TABLE TALK.

Evening Star, Issue 7496, 14 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

TABLE TALK.

SOCIAL, FRIVOLOUS, AND SATIRICAL. A hero and a martyr—Out of gaol—Graham re-enters the House-The Queen of Sweden in London —Miss Munck Prince Oscar—English nobodies welcome Irish nonentities—The "fizzle" in Hyde Park—Patents and their values— Who Lord Howard De Walden is— Rumored split betwixt Gilbert and Sullivan Don Quixote Doing the detectives—Success of simple ruses— The Dunn divorce case costs—Prince William of Prussia—His character, etc. —The Prince of Wales at ' Ariaue '— Royalty m ; 3behaves— The 'Star' censures H.R.H.—About the DurhamChetwynd case— How the "Success" affair leaked out—Death of the Editor of 'Field'—lnfallible remedy for seasickne3S_George Moore's new book, 'The King of the Golden River,' as a school prize—Some prices at a recent sale of first editions—New books and editions. Loxdon, February 22. Without much inconvenience to himself, young Mr Cunningham Graham has achieved notoriety, if not immortality. Three months ago no one had heard of such a person, ii the House he was only known by his shaggy red head and excitable manner. At the Reform Club mest people put him down as a trifle—well, " dotty." Now the name of Cunningham Graham is as popular at Radical meetings an Mr Gladstone's. Fervid orators speak of him as a hero and a martyr, and thousands of work'rg men honestly believe he went to prron in defence of their rights and in the cauae of liberty. If the man were not an a«.s he would ma'cemuch of his opportunity. Buthe won't. Mr Graham is too absorbed in Mr Graham's greatness for business. The s'jht of him perking and mincing with conscious importance and conceit as he walked into the House of Commons, amidst the applause of a few Radicals and the chaffing cheers of L'bera's, on Monday afternoon would have made you shout with laughter. Even Mr Stoad, who was in the Speaker's gallery, looked a little disturbed. The Queen of Sweden, Prince Oscar, pud Miss Munck are the ".'jods" of the hour. They have put up at the Grand Hotel and affect to be quite "incog." Tho Prince, who easily be taken for a merchant captain, speeds much of hii time about the docks at the Ea3t End, looking over the various charities, ets. He is said to be a simple, unaffected gcatleman. His fiancde bears a striking resemblance to Miss Forte cue, Eave that she has not that notable you 1"? lady's regular features The Queen and Miss Munck thop a good part of each day, and are a common sight in Regent street.

The welcome "tendecd by English nobodies to Ir r ;h ncr-eulli,?-V as the ' St. James's' driciibed Mr Stead's "monster clemonstrat'on in honor of the Irish patriots," resulted in a melancholy " fizzle." The day was splendidly fine, and a very creditable procession of deputies from the East End Clubs accompanied the heroes of the hour to the meeting. It takes, however, a bi» crowd to make much of a show in Hyde Park, and once inside the gates one saw that the were comparatively speaking a mere handful. Preparations had been made to accommodat3 a hundred thousand people, and there were perhaps 30,000 present— mo.:tly mere sightseers. A few L'bcral members put in an appearance, but they were not well-known men. Altogether the affair fell flat. Judging from some stutbiics which have been appealing in a paper cal'ed 'lnvention,' ic is very often the eimplest patents that yield the biggest p>- ; :es. We are told, for examp'e, that the miner who invented a metal rivet or eyelet at each end of the mouth of coat or t "outers poe'eet to resist the strain caused by the carriage of pieces of ore or heavy tools, has made a Urge fortune out of it. The shoemaker who first thought of tipping children's shoes with copper is also a millionaire, and the patentee of the little rubber tip for lead pencils made L 20,000 at Jcast out of the potion. Colonel Green's "Drive Well," a simple apparatus used by yields royalties worth LGCO.OOO a year, and Cross's "Stylographic Pen" returns L 40,000 per annum to the lucky inventor. The latter is the only pen of the sovfc that la hj, hence its succors. Against the foregoing may be set the discouraging fact that many of the most useful inventions as, for example, Fleuss's wc derful apparatus, which enab'es one t» walk about and breathe freely in the foulest atmosphere—have scarcely paid the costs of patenting. On the who'e the Patent OETue Mupoum is a gloomy and dispiriting place to visit. The great London property of the Duke of Portland, which comprises Cavendish Bquare, Portland place, Hurley street, Wimpole street, and the districts adjacent, passed at the death of the lat3 peer to his sister, the venerable Dowager Lady Howard de Walden, and the mother of the nobleman whose scandalous misconduct is just now the talk of the town. Lord Howard will consequently be one of the richest men in England ere long. He is a coarse, bloatedlooking, elderly man, always more or less intoxicated, or (to put it prettily) a " sad sufferer from dipsomania." Major Burrowes unquestionally gave his brother-in-law a very pretty pummelling. He bears the reputation of being one of the best boxers in the army, and Lord Howard—himself no mean performer—never made a greater mistake than when he " went for" him. Lady Howard is much younger than her liege lord.

