LONDON GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 292, 9 December 1893, Page 4 (Supplement)

LONDON GOSSIP.

(»BOM OUR SPECIAL COSKEBPONOENT.)

London, October 20.

Death of Charles^ Gounod. With Charles Gounod, who succumbed to «n apoplectic fit early in the weak, a heaven-bora genius and a very gre^ musician has passed away. He was one of the masters lit the century, and b?s name will have a place amongsb the highest. | Mpafc of us, I fear» know him chiefly as the compo&er o* •Faust,' of 'Romeo «t Juliette' and of •Philemon eb Baicis.' The sacred tnusic, which was hie chief pride and confiainad his grandest efforts, has never boon appreciated as it ought to have beon. For that kind of work he was not, perhaps, fortunate in hia age or, at any rata, in his place in it. French audiences were not always disposed to find his highest to their liking. * The Redemption,' and (Mors eb Viba,' really made their moat serious impression ab this side of the channel. * Faust' in the • East Lynne' of Italian and English opera, j When in doubt, the enterprising irnpressarto invariably plays it, and can genorally be surd of a full house. As mounted nowadays at Covenb Garden, it has become a superb spectacle too. * Romeo ci; Juliette ' owea its pcpularity in London mainly to tlia Prince and Princess of Wales, with wboru the opera is a favourite, and who ordered it for the' State performance this summer. 'Philemon et Baucis,' Gounod himself proferret' to either of hia more popular operas, bub (though played frequently lattoriy bafore ■* Oavallerria Ruabicana'), its music was *G(Wia>t'& t0 the many. 5 Marshal MaoMahon. Marshal i^acMahon, who passed quietly &way on Tuet> ' da? morning last, after a long illness, borne vv^ n characteristic heroism, was a greao sold. *er an<l a poor politician. He had no gift .f °r diplomacy, and very wisely, directly ho fo«nd France wae opposed to the course vv''"eh the intriguers of t'neE'ysee bad committed him to, he throw up public life and hia gr®at> position, and retired. Time has vindicated all Ins motives and hia final acb as President of tha Republic. Whenever he did ill, it was b» cause he was purpo3eiy confused by bis intimate advisers, and did not aeo the drift of their advice. But once he understood thevr purpose he stopped, pleaded engagsmenK and stood upon Mb cense of honour and of patriotic duty. MacMahon'a famif? were Legitimists, and though he served the Empire as a member of tha Senate, he was favourable to the elder branch. « Yet 4b wan he who said when the Comte de Cham* bord stood by the white flag, 'If we ra store the monarchy tho guns will go off ofthemselves.' He" refused to be a party i then to a restoration. Mrs Crawford relates that on the day on which the Soptea- i nate was votad by the Versailles Assembly, , the Prince de Joinville said to General Changarnier, 'We have socured a sword.' ' Yee,' answered the General, * bub a wooden uword that will never draw a drop of blood or cut a gordian knob.' Thb New Vicekoy ok India. Like a greab many of Mr Gladstone's , appointments, that of Lord Elgin to be Governor-General of India excites seveio criticism! The administrative experience of tho noble earl is cortainly inconsiderable. He has been Chairman of tho Fife County Council aod of tho Dunformiine Parish School Board. As a rule, tha holder of the third greatest appointment our empire provides is required to possess at lease a brilliant record. The Radical Prime Minister (cry the Tories) can givo no better reason for promoting this —to put it mildly—inexperienced young man to a moßb responsible position, than that he is a peer in want of a place. Ib is the kind of blunder no Conservative and nob many Liberal statesmen dare have made. Even the most thick and tbin Gladstonians cannot contain their surprise. 