthele?a,-it seems altogether impossible to admit itito aristocratic S'cioty as an equal tho " young pei'^on " who has thus ijoon suddonly raised to toe rank of nobility. Fronle ho waiting to see what course the thr.e Dowager Lady Ailesburjs will pursue tow Urdu their successor. The oldo-t Dowuj/er, tho sportive and ver.erable "Maria," wife of the tin-t Marquis, and known throughout society as "Lady A," Im* great influence in the fashionable world, and, with H.R.H'a support, might even bring übout tho recognition of a Dolly Tester. We tlmil seo.

Tho publication of Sir Chailsa Dilke's notes on the Crawford trial lias led, as might havo bssn expected, toalor of gOßeip of a more or less tcaiidalouH description. The general impression created is, howovor, favourable to tho baroimt. 'L'ho discovery that Fanny Stock's rcridcnCJ was well known to Mr? Crawford lor more than four weeks befoio she disappeared im? suggested an altogether froth solution of the " vanishing " mystery. Supposing, after all, it should ho Mrs C who "spirited"away the girl? Admit the possibility of a conspiracy against Sir Charles, and oio can at onco tee how im DJrtnit it was that the girl should di-»ppear. A paper c:«Utd "The Bat" prof<B-es to have discovered that Fanny is residing at dddlestoneon-Thames. Another journal adheres equally firmly to the theory of hor boing in Australia, Somo statistics havo been published in tho "Figaro" which wil! dissipate a very general imprereirfO in England, to the efftct tha'. the socictaires of the famous Oomedio Francois draw big salaries. It stems evon artistes like Got and Coquelin do not make more than £2,400 a year, and many members get much less. On tho other hand, the prime doniie of tho Grand Opera, Madamis Krauss and Fides Devries, receive salaries of £6,000 a year. M. Las sello, thu loading tenor, makes £5,000, and Faure, tho groat baritono, can command £60 a night whenever ha chooees to sing. Sarah Benibardt got the same sum for the runs of "Fedora" and "Thoodora" at tho Porte St. Marl in, and Jadic receives £40 a nitrht at tho Varieties. Many mueic hall artistes(o make farmore than the societaires of tho Francais. The volatilo Theresa never warble 3 one of her cerulean ditties at the Alcazar under £20, and the "great" Paulus (who holds the same position in Paris as our own dear MacDermott does here) earns £12 a-nightall the year round. On thia side of the water we don't knowquite so much about theatrical salaries. For one thing, it isn't etiquette for a manager to " pplit," what he pays the different members of his company ; and for another, actors themsnlves (unloss very successful) consistently lie on such subjects. Nevertheless, faats do sometimes leak out. At the Lyceum, for example, wo know Irving pays Ellen Terry £60 a week. Y'ung Alexander (Faußt) £40 ; the rest from £25 to £5, according to thoir parts. At the Savoy 1 don't suppose tho- highest salary (Groa^ smith's) touches more than £30 a week, but then the leading uatmbers of the cempany have boon engaged uninterruptedly by DViylej Carte for tha last tea years, an immense consideration. Florence .St. John commands a v. ry high salary; so, till recently, did Violet Cameron. Amongßt low comedians Arthur Robert (late of the Music Halls) gets tho "champion screw;" Lionel JtSrough, I should think, coming next. The KiDg of Music Hall "stars" just now i?, of source, McDormott, who warbles his detestable ditty relative to " Charlie Dilke spilliug the mi;k" in four halls nightly, and earns psrh.ips £3i a week Jennie Hilt, " Vital Spark, earns (according to ber own co'ite;sion) £20 a week in London, and gofs £40 for panron.ime in the proviuocs at Christmas. The two Bessias — Bonehill (an "immense" woman as regards size and tong) and Bellwood [chanteuse of the uotorioua " What Cher Kia")—rvun Jenny close, and another famous pair, tho "-Knockabout" Macs, earn at least £50 per a week between them, By the way, I see Fred Albert's death in the papers. He hadn't visited the colonies, but nevertheless many out in your part of the world will be sorry to bear "poor Fred's" ■^one. Albert both wrote and composed all his aongs, and shocking stuff the majority of them" were, though tho jingling choruses pleased the gallery. Ho was, however, a most respectable man (as Music Hall "chappies" go), uoither drank nor swore nor made questionable joke 3on the stage. Moreover, he has lfeft hia wife and child decently provided for, an slmost unheard of circumstanco in the profession. Albert was not a "star," but when in London could generally rely on doing three hauls a night, Probably ho made £}5 or £20 a week,