On dil the "little rift" between Gilbert and Sullivan has widened into a chasm, and that the partnership which has proved so successful and remunerative will end with the production of the opera now in course of manufacture. Neither, I am told, is very sorry. Sir Arthur wants to get a grand opera on the stocks, and Mr Gilbert is building a theatre at which he proposes exploiting a new actress who will take London by storm. W.S.G. has a knack (or thinks he has) of discovering latent talent. With one notable exception, most of the Savoy songsfcressei have been his protegts. The fair exception, I may mention, is credited with being the cause of the friction betwixt author and composer. ' Don Quixote' will be produced at the Lyceum in April, with Irving as the Don, Ellen Terry as the Duchess, and, if arrangements can possibly be made, Toole as Sancho Panza. The simplest ruses will rpparently suffics to throw the astute Lecocqs of Scotland Yard off a scent. On Thursday week the intelligent officer entnuted with the arrest of Mr Gilhooly, M.P., watched that gentleman and Mr P. O'Brien, M.P., come out of the House and drive quickly away in a hansom. He followed them, meaning to arrest Gilhooly quietly when he alighted. At Hyde Park corner the M.P.'s cab stopped, and Mr O'Brien, who waT conspicuous from wearing a light-colored hat, got out, Half-an-hour later the detective laid a heavy hand on the other occupant of the hansom, who observed cheerfully "3ood evening, officer, Mr Gilhooly got out at Hyde Park corner. We thought it advisable to exchange hats, don't you know," and he burst ©ut laughing at the discomfited office''. An exchange of coats effected a si nilar purpose in the case of another Irish member. Finally a blunder'ng constable absolutely arrested Mr O'Brien in mistake for Mr Gilhooly, and despite remonstrance carried him off to Scotland Yard in triumph. These mistakes made the detectives more careful on Friday, when Mr Gilhooly was at length " taken" just outside Palaoe Yard. It has cost Mr Richard Dunn a pretty penny to divorce his errant spouse. Tio petitioner's costs exceed L2.CLO. Mr H. Wall, jun., does not, it is said, mean to marry the divorcde. In appearance he is a puny, vulgar, liutlecadof i lie genus '"Arry," and he has no means. V.'rat Mrs Dunn can have been thinking about to prefer him to the wealthy bookmaker, who wes a kird, even over-indulgent, husband, no one can imagine, Andy Anderson is very wroth at the way his buxom spouie has been chaffed in the newspapers about her kissing propensit'e^, Prince William of Prussia, the eldebt son of the Crown Prince, is an ill-conditioned swash-buckling " Jingo," who has for years been' on very indifferent terms with his father and mother. In appearance he is German and soldierly, save for one physical defect. This is a withered arm, finished off with a ball of flesh, from which sprout five smaller balls with round nails on them. The sight of this deformed member inspires

