FOOTLIGHT FLASHES.

Evening Star, Issue 6762, 29 November 1884, Page 4

FOOTLIGHT FLASHES.

Dunning's Opera Company, re-constituted, are playing "Boccaccio" at Adelaide to good houses. " In the Ranks " is proving a very profitable piece in Melbourne. Miss Marie de Grey's Comedy Company, now performing in Melbourne, will visit New Zealand this summer. Mdlle. Emma Nevada was the leading singer at the Norwich Mastcal Festival. It is stated that she has received a tempting offer by Mr Mapleson of an engagement for a tour of the United States after the general elections. Miss Ella Russell is starring in Spain, and will soon make a tour of Russia, beginning at Warsaw. A brilliant artistic career is predicted for Miss Louisa Parker, a young American lady, who is studying for the stage at Paris, and who will make her debut there next spring. The often-rumored Longtry-Gebhard marriage, it is said, is likely to take some definite Bhape when the Jersey beauty returns to America. Before a year is over Mrs Langtry will be Mrs Gebhard. Private letters from England, recently received in Chicago, explain the peculiar condition of affairs which prevents the immediate fructification of the hopes of the fair Englishwoman. The point of effective force is, in short, Mr Langtry. He parted from his wife some three years ago or more, and since that time has gone his way unimpeded, and so has she. Mrs Langtry has had no communication with him whatever the last year. Tnrough a fiieud he was approached on the subject of a divoree, as she did not dare to make the proposition directly. Mr LaDgtry said very coolly : "Certainly ; let there be a divorce. But I must be the plaintiff." It was explained to him that this would be next to impossible to accomplish. His wife would never consent to act in the position of defendant in such a suit, for she would have to bear all the odium. " Then let her remain married till my death," said Mr Langtry, "and," he added, "I am a pretty healthy man." Latterly, however, Mr Langtry has come to believe that perhaps thoy might better be separated. A friend of hers has been working the matter up in her behalf. When the friend said that he ought to consent to the divorce being got against him in place of against her, he said he was not averse to it. He would not oppose any action she should bring if it wore dono decently. The only question in his mind was where the suit should be brought. He understood that in some American States there were several reasons for divorce, and perhaps it would be better to bring the action there, and he would not appear. The reason for Mr Langtry's consent is said to be that he, too, is desirous of marrying, and that he is tired of a single wretchedness fhat offerß no compensation. At a Dublin theatre recently the opera "H.M.S. Pinafore" was performed, and was enthusiastically applauded until the song "He is an Englishman" was sung. This was loudly hissed, and although a determined effort was made by the crowded occupants of the upper circles to drown the hissing with their applause, the Nationalists succeeded in evincing their hatred of everything English. Clara Poole, a Boston (D.S ) contralto, will make her dtbut in Paris next winter.

The sta'e of Mary Anderson's health has been the cause of a great deal of anxiety to her friends. The opening performance of " Rumeo and Juliet" at the London Lyceum, which has been set down for the 18th October, will probably be postponed. Miss Minnie Palmer, an American aotresa, who has been playing in London, on her return home was interviewed by a reporter of the ' Morning Journal,' a New York newspaper which out-Heralds the * Herald.' The account is ushered in by two head-lines — "Hearts at Minnie's Feet" and "An American Girl who Befuddled English Lords." The interview took place in the evening, and "Miaa Palmer was elegantly attired in a pale-blue Batin dress trimmed with white duchease lace, with slippers and hose to match, and a hat which lovingly set off her dainty blonde beauty. Around her neck she wore a most exquisite necklace, composed of a double row of very large diamonds, numbering 175 gems. ' This was presented to her by one of the nobility of England. 1 A lovely bracelet of turquoi.e, rubies, and pearls (the American colors) encircled her dainty wrist, and huge solitaires glistened in her ears." Mias Palmer, besides having "befuddled English lords," did very well for herself in England. She "banked over lOO.OOOdol" (L 20.000), and received presents in value over 30,000d01. She further said: "Had I been the greatest lady in the land I could not have received more generous treatment. X have met and been entertained by all the nobility from the highest to the lowest, but I do not care to go into details in this matter, as I fail to see what eight I have to use the names of honorable ladies and gentlemen, who have shown mc great courtesy, as an advertisement. That sort of notoriety I despise. When I cannot get my name before the public in a legitimate manner, I do not care to be men tioned. This 'Miss So-and-so dined with his Lordship So-and-so last evening' I think contemptible, and I cannot find words sufficiently strong to condemn this practice.''