TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 267, 9 November 1889, Page 9 (Supplement)

TABLE TALK.

(FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.)

PRECIS.

Mrs Maybrick Removed to Woking—A Scene at Lime-street Station—Lord Dangan Engaged—Viscount Hintonl Again— The Drury Lane Novelty—Thb Dead . Heart—Toole's Brother Dead—Death of E. L. Blanchard — His Career — The Gatety Company Back—"The Middleman" A Great Success—The Plot.

London, September 7. The few bystanders at Lime-street station last Friday morning, who caught a glimpse of a brisk alert-looking woman in prison dress, who looked curiously around as she walked from the waiting room to the train between two female warders, found it difficult to believe that this could be the "mentally and physically broken" Mrs Maybrick. Oddly enough, one of the prisoner's former friends happened be going to town by the same train. She instantly recognised him ,; with a bow and smile, and when the unfortunate man stood rooted to the spot with surprise and dismay (not knowing what to do), tried hard to catch his eye again. The warders, however, objected to this, and. the instant the trio^ entered a second-class" carriage, the blinds were drawn. A week ago the Baroness yon Rogues solemnly vowed she would never leave England till her Florrie was free. Nevertheless, with characteristic inconsequence, she departed for Paris yesterday. Mrs Briggs has had to leave Liverpool, and the three servants at Battlecrease House for a long time found it impossible to obtain situations. At. last a philanthropic lady engaged Yapp, and places were found for the cook and housemaid in Manchester. Mr Michael Maybrick haa placed his brother's children in safe and suitable hands, away from Liverpool, and will for good' and sufficient reasons (unnecessary to enter into) decline to hand them over to the Baroness yon Rogues unless compelled by law to do so. ■■■"■* ~ The announcement of the engagement of Lord Dangan to Lady Violet Nevill (the. younger of the beautiful Abergavenny twins) explains why' Lord Qowl^ fes&

threw over Miss Phyllis Broughton, and also why the family paid that injured lady £3,000 rather than let her breach of promise casa come to court. The brideolecb is like her sister, Lady Rose Leigh, very lovely, and as Lord Dangan has a fair share of good looks they make a very handsome couple.

The soi-disant Viscount Hinton, who haß been earning a comfortable livelihood placing a piano-organ (on which his name is scored in giant letters) for .the last Wo years, was summoned and fined 40?, for being a, nuisance one day lasb week.

The new romantic and semi - 'historic drama which Augustus Harris produces afc Drury Lane on the 21st insfc. wilt be called " The Hoyal Oak," and divMe/i. into four acts.

Irving has returned from hi/3 annual holiday, and •' The Dead Heart" is nfcw in full rehearsal at the Lyceum. The wjise en scene will be one of the heaviest) ever, known ab this homse, and, as usual, the raanagementj are taking extraordinary pains to have details accurate. No date has j^eb been fixed for tb c production. The Haymarket version of "Roger le Hon'jfe" has been rather f.eebly christened "A Man's Shadow." " Bosom Friends" would have been much tvetter.

JOomestic affliction se>ems to have marked tb.e most genial of ovt'r low comedians for fcrer own. Poor J. L. Toole's beloved son, ■beautiful daughter and adored wife all died •within a comparatively short time of one another, and now his elder brother, Frank Toole, to whom he was .warmly attached, has gone aloft too. F. Toole was educated at the City of London school, and succeeded his father as City Toast-master. He was a very quiet littje'man, but, like his brother,: loved a joke, and never failed to put in an1 appearance on " first nights " at King Wil-' liam-sfcreot. : ,