strangers with such repulsion that the Prince conceals it in a pouch in his uniform whenever possible. The arm is so weak that he can hardly raise it. Mentally, the Prince falls far short of either his father or mother. He has all the obstinacy aud greed for conquest that distinguished the Kaiser, without any of that grand old man's good qualities. The Princess hj a colorlr.s girl unlikely to exercise much influence, either for good or evil, on her husband or the Empire. Her principal characteristic seems to be parsimoniousness ; indeed, both the Prince and Princess are mean in money matters to a degree. Theatrical management in London is a risky business. Mrs Conover dropped L27.C00 during her three years' lesseeship of the Olympic, and she was not without successes. More recently Mrs Henderson (Mhs Lydia Thompson) has been very unlucky at the Strand. This theatre now passes into the hands of Willie Edouin and his wife, who open with ' Katti,' a piece of the Emmet- Minnie Palmer sort. The Prince of Wales's conduct on the first night of Mr 3 Campbell Praed's now notorious play 'Ariane' has formed the subject of very strong animadversions in the Radical papers. H.R.H., who had dined, was cheerfu 1 , and more inclined to gossip with the fair serene Highness who was his nearest neighbor than to listen to the piece. Throughout the greater part of the evening he turned his back on the stage, and endeavored to engage the lady in conversation, ta'king German to her in loud fines, to the distraction of dress circle and sta'le. In some theatres the private boxes really are private, and this disturbance would not have mattered much, but at the Opera Comique almost every word of the Royal persiflage could be d/stinctly heard. The Prince's manners are usually so good that in many minds theve was a suspicion that he was aci'ng thus deliberately, and the suspicion became well nigh certainty when he disregarded the well-meant cries of " Hush ! hush !" It has since been asserted that H.R.H. was greatly offended Ly a personal remark early in the first tc'j, and wished to mark his sense of displeasure. If so, I can only say it would have been more to the point for him to have left the theatre. The 'Star' devoted a leader to castigatingH.R.H., and the 'Pall Mall,'of course, wa3 very much on the job. At the c'ubs the affair was talked over freely, the general impression apparently being simply that the Prince had dined unusually well. Neither Sir George Chetwynd nor Lord Durham are popular in society. The abortive divorce proceedings did the latter ;■ good deal of harm, as the general opinion was the case should never have come into Court. The Prince of Wales, who is a great friead of the Gerards (Mrs Gerard is Lady Durham's sister) expressed himself strongly on this point, and Lord Durham was in consequence blackballed at the Marlborough Club. Sir George is too sharp to be well liked by turfites. Opinions differ as to the strength of the case Lord Durham has against the baronet. Some say His Lordship is an obstinate pragmatical blockhead, and that stable-boy gossip (utterly worthless when sifted) will prove to be the foundation of his crotchet. The answer to this is that Mr Lowther and Lord Hastings are nothing if not practical, and that they would not back Lord Durham as they do un'ess they believed in the prima fack soundness of his case. "When rogues fall out," etc., etc., is a proverb that applies " pat" to the turf. Displays of temper exposed both the scandals at present convulsing sporting circles. The first occurred in the paddock at Alexandra Park, after Success ran so badly in a selling race there. Wood (who had ridden) advised General Williams to let the worthless beait go at the auction, and he did so. Singularly enough a friend of Wood's bid for the colt, and would have got him for a song but for White, the bookmaker, who rt.n the animal up three or four hundred pounds. Wood's friend had consequently to let it go. The jockey happened to be weighing out at the time. Later, when he heard White had bought Success, he was furious, and abused his friend like a pickpocket, asking him if he wanted to ruin him. These words were overheard and repeated later, the improvement in Success's form within a week giving them peculiar significance. At the subsequent inquiry White confessed to considerably over - laying his book against Success for the Alexandra Park race. Mr J. H, Walsh, for thirty years editor of that lucrative property and successful newspaper the ' Field,' died on Sunday last at his residence at Putney, having achieved the ripe old age of seventy-eight. Mr Walsh was known all over the world as "Stonehenge," the author of a bulky standard work on ' Br'iish Rural Sports,' now in its sixteenth edition. L r ke most successful sporting writers of h's generation, Mr Walsh graduated on ' Bell's Life' in its palmy days. Sir George Chetwynd has resolved to accept the jockey club's advice and prosecute Lord Durham for libel. Lord Hartington will probably be one of the arbitrators, and the Duke of Richmond another. Judge Hawkins is precluded from acting through having practically declared on Lord Durham's side. An infallible remedy has at last been discovered for sea-sickness. It is described as au artificial alkaloid named antipyrine, and is extracted from coal tar. A dose of fortyeight grains taken once a day for three days before embarking will make the most sensitive internal economy proof against even the Bay of Biscay. Patients already stricken with the malady are put all right again with two doses of antipyrine, and the most obstinate cases of long-continued sickness give way before antipyrine injected subcutaneously. Dr Knorr, of Er'angen, is the inventor, and M. Ossian Bonnet, of the French Academy of Medicine, the trumpeter of the new remedy. As yet it has, the latter avers, never failed to give immediate relief.

