TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10268, 10 February 1899, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

It says a great deal for the Shakespeare's diligence and zeal of Income. Shakespeare scholars that, '- from the scattered-and comparatively scanty facts which have been handed down to us about Shakespeare's life, they have been able to construct a biography which, though far from complete,- puts us in possession of a very good outline of the poet's career. The i_searches which have been made have not, apparently, exhausted . the field, and critics and commentators continue to build fresh theories upon what sometimes strike tie average reader as rather slender bases of facts. Mr Sidney Lee, in liis new "Life of Shakespeare," enters into interesting speculation as to the amount of Shakespeare's income. Between the year 1587, when i-hakespeare began liis London life, and 1599, Mr Lee estimates that he enjoyed an average income as playwright and actor of £130, which would be equal to rather more than £1000 in these days. In 1599 he became the owner of shares in the Globe Theatre, built in that year by the Burbages and their associates of the Lord Chamberhull's company of licensed actors. It has been suggested that the Burbages made him a shareholder in the new venture so as to retain his valuable sen-ices, and Mr Lee thinks tliat he owned two out of the sixteen shares. The income from these shares, together with what came to him from other sources, amounted, it is b.lieved, to more than £600 a year, equal to about £5000 nowadays. Whether the biographer is justified in assuming thai the poet-dramatist saved and invested £100 of his income, spent another £100 Ln the maintenance, presumably at Stratford, of his family and his parents, and spent the balance himself is hard to say in the absence of evidence to support the theory. But there can be no doubt that he did invest a part of his earnings in land and houses in his native town. After he had been ten years in London ha had saved enough to buy the house in New Place —then one of the largest mansions in Stratford—the remains of which are still shown to every visitor to Stratford. A few years later on he bought 107 acres of arable land, 20 acres of pasture land, and a good cottage and garden, so that in a way he was quite a landed proprietor. Subsequently he bought the unexpired lease of some tithes which brought him in £38 a year, and two or three years before liis death he purchased a house and a piece of • land in London, not far from the Blackfriars Theatre with which, in his city career, he had been connected. Yet, Mr Lee pointout, during his latter j-cars Shakespeare was comparatively poor. "About 1611 he ceased to write for tne stage, and (no doubt consequently) to hold his Globe Theatre shares; and before that year, as he gravi- • tated more and more to Stfatford, he must have ( gradually ceased to act." All he had to leave by liis will was some £1230, equal to £10,000 to-day, in land and money, and not all of. this was yielding him an inccone. Some of his bsqueste—those to his old associates, Burbage, Heminge and Condfell, and, to the poor of Stratford—indicate the direction in which a good part of his income probably went, and one likes him all the better for-his open-liandedness, even though its did' prevent him feaving a fortune. > '-■;''''' The quaintest arrivals at the "To London Dead Letter Office ocSanta cur during December, when Glaus." numbers of letters are posted by . sanall children all , over the country, with the idea of communicating i with Santa' Claus, These are all sent to the Dead Letter Department, where, after being cut open to see they contain nothing of value, they • destroyed. It "seems ; a pity; but what else can be*done with misgives addressed "Santa Claus, Fairyland," "Mr Santa Claus, Jerusalem Gate," "Siuvta Claus, on the roof." Others are to him, care of the large firms who'"deal. | in Christmas toys, in whose warehouses it must.be supposed the generous saint spends much. time. Others, again, show how his snowy appearance impresses the youthful mind. "Mr Santa Claus, -Arctic Regions,' is rather vague, but there is no doubt about the "Mr Santa Glaus; North I»ole," which is a frequent direction. "Leave at the town nearest the North Pole, and give to Saijta Claus as he, passes," writes one thoughtful child, i "Send this to dear Sandy Kloose; ; he.hves in the moon," is a much more difficult order for the Pcsfc Office, and ; "Santa Claus, a hundred f™ high,", is an interesting variant. In the matter of the letters; there is a decided stress upon the phrase "I want." Many culdren, the boys especially, amune almost a "stand and deliver" tone.. Others plead that they have really been such good children ever since la* Christmas Day." One little woman, this last December, honoured Santa Claus by a request for his photograph.-"Will you send mc a work.box and a watch, and I want your pictyre, and a doll." The boys i require soldiers, carts, steam-engines, anything boyish and business-like. The girls, first, last, and continually, demand a doll." There may be other things on the list, but a doll,, "with long white curies," "with blue eyes and pretty hair," must make felicity; perfect. Here is a specimen letter, of the pretty type : —"Mr Santycaus, dear sir,— Will you come to mc and my little sister; we like to play. Pleas send us dolls and everything' nice, and we wilj thank you if you will come. We are to little-girls. We* will not be very afraid of you if you do netlook at us much. Be sure and come my little • sister and I will look for you every day.