LONDON CHAT.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10269, 11 February 1899, Page 9

LONDON CHAT.

♦>-- (fBOU OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, December 31. ft is always saddening to be obliged to ~ M j pleasant illusions, and yet no journal?Jj_duty is more common. Last week, on 7 & authority of the eminent publishers, Cas!_l and Company. I presented to you a story ll o t the Queen which turns out to be / nocrv.'hal. All that charming tale about Queen's Wi-h." contributed to Casn and t'ompany, I presented to you a story jjjid of Hoiii'Ur. with its pretty touches of tic Royal personality and the licet in the Solent, and so forth, must be regarded merely __- interesting little work of pure fiction. ~ 8 daring flight of imagination. Her Majesty has directed an official intimation to be sent far and wide that "There is not a „j 0 f truth in the story." Alack and wellIt is dUheartening. What with the exposure of Grin, alias de Ilougemont. and Bovrof this "ucii-disant" ex-Maid of Honour, ye never know wheie we are as to questions d fact and fiction. It has now come out that the writer of the f * van , was a certain Mr Alfred T. Story— , m-le 'Maid of Honour - ' you tee! He WHJ "givea avva- by the editor of the :/ *Quiver," who "felt bound to accept the Queens denial—which was really good and ' i obliging of him. -Mr Story was promptly ' ' interviewed oy a Press representative. "Mr Stcrv. says the interviewer, "was r ' very reluctant to discuss the matter*—which I should aav is not at all surprising! But / »t lost he "'owned up," as tue Americans phrase it. It appear, that the alleged conversation, whivii way worked up into a f Christmas message from the Queen to her ''"■ pcop.e, if it eve:' really took place at all, occurred, by Mr Story's own confession, ten '' years ago. ' He says lie mot casually "a lady t if niiduie aj*e, thoroughly reiintd and educated in her manners and speech. He for- ; geis whether her name was mentioned or not, but he is sure she was "the Hon. Mrs and "had been a lady of the bedchamber or something of that kind to the • Quesu." Precision it* evidently Mr Store's , "f- strong point. Well, this "Hon. Mrs " went on telling little anecdotes about the Queen, including that about Her Majesty's "interest in peace." And now wo come to an interesting adf- mission. "I can hardly say whether she ' ■ gave it in exactly the same way as I told n," comfusses Mr Story, "but I am quite / certain that my version is correct in sub- / _t_nce." "My memory of the conversation was very vivid, Mr otory continued, "and I later on I jotted down some shorthand notes ; ' on loose sheets of paper." He "cannot s.iy whether the lad** was relating a conversation which took place between the Queen l and herself, or between tlie Queen and some other member of the Royal "entourage, but, "if what waa said is really untrue, he / "can only suppose that something of the / nature ot the conversation had taken place -;,' at Osborne, and the facts had been aug- ■' ■ mented, and, perhaps, exaggerated in being repeated," and he was "intensely surprMed" to read of the denial. " ' f Some surprise has been occasioned by the almost feverish ki&te with which the building < of tlie new Royal yacht? is being hurried to completion at Pembroke Dockyard. Something like a thousand men are at work on bar, • and the operations proceed day and night. This lias set afloat a report that the Duke and Duchess of York want her for their ; long-talked of voyage to Australia and New ,/ Zealand, and other distant possessions of Great Britain. Bo far as is learned, how- ■. ever, there is not the remotest probability of i, the voyage being undertaken, at any rate in • the Queen's lifetime, as her Majesty has an -j, almost superstitious dread of one in the / direct line of succession to the Throne going ( t so far away. -, t Everybody was pleased to see how well <■ 1 the Prince of* Wales looked, and how well I | he walked, at the Cattle Show. He seemed LA younger and brisker than ever, and trotted ftl about without showing a trace of lus late Xl lameness. their la«t concert the Royal Choral. ,:_( . .society presented two works which have !..) vfon been associated, eac~ being in fact a *. ' choral symphony, although one is named $' par excellence "The Choral Symphony," ',- Beethoven's No. 9, and the other a "Sym- ■>' phonia-Cantota," Mendelssohn's "Lobge«uig," or "Hymn of Praise." The latter is, ,- Of course, one of the Royal Choral's familiar successes, but the former was only once before tackled by the Society, and that many years ago, under tlie late Sir Joseph (then ' Mr) Barnby. / That the purely instrumental portions of Boathoven's great work would make less than ", then* customary impression wlion uerformed with the ordinary orchestra in the vast space of tho Albert Hall, was a foregone conclusion. i^/, hey were ntlm *rably played under the ikllful baton of Sir Frederick Bridge, and some of tlio effects were strikingly fine, -• although the interpretation of the exquisite •low movement seemed to mc and to another .. musical New Zealander present, to lack ' poetic colour as compared with the readings : of Richter and But the singing of the choral setting of Schiller's "Ode to Joy (which forms the finale of the work) by that splendid chorus of a thousand picked and trained Voices, was a veritable revelation of beauty Md grandeur. Certainly I have never before listened to so maiyiificent a presentation of Beethoven s terribly exacting work. The *jsadiness, power, and brilliancy with which u» mass of soprano voices attacked those atgh B s and sustained the A's, were quite remarkable. The solo movements'were beau- ' wully sung by Alico Esty, Ada Crossley, j, L,oyd and D -niel Price—the. last- - named being the famous basso of Westminster Abbey. But I never heard the solo •oprano part so grandly and effectively sung as on several occasions by Amy Sh'erwin. ur the Lobgesang" it only needs to be said that Edward Lloyd was, if possible, finer i .«- er in " He cou ntetb all your sorrow." •ml 'Watchman, will the night soon pass?" ■nd that the unaccompanied chorale, "Let • *U mon praise," was given with absolutely perfect intonation, not the faintest drop in pitch being perceptible when the orchestra Je-entered. This is a very rare feat. ... . The other Sunday, by'the mvi JMion of the London, Brighton and South w»*t Railway authorities?, I journeyed to Brighton and bjKik by the new "Pullman Liauted" express, which lias been put on to oo the journey of just under 51 miles from victoria station in the even hour. As a m»tter/)f fact, Aye did it in 59 minutes going, ..« *M 58 returning. This is respectable work, oat nwre b»by-pby in comparison with what other British lines—such as the Great {forth«n, .North Western, Midland, and Cakdoa vi been doin £ for - years * or with wliat Hie .Northern of France does now. But the wp is quite the perfection of railway luxury, ■> ««> number of passengers being' strictly •united, seats having to be engaged beforeMnd, m fact, many were turned away at iwxh ends last Sunday, and each passenger .1 Yin ? 4 comfo rt**>ble revolving easy-chair to Jnmself or herself, a footstool and table being . abo available if desired. The large window, j -, word a delightfully wide look-out over the P«tty Sussex and Surrey scenery, and the ! running is as smooth as if the cars were I gliding over ice. No exceptional speed was nin, the highest for a short distance downhill being 69.2 miles an hour. This Brighton experiment affords another ?Mk T ** reatl J' hi 8 h s P eed attracts traffic. " , i ."*_* a,rei "iy enormously increased that to / fiSf "' ust M the "r* o6 to Aberdeen" in ■ittO, caused the Anglo-Scottish traffic to | {£ n P Dv leaps and bounds. When you can I oe sure of getting to Brighton in the even | hour, or less, and back in the same time, it I nukes the fifty-one miles journey seem much 1 I* 8 * ""Tuidable for a day's pleasuring—you have nine hours there—and so when people j learned through the Aberdeen race that they i could get from London to Edinburgh in 6. ftik™' t0 Pertll in 7 **' and to -Aberdeen in «i hours, they became awake to the fact that i. Scotland was not so very far off after all— 1 no * a mutter of days—and so they took to J going there. The same rule applies to the A\ * e . nrices between England and New Zealand. /*• {he more you quicken and improve them the j *J ore you will attract British, and indeed J European, visitors to New Zealand. And m ■ach visitors are very profitable imports! . Fi ■ sue "* a * ar i' t; *"• extent are people tak- | (R *d v -ntago of the "Conscience Clause" j Which the Uovernmeot last session so weakly