A rash attempt hjs been made to dramatise Mrs Burnett's delightful story of 'Little Lord Fauntleroy,' and it will be produced next week with Miss Annie Hughes in the leading part (the title role) and Miss Kate Rorke as Dearest. George Moore is going to bring an action for libel against the 'Evening News' for calling him a "literary prostitute," The epithet occurred in a review of George's latest production, 'The Confession of a Young Man,' now running through ' Time.' I have not read this great work yet, but am assured it is quite worthy our English Zola. One of the pleasantest recollection's of my childhood is associated with hearing Professor Ruskin's delightful 'King of the Golden River' read aloud, and gloating over Doyle's inimitable illustrations. I see the London and provincial school boards are using this story freely as a prize book for younger children. The London Board alone gave away 1,500 copies at Christmas. They could hardly have made a better selection. The tale i 3 sweet and wholesome, yet full of romance and adventure, and the i'lustratioi s are Doyle's best work. He never, in fact, did anything better. By the way, at Sotheby's auction rooms en Monday a first edition of the ' King of the Golden River' (1851) fetched LlO. It was in perfectcondition certainly, bui LlO for a book originally published at 2s 8d ! What are bibliomaniacs coming to ? At the same sJe a first edition of ' A'"ce s Adventures in Wonderhvid' (1866), which n comparatively speaking a modern book, sold for L 510 3; Gray's 'E.'egv' (1751) fetched L 2 6; Milton's ' Lycidai,' 1,34 ; 'Paradise Lost' (1668), Lls ; Rogers's Poems (1834), L 9 9s; ' Gulliver's Travels' (1726-7), Lls 10s; Tennyson's 'ln Memoriam' (1850), L 4; Swinburne's and Bal'ads (1866), L2 128; Swinburne's' Queen Mother' (published by Pickering in 1860), L 9; Guy's' Fables' (1738), L 9 53; Dickens's ' Pickwick' (in parts, and not very clean), Ll2 15s; and ' Master Humphrey's Clock' in parts), L 3 12s 6d. All these were, of course, guaranteed first editions, clean, in good condition, and often well bound. The amusing series of ' Letters from Old Friends,' now appearing in the ' St. James's Gazetie,' are very evidently from the same pen as 'Letters from Dead Authors.' Andrew Lang is facile princeps at imitating styles. J. S. Winter's 'Confessions of a Publisher ' is a bitter attack on the head of a well-known firm in the London trade. Other authors have had their knives into him before, notably Mr Besant, The ' Sartor Resartus' in the I Camelot classics series is the best of the '

many new editions of this work now in the market. Mrs Henry Wood's novels will not outlive this generation. The new edition of ' East Lynne ' sold fairly well, but its successor, ' The Channings' (which used to be almost as popular), was very poorly subscribed. A cheap edition of that altogether admirable novel illustrative of Irish life and character, ' Lsmy's Children,' comes out next week. Miss Caroline Fothergill, who last year achieved some success with 'An Enthusiast,' has followed it up with another rather clever story entitled ' A Voice in the Wilderness.' Her work cannot, however, for a moment be compared with Kate Fothergill's.