TABLE TALK.

Evening Star, Issue 7788, 8 December 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

TABLE TALK.

BRIEF NOTES ABOUT PEOPLE, PLAYS, AND PASTIMES. [Fbou Our Special Correspondent. | London, October 20. Both Sir Moroll Mackenzie and Messrs Sampson Low and Co. were intensely chagrined at the premature publication in the ‘ Standard ’ and the ‘ New York Herald ’ ot the greater part of the former’s book. Extraordinary precautions had been taken to keep the contents a secret up to the proper time; and even now it can only b-a vaguely surmised how the “ copy ” was got at. The ‘New York Sun’ arranged with Messrs Low for the issue of the book in the form of a supplement on Sunday last, and advance sheets were duly posted to America, which arrived on Saturday morning. Two days previously, however, the ‘Herald’ forestalled its contemporary, publishing five columns (embracing all the notable portions of Sir Morell’s work), telegraphed from Paris. Naturally, the ‘Sun’has repudiated itscontract, and the publishers will lose several thousand pounds. That they have a traitor in the camp is also apparent from the fact that copious verbatim extracts were offered to the ‘ Pall Mall ’ on Wednesday week for LI.OOO and refused. Subsequently most of them appeared in Friday’s ‘Standard.’ The redoubtable Mrs Langworthy is about to be married again. Rumor credits Mr James B. Westropp, of the old Manor House, Windsor, with being the happy man. Lord Tennyson has become very infirm, and is sadly afflicted with failing sight. The Frenchman who laid Fry, the big bookmaker, L 6.000 to L2OO on Seabreeze beating her sole opponent Bellatrix for the Newmarket Oaks last week had a bad five minutes till the winner’s number went up. The Leger heroine van so badly that she only caught the weedy Bellatrix in the last stride, and got home by the shortest of heads. From the ring it really looked as though Seabreeze hj I lost, and the Frenchman’s face was a picture of misery. Brilliant dialogue is of far more importance than a good plot or clever characterisation in modern comedy. ‘ Booties’s Baby ’ had the makings of a successful play. The story said situations wore good, but the dialogue was so unutterably commonplace that one grew bored. Now, in the new play * The Dean and His Daughter,’ at the St. James’s Theatre, the plot is horrid—you know Mr Philips’s novel, of course—and the characters are mostly odious, yet so bright and amusing is the dialogue that it and two effective tableaux save the piece. I do not, however, think It will run long. Mr Gilbert’s version of ‘ Roicola,’ with his protegee Julia Neilson in the title role and Mr Lewis Waller as the errant Tito Meleina, will be Mr Rutland Barrington’s next venture. Lovers of theatrical lore should find plenty to interest them in the reminiscences of the veteran actor and manager, John Coleman, which will be published to-morrow by Chatto and W’indus, ‘ Toole’s Reminiscences ’ (with 200 appropriate illustrations) are also promised for this week, and next we shall have the autobiography of the octogenarian Westland Marston. I say nothing of Mr Fitzgerald Molloy’s admirable ‘Story of Edmund Kean,’ as I fancy very few colonists take much interest in the lives of the great actors of the past. The long-pending divorce case which has twice been smothered just as public proceedings were about to be taken is said at last to be coming into Court. At any rate, Sir Charles Russell has been retained by the noble petitioner. There are no less than 146 travelling companies touring the English provinces just now. Amongst tho moat formidable may be mentioned Augustus Hairis’s Italian Opera Company, consisting of 120 persons; Henry Irving’s Lyceum Company, ninety strong; and Mias Anderson’s Lyceum Company of over 100 persons. All these carry their own scenery and costumes with them. Miss Anderson had 1,000 dresses made for her nresent tour.