— Your, little girls.", Though some children, give their names in.full, it is much more usual to sign "Your little boy," "Your loving friend," "Your loving Mary." Santa Claus, the übiquitous and the wise, of course, will know from whom the letter comes.. When, so many of these vague pretty messages are posted, evidently in all good faith, it does not look after all as if the imaginative faculty is declining in children. There is one less charming record—that-only once after the holidays were <over has a letter been sent returning thank 3. But this may be owing to the fact that, as we know the Saint never got his letters, the toys received may not have quite fulfilled their owner's wishes. Public opinion ijj the. An United States is by no Anti-Imperialist means unanimous with League. regard to the annexation of the Philippines. An Anti-Imperialist League has bean formed in New York with an influential list) of officers, among whom is Mr Grover Cleveland, the ex-President, ex-Ministers and Senators, and a number of prominent commercial men. The policy of this League, is stated as ( follows :-r-"To protest against any extension of the sovereignty of the United States'over tli- Philippine Islands in any event, and over any other foreign territory - without the' free consent of the people thereof, believing such action would be dangercos- to the Republic, wasteful of its resources; in violation of constitutional principles, and fraught with moral and physical evils to our people." So far, however, the majority of the p-ople of the United States arc with the President. The country is still Republican, and that counts for a good deal, though even among the Democrats the policy of expaniion finds some support. The "New

1 ' -» ■■;■- :;SS York Herald" has been collecting ih» opinions of the people as expressed through ; ! more than 500 newspapers in all parts of the * country, 'including the most influential organs of every State. Of the 544 papers thus - canvassed, 329 favoured expansion, 203 di». '■$ approved of it, and 12 "sat on the fence." M The South .was largely against President McKinley's Imperialistic designs, but in t_e West the "forward policy" found plenty of at the rate of two to one; tlw same.proportion holds good in the Middle* States, while in Puritan New England thd' "war and expansion" party was smaller. Among the newspapers live to one ol tho' leading Republican journals are said to advocate expansion, and nearly thres out of every four Democratic papers oppose it while the Independents approve of it at tlio rate of two to one. In any case, while the ground for disapproving of the policy my increase with the increased cost, bath in nien and money, of reducing the Filipinos to order, ib is now too late for America to turn back, even if she wished to do so. She has entered upon a course from which she cannot retrace her steps without an enormous loss of*prestige. We are convinced that no patriotic American, bo he Republican or Democrat, could really find it in his heart to wish to sec his -Suntry become a laughingstock among the nations for abandoning a task because she found it more costly and unpleasant than she expected. A (jrk.vteu step or » " From Stage greater change than tliar to Convent, from the stage to the convent seems hardly possible . for a girl to make. A great English actress, it is true, joined the Salvation Army _• year or two ago, but she was a comparatively old woman, and the Salvation Army, after all. does allow its converts to relieve Uieir feelings and express their views in ways not very far removed from those of the stage. But to quit the stage of comic opera, where all is colour and glitter and melody, when qne is in the full Hush of youth, for the solemn quietness and stereotyped life of the convent nmst be like stepping out of one world into another. Yet this is what Mia Dorothy Vane, leading soprano of Williamson and Musgrovo's Comic Opera Company, proposes to do in two years' time. Miss Vane is a recent importation from England, and ha? ' become most popular iv "the Finn's" new productions, such as "La Poupee," in Melbourne. Her engagement in Australia lasts for two years more, so that we shall probably see her round here some day. When she ha_ finished, she declares that she will also have finished her stage caraer, and will go into a convent somewhere in England. Her mind, she assured an "Age" inter- j viewer,was quite made up, and she knew of nothing that would induce her to alter her i resolve, as she quite understood all the consequences of her proposed action. "What • nonsense!" cried Mrs Braey, who was present at the interview; "you talk like an old woman, my dear," and she further added wisely, apparently for the ben-fit of the despondent interviewer, "All sorts of thing? ' may happen in two years." But Miss Vane'g confidence that she 'would not change her mind was not to be shaken. The news of her determination will no doubt add still greater interest to the young Judy's appearances during the next two years, aud this cir- , curiisfanco will at least console h.r em*" for their approaching lbss. .'. ' ,