SONG,- STAGE, AND STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 94, 22 April 1893, Page 11

SONG,- STAGE, AND STORY.

Tg£ London Gaiety Burlesque Company have dope excellent business io Abbott'* Opera House during the last ten nighte. The piece 9 produced so far are ' Miss Es. meralda.,' VFausfc up to Date,' and 'Carmen up to Data.'

■ / Hayes' Circus opens in Auckland in about a fortnight's time,

Mr L. J, Lohr is importing a big attract tion from England^ so ifc is said. Bland Hplt will tour Hew Zealand again shortly. He opens in the colony in about .throe months' time.

Fillis' Circus, which is to appear in Auckland shortly, gives two performances .daily —at 3 and 3 p,m. It did this for thirteen weeks in ISydney, eleven in Melbourne, and fpur in Adelaide. The ' show ' for the New Zealand tpur brings with ib 180 persons, 65 horses apd ponies, and a com-, piete menagerie, "including Nubian lions, 3 performing Bengal tiger, which is let loose in the ring, the enclosure being petted round for the jpur- [ po?e, zebras, five performing elephants, also panthers, mopkeys, gorillas, etc. There are 70 artists, of whom Mr IMllis is the [ leader, and the eight clowns include Wailetb, whose vpjce and style are familiar to all w.ho have attended the exhibitions of Archibald's phonograph. Amongst other innovations—which include specially comfortable seating accommodation—Mr Fiilis has earned the gratitude of his patrons by abolishing the usually brazen circus band, substituting » good string orchestra in the place of tb.ab deafening institution.

A white sheet decorated with advts. was lowered between the apts, in place of the usual drop curtain, at a ' first-class ' London theatre, and tho audience hooted it up again. That same hideous device is nob unknown to Auckland theatre-goers.

Says Max O'Rell: ' You find wit amongs.b the lower class of Irish and dry humour amongst tbe lower class x>i Scotch, bub you find neibher wit nor humour amongst the lower class of bhe English.'

Shakespear, on the show mania of the British : ' When they will nob give a doib to relievo a lame beggar, they will lay oub ten to see a dead Indian.'—' Tempest,' II ii.

Wai. Hariand, managing VVoodyear's Circus for Mrs Woodyear, gob his hippodrome wrecked by an infuriabed mob of Chinese at the coolie-shipping port of Swatow. A coolie had gob some blood on his face in a crowded squeeze, and the Chinkies had gob the idea that Harland had wounded the man with a swoid. Everything portable was broken up, and only the horseß were saved. Harland gob no redress from the British Consul—'a veritable old woman, timorous, shaky, utterly unfit for responsibility '—apd was glad to clear oub to avoid bhe fulfilmenb of a mob threat to kill the horses.