The death is also announced of Edward Laman Blanchard, who for thirty-five years wrote the pantomime or annual {as he prefetredto call it) for the Theatre Royal,! Drury Lane. Blanchard was a member of the "Telegraph" staff for twenty-four years, and an out-and-out Bohemian of the be/jt and brightest school. He could remember Edmund Kean and Charles Kemble, to say nothing of Mrs Orger, Mrs Glover and Madame Vestus, and knew all our leading actors and actresses from Charles Kean, Macready, and William Farren, the elder, down to Henry Irving and Mary Anderson, intimately. He could talk charmingly of the past, and was till comparatively recently a prized guest at the Green Room and Savage Clubs. Blanchard died of sheer old age, though bub in his 70th year. But then he lived twice as fast as the modern masher journalist. Didn't Blanchard write: Many a man, both young and old, Has gone to his sarcophagus, Through pouring water icy cold Adown liis own eesophagus. All "the chappies" and "dear boys-" who have given the Gaiety Theatre its unique reputation will make a point of being in town next Saturday week, when Nellie Farren, Fred Leslie, Letty Lind, Marion Hood and Co. make their re-appear- . ance on the familiar boards for the first time since their visit to "the land of the golden fleace." It is sure to be a great, nay, a historic occasion, more especially as the programme will consist of the volatile Leslie's new burlesque, " Ruy Bias, or the Blas£ Roue," a punning title thab almost) sets one's teeth on edge. . ' , In '*The Middleman" Mr Henry Arthur Jones has at last justified the reputation which his friends have always claimed for him, and produced a thoroughly good allround play. Whether ib will prove as effective as ib is ab the Shaftesbury Theatre when played by a moderate provincial or colonial company, I shouldn't like to determine. One can., hardly fancy Willard's part in other hands. Suffic® it to .say the London performance of .'* The Middleman!? has pravad 4 -*tir^iifgM and deserved success, and will fill Mr John "~ Larb's handsome house for a good year to come. The story comes particularly i 1 apropos at this present time of strikes; and on the first night many of Jones's admirable (if somewhat copy-booky) sentimenbs aiiejaUvthe mutual responsibilities of capital arid labour were cheered to the echo. Hera is a brief sketch of j;he plot by " Carados :*'-*•'':

Willard, let me tell you, represents an old pottering potter,one Cyrus Blenkarn, in the employ of Joseph Chandler, Esquire, who, about the time the curtain rises on the play, is addressing the free and independent* electors of Tatlow, whose votes he wants to send him to Parliament, reminding them that, no matter what might happen to the British Constitooshun, they will find plenty of refreshments in the tent he has put up in his back garden. The pottery town of , Tatlow and Joseph Chandler, Esq., have flourished chiefly through the inventive genius of Cyrus Blenkarn, who, in his enthusiastic devotion to his art, haß neglected his,own interests, and has been the victim of the brain-suckers. He toils night and day for the realisation of his grand idea —the production of a peculiar glaze which shall enable him to rival some ancient ware, which is so rare as to be almost priceless. While he is toiling and dreaming, his favourite daughter, Mary, is seduced by his employer's son, Captain Julian Chandler, and the discovery of the terrible truth gives him a new incentive to work. The artist has laboured for love of his art. Now he will labour for money that he may have the means to work out hisreveng* upon those who have done him grievous wrong. Julian, it should Be said, is quite ready to make^ reparation to the girl he has betrayed, and would make" her his wife but for the determined opposition of his father, who desires an alliance with the family of a poor baronet, whose support he would secure in the coming election. This opposition leads Julian to resorb to trickery. He pretends to assent to Ma " father's" "Twishes^: but being ordered abroad to join his regi- , ment, writes from Paris for Mary to meet him there and become his wife. The letter is intercepted and burnt by Chandler pere, and poor Mary, who will ere long become a mother, thinking herself deserted as well as betrayed, leaves her home to hide her shame, and is soon afterwards reported dead. Meanwhile Cyrus Blenkarn toils on, piles on the coats while his stock lasts, and when it gives out makes fuel of the chairs and tables. He means to have that secret out of his furnace, and jusb as he is smashing I the crockery that has brought him only disappointment, and is thinking of beginning all oyer again, he catches eight of a teapot or something of the sort be has hooked out of the fire. His face brightens, his bearb leaps for joy ; he utters a cry of Triumph. Eureka! Victory has come aft last; he has done the trick; fortune is within his grasp; revenge is at hand. Blenkarn's new teapot quickly knocks all other teapots out of the market. Rapidly he grows rich. As rapidly Joseph Chandler grows poor, and of hispid servant whose brains he has used for his own aggrandisement he has to ask employment,to provide bis family with bread. More coals. "Coals of fire" Cyrus Blenkarn uses to work out his revenge. He gets something of satisfaction out of these, and his virtue presently brings its own reward; for Captain Chandler returns from foreign service covered wjth glory for brave deeds doye, and bringing with him a wife in the person of pretty Mary Blenkarn. The old potter's cup of bitterness' is turned into one of joy full to the brim and flowing over, and the curtain falls as he takes to his arms tne: beloved daughter for whose loss he has so long and so bitterly grieved; , ■