LONDON GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 149, 23 June 1894, Page 12

LONDON GOSSIP.

{from otra own cobbesposdest.)

London, May 5. The Private Views.— People Peksent. With the first of the big Private Views at the New Gallery last Saturday the London season of 1894 may be said to have fairly commenced. The crowd towards four o'clock was as suffocating and as smart aa the heart of Mr Comyns Carr conld possibly desire. Social, political, and professional celebrities jostled one another in all the rooms, and bbc dresses were even more eccentric, if less * greenery-yallery,' than in the old Grosvenor days. The Duchess of Albany represented Royalty, but being in very quiet black passed almosb unrecognised. Thab noble old lady, the Duchess of Cleveland, with her exquisite white hair and her stately presence, attracted far more attention. The Duchesses of Westminster and Wellington were also present, the latter conversing with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who brought the beardless, youthful-looking perpetrator of *Dodo' with him. Every one longed for Mr Asquith and Miss Margob Tennanb to turn up opportunately, but Lord Cross with his daughter, Mr Childers, Sir Edward Clarke, and Lord Aberdare were the only politicians I saw. Sir John Millars, Mr Poynber, Sir Edward Burne Jones, Sir James Lin ton and small fry innumerable represented Art, and Miss Ellen Terry, Mr Fred. Terry, Julia Neilson, J. L. Toole, Mrs Tree, Miss Maude Milletb, Mr Arthur Cecil, the Bancrofts, Mrs Bernard Beere and many more the theatre. MrandMreßudyardKJplingpassed through almosb unnoticed about five, and J. M. Barrie enjoyed the show quietly from one of the galleries. I naturally saw little or nothing of the pictures, but the critics pronounce the show passable. Sir E. Burne-Jones' ' Love Among the Ruins,' Mr Watts' portrait of Geo. Mendette, and Mr Alfred Parson's • A Lonely Farm,' form its moat talked-aboub features. The Coming Khan. The lion of the season par excellence will be the Khan of Khiva, who is expected in London with a large retinae early next month. His last European visit (also his first) did not extend further east than St. Petersburg, bub there he imbibed several civilised tastes. One of his firsb steps on returning to Khiva was to start a private theatre with a corps de ballet, and he even went so far as to make Rita Sangalli a fabulous offer to dance there and subjugate his susceptible subjects. Possibly, howerver, Madame Sangalli thought it mighb be easier to ride to Khiva than to get away again, for, despite the Royal prayers and pearls, she declined an engagement. The Khan will be attended whilst in London by a British officer acquainted with his language, who will act cicerone. Royalty cannob altogether disregard him, bub in all probability a single ' dine and sleep' visit to Windsor will be considered sufficient attention by the Qneen. Salvation Aemt Schisms. The Salvation Army eaptrain who followed an announcement of a holiness meeting in Manchester with tha texb • I will . . , purely purge away thy dross and take away all thy tin' (Isaiah I, 28), and remarked that ib was the General's favourite, really meant, it Es thought, to give a sharp rap over the knuckles to beadquarters. Latterly, serious schisms have broken out in the Army anenfc this ' taking away of all the tin.' Botli town and country corps aver that sinco the public subscriptions towards the Booth schemes failed, the exactions of headquarters have become intolerable. The 'San' of April 28th contained a long list of bhe grievances of the Camberwell Cor pa, who have now deserted in a body bo the Wesleyan Methodists. At least, they say, with the latter their earnings will be .their own. A Card Scandal. There is any amount of talk at the clubs just now about a card scandal at a private gambling hell at the West End. lib seems the brother officers of a young guardsman, who was getting systematically plundered ab this reaorfc.hib on the expedient otf organising a mock raid, and assisted l>y four privates of the Regiment, disguised as policemen, carried it oub wifch complete success. The gamblera were fio completely taken aback that they allowed the supposed police to seize the roulette wheel and all the monsy on the table, amonting to over £1,000, and gave their names and addresses like lambs. Not till some days later was the hoax discovered. The raiders restored cha pigeon his losings, which amounted to ! £700 odd, and they talk of handing the balance to a charity. The bib biters threaten • proceedings' of various descriptions, but for their own sakes will hold their tongues. The Sfkaker. Though no announcement hits aa yeb been made in the press, I am in a position to state that the Speaker of the House of Commons will on account of ill-health resign almost immediately—or at any rate at the close of the present session—his augu?b position. The right honourable gentleman has for some time been suffering from a complaint which renders his occupation of the chair for long periods extremely painful. He will, of couree, receive a peerage, and probably go to the Upper House as Viscount Sandy. With regard to his enccessor,it isgenerally admitted that Sir Julian Goidsmid is about tho strongest) man in the House for the Speakership, but he I* not a Gladetonian, and the Conservatives if in offico coald hardly overlook the claims ot Sir Matthew White Ridley. Mr Whitbread would make an admirable Speaker, « and co would Mr Rathbone, but there ara I physical difficulties in the way of the former accepting the dignity, and the latter— after thirty years of hard work- in Parliament during which the ' man in the street' has hardly known hin name—is now about, to retire from public life. In all probability, Sir Julian Goidsmid will ultimately be accepted by the Liberals.