Minting waa struck out of the Cambridgeshire directly after his defeat in the Champion Stakes last week. The old horse began to flounder just where he did in the Middle Park Plate and Ormonde’s Two Thousand viz., in the Abingdon Mile Bottom. His best races have always been run up hill (as at Ascot) or on perfectly flat courses like Kempton. He cannot act down hill. Even had the course been favorable, it is, however, doubtful whether Minting could have beaten Friar’s Balaam last Thursday. “ The Balsam ” has quite recovered from the' ailment that blighted his Derby prospects in the spring, and is now in all probability the best horse in England, The now Lord Mayor has sensibly resolved to obliterate the circus element from the coming 9th of November show, and give the money usually spent on Sanger and Co. to the poor. The only objectors to this move are the thieves who plunder sightseers and the tradesmen with windows to let on the line of route. Though the banquet on the 9th costs the Lord Mayor L 2,000, he is (according to precedent) only entitled to name forty guests. The sheriffs, aldermen, etc., etc., all invite contingents. Readers of ‘ Blackwood’s Magazine ’ in New Zealand may be interested to learn that the extraordinary story ‘ Aut Diabolus autj Nihil,’ in the October number, is founded on well-known facts. Some years ago the circumstances were, indeed, the talk of fashionable Paris. At that time gossip credited the Abb<s Hurd, the popular preacher at the Madeleine, with being the clergyman who was introduced to Satan in propriaperacmce at an infamous Spiritualists’ stance, and whose nerves never recovered the terrible shock. The “Due De Frontignac ” of the story is easily indentifled as the Due D e Caderonsse; whilst “ Poraerantse ” can only be Prince Paul Demidotl - . The Abbd Hurd, so the legend went, denied the personality of the Devil, and the Prince undertook to convince him of it. The priest was conducted blindfold to one of the unhallowed dens of a secret society of Spiritualists, and there witnessed a fearsome and appalling stance. The Devil appeared in a wholly unexpected guise, and the conviction in the Abba’s mind that he was the victim of an elaborate hoax gradually gave way to a very disagreeable feeling indeed. But if you want to know all about it, read ‘ Blackwood.’

Amongst the interesting works to be published this season by ‘ Bentley’s ’ may be mentioned the ‘ Literary Reminiscences ’ of Mr John Francis, for fifty years connected with the ‘Athenaeum’; the ‘Life of Lord Westbury,’ by John Nash ; and a volume of further ‘Reminiscences’ by W. P. Frith, B.A.

A new and enlarged edition of that delightful compilation ‘The Book-Lover’s Enchiridion’ is just out, and should be on the shelves of every well-regulated library. It is a treasury of noble and beautiful thoughts on the solace and companionship of books, gathered from the writings of all the greatest thinkers and poets.

Mr J. M. Levy, the senior proprietor of the ‘Telegraph,’ died last Saturday at the ripe old age of seventy-seven. It was he who mainly made the fortune of that journal. Old Levy never pretended to be a litterateur , but as a business manager and a judge of what the public wanted he had no equal. Many a time, when Edwin Arnold and Levy Lawson, fearing criticism, would have passed over some murder or scandal briefly, he insisted on its being duly dished up with full details. The one criterion he went by was the circulation of his paper. When it rose he was geniality itseu ; when it fell, woe betide everybody. Latterly he had resigned the general management to Mr Levy Lawson, who, if less fussy, is equally capable. ‘The Inner House’ is the title which Walter Besant has given to the Christmas story he is writing for ‘ Arrowamith’s Annual.’ Haddon Chambers, the young Australian author of ‘ Captain Swift,’ takes 10 per cent, of the gross proceeds at the Haymarket daring the run of his piece. This means about Ll5O a week. Mr Fronde and Lord Carnarvon are comparing notes on their visits to the Australian colonies at Highclere Castle. There should be about thirty runners for the Cambridgeshire Stakes next Tuesday, which will for the first time be run on the last mile and a-quarter of the Cesarewitoh course, instead of finishing up the stiff Criterion hill. The lightly-weighted Mamra (i yrs, 6,6) is rightly a very hot favorite, as

she has only got to run up to her public trial in the Champion Stakes last week to win easily. The Cesarewitch winner, Tenebreuse (4 yrs, 8.11), is also very much fancied ; in fact, even money would be laid on one of this pair securing the verdict. Arthur Cooper, Johnny O’Neil, and a very clever division arc standing the speedy Bismarck (3 yrs, 7.6), notwithstanding that five furlongs has hitherto seemed the full length of his tether. Old Tom Jennings fancies Sheen, and Mr “ Abington ” Baird has backed Gallinule (4 yrs, 7.9) to win a big stake. Of the outsiders, I like the chances of Attila, ('ictus, ad Candlemas best. Personally, indeed, 1 would much rather take 25 to 1 about one of the latter than 4 to 1 Mamra.

Despite constant rumors to the effect that the police “ have their eye ” on tho Whitechapel murderer, nothing definite has been done, and in the opinion of most people the affair is as much wrapt in mystery now as it was three weeks ago. The latest theory declares the murderer to be a foreign sailor well-known about Whitechapel, who was in the habit of threatening unfortunates and vowing he would rip thorn up some day. This fellow has been positively denounced by more than one woman, and tallies in point of appearance with the man laat seen with Elizabeth Stride. The police are understood to be shadowing him in the hope of some evidence turning up, but have not either examined or detained him yet. This doesn’t look as if there were much in it.