Scissors.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5899, 2 August 1890, Page 4

Scissors.

The Egyptian Government has granted a Bubsddy of £40,000 to tho malinger of the Opera-house in Cairo for the ensuing winter reason, which will commence) on the Ist of -DeuembiT and terminate about the end of March.

M. Sardou'e health is now completely reestablished, and he is .spending the summer at his country {residence, iv Marly-le-Koi, where ho is working hard at his now drama, entitled " Cleopatra," which is rapidly approaching completion.

Mr d'Orsay Ogden, an actor who waa at ono time well known in this colony, has returned to San Francisco aftor an absence of sixteon years. On leaving these colonies he visited Java and India, and carries with him to the Pacific Slope a curious budget of adventures, real and imaginary.

Although it is close upon fifty years ago since Mr JDion Boucicault produced his first comedy, his brain seems to be as active as ever, and he , is now—or was the other day— giving the finishing touches to a comedy and a drama which ho has been commissioned to write for two of the leading theatres in New York.

Knglish playwrights have so long accustomed us to adaptations of French dram«s that it comes upon us with the shock of an agreeable surpriso to be informed that Mr 11. A. Jones's play, entitled " Tho Middleman," is being translated for representation in Paris by M. Pierre Berton, who will sustain in it tho part created by Mr Willard.

Among tho young actors who are coming to the front in London are two who are players by inheritancn. Mr Gilbert Haro, who has just made his mark in " Mamma," is the only son of Mr John Hare, and the godson of Mr W. S. Gilbert, the dramatist. Mr Sidney Brough, who made quite a hit in the same piece, is also a ecion of the wellknown theatrical family of that name.

In the United States the business of a theatrical agent is found to bo so much more lucrative than the profession of a journalist that something like twenty nowspaper editors or critics have foresaken their former calling in favor of a travelling agency, and are flooding the country with puffs preliminary of the various stars they are piloting from east to west. Even the dramatic critic of so influential and opulent a daily paper as the New York Herald has turned showman.

A farmer read in an Agricultural journal: " A siio window in a stable makes a horso's eyes weak on that side : a window in front hurts his eyes h- the glare ; a window behind him makes him squint-eyed ; a window on a diagonal lino makes him shy when he travels; and a stable without a window makes him blind." The furinor has written to the editor of the agricultural paper nskinar what eiiect a window without a stable wouid have on his horse's eyes.

small boy is not notably proficient in iiacred lore, butjwhen hi* sister referred to him the qut.Ty : " Whnro was Solomon's Temple r" ',11c indignantly rosentt'd the eujjpowl impiMchimiit of hin stock of infonnatinn and vftortiil: "Don't you think I l-iiuw aiiythi , .!','?"' t>\v: assured him fchi; did uot doiibt. thnf hr know, but urgyd him to j-tut.o for Ih't- bL'iv-fit. Though uotcrulitinir her siuetrity, Ti>> finally exclaimed v.-ith exasperation : " On tin: side of his head of course, where ot'ier falks are ! You suppose I'm a fool r"

In the second part of "La Jenncsso de Louis XIV.," by Alexander Dumas, which has been produced at the Porto St. Martin Theatre in Paris, there i* a brilliant ropreMcntiitiou of a hunt by torchlight in the Forest of Foutahiebleau. To ensure the verisimilitude of the animated scene, a fine puck of hounds, thirty in number, has been imported from Scotland, by M. Geoffrey St. Hilaire, und a largo kennel has been set apart for thoir reception and safe custody in the Jardin d'Acclimatation.

Messrs Williamson and Garner are about to undertake the production of two novelties, iv the shape of opi-ras, 'ho one beiug Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan's last effort in collaboration, "The Gondoliers," nnd the other Slaughter's " llarjorio," tho colonial riifhts of which have just bren secured by lilr Williamson. Tho latter bus had an extr.udtd run in London, and has achieved tho greatest popularity. According to present arrangements "Tho Gondoliers" will bo produced in Mclbounio in Septembor next. Tho choruses of the work have been rehearsed to some t-xti-nt during tho Wow Zealand tour of Messrs Williamson and Garner's opera company.

One of the latest and most perfect stage illusions which skill and science havo succeeded iv producing hast been presented on tho stage of tho Union-square Theatre, in Now York. The spectators aro witnesses of a. genuine horsorace, ridden by jockeys who liberally apply both whip and spur. Objects seem to fly past thorn at racing fipeed, and the contest in perceived from start to fiuisu. Au electric motor unrolls with thu utmost rapidity tho canvas behind, and another shifts tho ground in an oppohito direction, while a third moves the fencing which forms tho boundary of the racecourse ; and a fourth sends a current of air in tho tV_o of tho jockeys, agitating tho wlk of their jackets. The aggregate eiiect is said to be moet remarkable.

A singular person has just died at Of en, in Hungary. Fraulein Lina liad not for thirty years μ-one outeide her house. The frauk-in «••<• tlie dauirhttr of well-to-do parents. Thirty year* ago she was a pretty girl, and was about to bo married. Her lover one Any, to tent her " obedienco uud love," dosiri'd her on a certain iau&t day not to go into tho streets. S)ie promised sho would not, but did not keep her promise, aud went into tho town. Tho next, day Lor lover eaine to see her, and straightway released her from her en;ra;fMueiit, Haying , that a lady who could not make so small a sacriiico wus not ratable to he hi* wife Miss Linn, by way of " castigatiou and exorciee devout," thereupon made a vowthat never again durintr her lifetime would she leave the house, and she kept her word.

The spirited way in which the ladies of fashionable Paris gavo it lesson recently to a fair dtrungec from the far south would do credit to tho culebrutod fcmi/iia </' esprit of the Ifirt-t Empire. The young- stranger, who in " fort millionaire," appeared at a dance Hpartclinjr with magnificent diamonds. At tbo next dance; tho Parinian ladies, unwilling to bo outshone, had deeitcd themselves out in all their jewollcry ; hut a day after they were ag-uiu eclipsed by the un-heard-of wealth of precious stones worn by tho South American lady. At the fourth pjrty tho latter caino in once again, glittc-r----iiiy like a ."tarry night, but to her inUii.-w mortification none of the Parisian Indies wore diumono* ; but had, a.i tiieir only ornaments, tlio most gract-ful of fresh flowers, which wero universafly voted to be iufiuitcly superior to tho " stories."

The post of Master of CcrcinonicH at tho liufjlifh Court i?< a very unimportant one. In fact, it is somewhat of a misnomer— nearly all scrcmoniul fuuetions ji«----t-itmofl to other oflicer , llu chief duty is to introduce the diplomatic bady when they aro to have autiii.!ic(; with the Queen. It is very diii'erwit in other countries. I wae onco talking , to a Riis.-ian lady, who, among.*!; other tinned, that her lamband'.-i father r.-un, i.uxl Iμ tliu Tzar, the must powerful and iiupuri.int. man in Kiiswiii. " n iVhar, is lie," I Haid, "Minister for I'oreigu Affairs , : , " "Wo!" Mio i-:tid : " that's a Jew." "Minister of the Interior I-, , I "No! hu's not in society." " What in your father -in-luw, then r" I asked " Well, I don't w.nt to frighten you; but he'd Muster of Corcmonic'j iit tho AVinter Pulaee."