■ • 1 admitted into the Vaccination Act. that some magistrates have most of their time occupied in hearing and dealing with applications for exemption. In one case the Court sat all night "to get through-the list without blocking business next day. It is quite clear that a third, if not lia'.i, of«ie rising generation will grow up unprotected by vaccination from the attacks of the fell disease which bade fair to be wholly extirpated from this country. All the highest medical authorities in the land Avarn us that a few years will consequently witness an appalling recrudescence of small pox, with its j terrible effects of blindness and frightful disi 'inurement. Tha Life Insurance Companies are being strongly urged to reject all un- : vaccinated applicants, and it is sug_-es>ted I that employers should make vaccination a J ii.ulition of employment. Something as- ■ suredlv will be done toward undoing the , result* of Parliamentary and Ministerial | weakness and folly. ! London society has been quite fluttered by ' the accounts given of the magnificent outlit Lady Curzon is taking oul. It seems that Lord Curzon toid her he wished to bo "the best-dressed woman who ever went out to India." And £o her dresses alone have cost something like £12,000, and tins is exclusive of milliner}-, &c. One society i writer says: "There are more than 100 I dresses, many of them of more than regal ; splendour, and all designed with the highest i artistic taste. Everything is in keeping, : including a two years' supply of shoes. Lady ' Curzon has very small and pretty feet, and it is a fancy of hers to wear on all occa- ■ sici*.*-. the brightest of patent-leather shoes, 1 takin" evident pleasure in their glitter. Womanlike, she'takes immense pleasure too in the glitter of her new rank. Society is horror-stricken to learn that a "split" has occurred in the syndicate which "ran" the Grand Opera so succcssfullv last year after the lamented death of Sir Augustus Harris. It seems that the syndicate made 35 per cent, clear profit out of the last opera season, and now Mr Faber, the owner of the Covent Garden Theatre and properties, wants a larger share. To this I Mr Maurice Grau and the other members Icf the syndicate refuse to agree, and so a total rupture has taken place. Mr Faber declares he can and wiil produce grand opera { as successfully next season as was done last time. But a" large number of the leading artists of the dxv have spontaneously given in their adhesion to Mr Grau, who will probably take Drury Lane and do grand opera there. As the great singers who are sworn to Mr Grau include Eames, Nordica, Calve, Brema, Jean and Edouard de Reszke, Phanci>m, Van Rooy, and* a host of other vocal luminaries, it is not easy to see whence Mr Faber will get his stars. Truo, Melba has not yet committed hersalf, and with her and the new Paris diva Ackte, as prime donne, and the Italian Stentor, Tamagno, as chief tenor, something could be done. But the schism is unfortunate occurring just when grand opera had reached the bigltest pitch of general perfection ever experienced in London. However, good may come out of evil; we may have two grand opera houses running during the London season of 1899.