'The Earl of Elgin has arrived in London from Broome Hall, Dunfermlino,' read out a man at the National Literary Club last nigbb. 'In view of recent events,' ho went on, 'it surely should be New Broomo Hall.' ' What will they say, in India,' asked another. ' What won't they say,' retorted the first speaker, bitterly. ' Fancy all the Civil and Military Big Wigs and Native Princes having to "koo-too" to a raw know-nothinjr of a 3cottiewithnothingbutabandle to bu name to commend him to them. Really, someone ought to prescribe a strong couiesw of Kipling for the G.O.M.' The Coal Strike. Though the coal famine is at an end an° prices are falling as rapidly as they rose, the strike still continues in many parts of th° country. In Staffordshire, for example» affairs seem simply desperate. Wome" who will go otft and beg manage socoeho w to^tave otf starvation, but the self-reopect-ing poor (prouder far than their richer brethren would be in similar straits) suffer silently at home. Shocking scenes are deacribed'by relief visitors at Wolverhampton. In one house bare of furniture a child was -found sleeping uneasily, and when aßked if ib was ill the mother burst into tears and revealed that hunger had done its worst and her darling was dying of slow starvation. In another case a twelvemonth-old baby was found greatly emaciated in its mother's anna, and the skin seemed to hang on its bones. lhe doctor ordered brandy ami milk because he's wasting away,' said the mother. _ but he might as well have told me to give it sovereigns to play with. He can tent bread, and I can't get anything to feed myself, lob alone feeding the child. Numberless children have been found who only get one meal in 24 hours, and any tallow candles left in the schoolroom are at once surreptitiously seized on and devoured by the hungry little ones. Many of the houses have nothing in them, not even a chair, and the children, sometimes nine in number, are almost naked. Women have pawned their wedding rings in hundreds, and throughout the whole district a ereab cries goes up that the strike may come to en end. Distressed Minebs' Wives. It cannot truthfuly be eaid that the miners' wives who have been sent up to , town to beg have created a uniformly favourable impression. Some of them are great big Yorkshirewomen who certainly look the reverse of underfed, and must be etrong as horses." One of these parading Edgware Road last week thrust a box into the face of a lady friend of mine and said roughly • Btroike.' The lady did not for a second realise the situation, whoreupon tho woman repeated menacingly • stioike I tell you, starvin' women and childer.' 'Oh!'. 886 said my friend ' you are collecting "jonoy for the strike. But you seem very Bt*otfg yourself. Couldn'D you help ■ youty husband a bit whilst the bad *jP«S last. In Leeds and Wakefield ttteire11 j| ÜBb be charinK t0 be got;.' Ane imner's wife turned fiery red. 'Me l£ Ji ' arin 2—me S° oub charing ! I'd f int a$ mv >usband tell me to go charijf' married woman with a OhWaV own demean 'erself to charin1? fiioh a n^ 6artless town-mann would segeeb She ladlfiL- go out charing. .. .' pura O ed?k dod&ed the giantess and fled, which tK y a torrent of vituperation, in was rep e L^ Utra? ed ' Me &° out charm' !> man whJta ? k ?R am and again. A trentleaccoetedS -i Btarvin £ miner's wife later good wota? lUi. ' It>B fortunate for you. my shiro. lir?' hat vnu do come from Yorkpqlicenfn we.r.6 a poor Londoner, yonder ago fo«M,J 0.01(i have arrested you long aagistrjita,?8 ln8« aQd taken you before a