A London critic says of the acting of Irving'a son, Lawrence, in a recent piece: ' It was so bad that his papa ehould forbid him ever bo go upon the stage again.' Genevieve Ward trains actresses. She boasts she has kepb more off the stage than any one else living. A Sydney paper saya:—"One of the Greewood girls, it is reported, has eloped and gob married." Walber Bentley relabes bhab when Coppin managed Melbourne Royal, in bhe old days, he (Benbley) applied for an engagement, and was summarily ordered oub of bhe office. In 1891 Coppin placed that same office at his entire disposal! Bentley only reminded Coppin pf the circumstance a few days ago, George Leitch and his Dramatic and Comedy Company commence another New Zealand tour ab the Opera House, Wellington, about bhe middle of nexb monbh. Walber Benfeley'9 Adelaide season was broughb to a close on March 30th, when 'Hamleb' was produced to a very large audience. One of bhe ' proudest moments of Mr D. G. Boucicaulb'g life (says a Sydney paper), was certainly when that very excallent actor and good fellow discovered upon the table of his dressing-room ab the Criterion Theatre lately a remarkably handsome presentation from the members of the permanent dramatic staff, The souvenir consisted of a massive silver inkliband, having on either side a candlostick of the came solid metal designed in the form of a fluted column, and a claret jug of beaten silver richly gilt and chased in floral designs in gold of varied shades. These articles were chosen by Mr Titheradge, who showed as much taste in their selection as in the wording of a short address which accompanied tbe presenbabion. This address, wribten upon parchmenb, expressed in well-chosen language the very high esteem in which Mr Boucicaulb was held by members o£ the company, and the very deep admiration which they felt for the skill he had always bestowed upon the work of stage management. The ,'ddress was signed by George S. Titheradgo. Edward Sass, W. B. Spong, J. F. Cathcar!', Arthur Lawrence, Cecil Ward, Florence Brough, E. Eomer, Brenda Gibson, Ida Liston, and Emma Temple. In Japanese theatres, if you go oub between bhe acts, you don'b geb a check. The doorkeepergrabs your hand and rubberstamps you, Onr London correspondent wribes us:— 'Avenged on Society ' by Mr H. F. Wood bhe Paris correspondent of ' The Chronicle' and the aubhor of Tne Passenger from Scobland Yard,' is an ingenious story fqunded on the Maybrick case. Before she comes of age, the heroine Elsie, learna thab there is a mystery in connection with her parenbage. She insists on probing ib and .finds her mother is in prison for life and convicted of poisoning her father. Tbe trial, exactly modelled on thab of Mrs Maybrick, took place when Elsie was a child and created a profound sensation. Half the pqblic implicitly believed in the accused's innocence, and the Home Secretary yielding to populor clamour, commuted tho death sentence, Juab as Elsie as making preparations to vjsib the prison she learns her mother has been released on bickeb-of-leave and ia at an hotel in Essex-sbroet, Strand. Rushing oft to pour tbe balm of a daughter's faith and love into the brokendown woman's heart, and overflowing wibh pity the girl meets with a rudo chock. Instead of the shrinking, helpless creature she meant to succour and protecb, Elsie finds a vain, repellant egotist, busy receiving a deputation of sympathisers and far more concerned in nobbling bhe press than in welcoming her child. The labter tries to readjust her ideas and sympathise wibh her mobber bub she cannot. The exconvict's one objecb is perfecting bhe maqhipery of vulgar eelf-advorbisement, newspaper 'pars,' and public meetings. She cares for nothing else. By degrees, doubts which cannob be stifled, enter Elsie's mind, and when the book ends both she and the reader aye fairly convinced the ' muohwronged woman ' of the newspapers richly deserved her fate.

Mr Louis J. Jennings, M.P., for Stockport, who died suddenly last week, was a really jrreab journalist, andab one time promised to make abie name in politics. He began life on the 'Times ' which be represented for some time in India. Drifting to New York, Mr Jennings became editor of the ' New York Times ' and commenced a world-famous campaign ngainat the notorious Tammany King. ' Boss ' Tweed and his gang had plenty of money and ib was used unsparingly to crush Jennings and the 'Times.' But this wouldn't do, so Tweed tried bribes. The proprietor, Geo. Jones, received an offer of £10,000 to cease hostilities and Mr Jennings miphb have easily pocketed twice thab sura. But he preferred to stand to his guns. Ab a result ' Boss' Tweed died in gaol and his associates had all either to fly or go to prison for long terms. After his trjunjph, &k Jennings came to England and acted as correspondent

fora syndicate of American journals. He also in time became reader for Mr John Murray the publisher and wrote several books, A novel of his entitled ' Tue Millionaire' attracted come attention, -and a vitriolic • study ' of • Mr Gladstone,' published aboub 1884, excited much mixed com■menb. When he enbered Parliament in 1B85: Mr Jsnninga attached himself to the forbunes of Lord Randolph Churchill for whom' he professed an exbravaganb admiration.; 4 Randy' very kindly made use of the brilliant journalisb and thaugbb he flugbb to be grabeful. There came, however, a cerbain, nighb bwo years ago or more, when his lordship having given Jennings cerbain instructions, wenfc back on him publicly in the; House because they didn'b answer. I forgeb the *xact particulars but I know the treachery hit Mr Jennings hard. Only ten days ago one of his friends remarked the •member for Sbockporb had -never been the same man since. He ceased ab anyrate from thab moment to press to the front. Lord Randolph waß the only man he cared to serve under, and he had disappointed him.