. Stead's Paper. , Mr W. T. Stead has long meditated a morning paper. For years he has been in search of 'The Ideal Editor' • who had the faith in him and the energy to attempt the foundation of a paper which would be in its essence much more of an attempt to help, to serve, to instruct, to amuse, and to gnide its readers than a mere quilting together of more or lesa well-written accounts of yesterday's happeninga.' But tboeo editors who have • faith ' have inadequate energy; those with cuergy have no more faith than a grain of mustard-seed. So Mr Stead haa looked in vain. At length an idea came to him to consult the « spooks.' Julia was requisitioned, arid ordered to to write the name of the ' Ideal Editor.' -Now Julia is a discreet ghoat, if she sniggered eho did so spirit-fashion and iuaudibly. All Mr Staad know was that the lady guiding his hand wrote firmly, • The poly living editor who can couduct tbo ideal newspaper is—in the worda of tha Grand Old Man—that good man Stead.' Mr Stead waa immensely surprised. Thia solution of the problem had curiously enough never occurred to him. Wow, however, the spooks mentioned it, ho at once perceived he was made to conduct thia I journal of journals, aud resolved to start the same. It will be a Steatite paper, of course; belonging to no party, and doing that only which seems righb in the eyee of Mr Stead. It will support religion ; all religions, for is nob Mr Stead 'the only English journalist who haa been on terms of personal and moro or less confidential commuaicntion with the Cardinal j Secretary of State at the Vatican, with the Procurator-General of the Holy Synod, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, aricJ with the leading Nonconformists?' Also it will support the English speaking Race, with that fina healthy belief in the destiny and the greatness of the AngloSaxon for which we may pardon Mr Stead many political errors. And it will support —of course—the Woman's Movement. In fact, if the paper is ever started,, it w;!l be a fine, rouikig publication, conducted with all Mr Stead's wellkoown energy, enthusiasm, and ingenuity. Bub newspapers cost money. You wuiit a good doal of capital ; and JVlr Stead proposes to got his in a novel manner. We cannot do better than transcribe his own account of the Bcnenib its given in the October • Roviaw of Reviews :'— As a beginning I form and register, merely in order to facilitate the issue of debentures, a company to be called *The Daily Paper Company, Limited ;; the Articles of Association will net forth that it ia formed for the purpose of printing and publishing a daily paper which I am to be free to odib and control as I please. Having brought thia company into existence, I offer to tho readers of the ' Review of Reviews' the opportunity of c.^-operafcing with me in producing the now pa^er on the following terms -.—With this cop/ of the * Reriow ' is enclosed a form of order for the • Daily Paper' for the first twolvo monibhs after it is started. (1) It 100,00.0 of those forms are senb to tba National Provincial Bank of England (Limited) at the head office, or any of its branches, accompanied by 263 for one year's s übscription, I will undertake to bring ouib the paper, and each subscriber will receive the • Daily Papar1 every day for one year through his newsagent, if he is in a town rwoeivinw daily parcels of papers froro London. Where thoy only can be delivered bj- post, 13a must be added for postage. (2) To the first luO.ooo subscribers I will give by way of bonus a debenture bond tor £1 in the Daily Paper Company (Limited), redeemable at par at my option. '.These debenture bonds will have coupons attached entitling tho holder to receive interest anoually p.c the rate of five per cent., so long as the circulation of th 6 paper is betiveen 100,000 and 150.000 ; Beven and a-half per cent, between 150,000 and 200,000; »nni ten per cent, when bho circulation exceeds 200,000. By this means any subscriber of twenty cix shillings for tho 6rab year will receive not onlly three hundred and twolve penny p» pers, but a debenture bond of the value of £1, bearing interest from five to ten per cent, for wnich ha will roceive £1 when I redeem it. 'My object,' adds Mr Sfoad, *in thus giving away the capital on which the paper will be started is not philanthropic or generous. It is good business. I want to establish a tie between my readers and tho paper which I propose to publish, ao I make them debenture ■ holders, and undertake to pay them a minimum of £5,000 per anrnra a? long as the circuk-. tion is ?00,000 per day. I want to interest them pecuniarily iv the success of the paper to make it a co-operative enterprise, so I promise to raise the interest to £10,000 a year if the circulation rise-j to 200,000. Mr Stead rathir oddly calls this scheme an offer to give £100,000 to hia readers. It will Htrike most puople that it is tho other way about) ; the readers are to give £100.000 to Mr Stead, or rather to lend it to him on his personal security. However, we hope Mr Stead will get his money. His paper will probably say and do many things we shall nob like ; but it is certain to be good reading. Spades of. Razors. The number of young men now obtaining a university education, has risen far above tho number of professional careors open to them, and nothing ought to be dono to stimulate furthor the supply of euch secondary education as is preparatory for professional life.' Such was the opinion Canon Bell, headmaster of Warlborougb, expressed before the gentemen recently assembled in conference at Oxford upon secondary education. The ' Saturday Review ' countenances the pronouncement in an able article in its current isHue. If ever, it saye, Mene Tekel was written on the wall, these worda of Dr. Beli wrote it there and then. The crime, the blunder and the danger of tho present system lie iv the fact that the number of young men now turned out under secondary school and university education is enorm ously above the number of careers of any kind, professional or other, which are open to them, and for which they are fit'od. They have rebounded from the choked professions into the 'vocation and employment*,' to use the language of the income tax papers, which few of them are evnr likely to receive or to receive without groans. ' Even from the point of view of those who think that " the career open bo talents" settles everything,, we believe thab the thine is an utter mi-take, that a really clever boy in even very low classes had a better chance of riwing under the old system of limitation and patronage, than under the new system of competition and crowd. There is an entirely different side to the question, nnd one of not Ibps renl importance—the lowered value and virtue of learning even in those who are not ox poaed to these dangers as a result of its vulgarisation. Bub that is not, perhaps, likely to appeal very much to the kind or public opinion prevalent at this or at any time. What the people of England may poesibly be brought to see is thab it is no use multiplying costly machinery to burn out razors when you want spades, and tlmfc blunted "azors make the very worsb spade* in the vorld ; thab bhere is only a limited quantity of human Bteel thnb will make good human razors, and only a limited quantity of human razors wanbed at all, and that when you turn out more, the process is horribly cruel ethically, recklessly wasteful economical y, and, from the poinb of view of all rational politics, supremely unwise.'

Anonymous.—When you ere bub eligh'ly acquainted with the lady you admire, and wish to know all her faults, ib is only noceeeary to commend her among her female acquaintances