TABLE TALK.

Evening Star, Issue 7988, 17 August 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

TABLE TALK.

«► [From Our London* Cokkespoxdrnt.] Preparations for receiving the Shah—The visit to the opera Contretemps in 187-I—An important obiter dicta— Dr Charcot pronounces hypnotism dangerous ÜBed as a therapeutic agentResults of experiments—A victim of De Meyer Sleepless and nerveless A complete wreck—The Maybrick case— The latest—Who Sir George Chetwynd is The Dangan breach of promiseArranged for L2.soo—The forged telegram The Danbydale CommissionTurf chat Theatrical gossip The I Letine jase—A coincidence—Literary notes—New books, etc. I London, Juue 27. I A lively recollection of the condition in ! which Buckingham Palace was left after I Nasr-ed-din's visit in IS— has induced Her ! Majesty to remove all furniture and bric-a-brac which she values from the State apartments, and to refurnish them suitably, with a special view to the Shah's convenience and eccentricities. This has been an expensive business, and our frugal - minded Sovereign has groaned in spirit over it. The royal entry of the Shah into London on Wednesday next is to be a pageant of unusual magnificence, and the streets on the route—from the Speaker's steps at Westminster (where His Majesty will land) to Buckingham Palace—are to be hung with flags and lined with mounted troops. An escort of Hussars will accompany the Shah whenever he appears in public in London, and the Queen's semi-state carriages have been placed at his disposal. Augustus Harris is making the most elaborate preparations for the Shah's visit to Covent Garden, and the librarians ask LlO a piece (the nominal price is three guineas) for the few stalls open to the public. It is sincerely to be hoped that no contretemps, such as threatened to mar the Shah's visit to the Royal Italian Opera in 1873, will occur this time. On that occasion, though the Prince of Wales and the English Royalties arrived punctually at nine (the hour fixed for tho commencement of the performance), the Shah and his satellites failed to put in an appearance till 10.30 or even later. By this time the first act of the 'Traviata,' in which Christine Nillson (then at the zenith of her popularity) played ' Violetta' in a magnificent costume (specially ordered for the occasion), was over, and Titieus was singing iu an act of ' Lucrezia Borgia.' An act of' Mignon' ought to have wound up the evening, but to the horror of the management Nillson turned sulky and . declined to play the beggar girl. She would only be pacified by an immediate introduction to the Shah, to whom she said she wished to explain matters. This had consequently to be effected some how, and presently Nasred-Jin (conversing with the Prince of Wales in hia retiring room) was astounded by the vision of a pretty woman in picturesque rags who, skipping up to him, wagged a dainty ringer iu his face, and said in French: "Oh! yon naughty, naughty Shah to be so late ; I had got such a lovely frock to sing to your Majesty in, and now you will only see me in this beggar girl's dress." Public feeling runs so high in Liverpool i against Mth Maybrick that it is said, in i justice to that lady, her trial will be re- : moved to the Queen'rf Bench Court in London. i There is wailing and gnashing of teeth at • Girton and Newnham this week. Instead ] of six fair students (as was confidently expected) securing "firsts" in classics but . one appears iu the lists, and then only in i the third division. Moreover, this is not the ] worst. A would-bu lady doctor, it fluent speaker, and a "man-hater" of the most < advanced type has absolutely been it;nomini- < ously "ploughed"—just like a common i boy '. i The great Parisian expert Dr Charcot has J found himself reluctantly obliged to announce that all hopes of making hypnotism (or ] mesmerism, as we call it) an important a therapeutic agent in nervous diseases must t be abandoned. " The chief hope of the c hypnotists appears to have been based upon t the treatment by what is known as the \ theory of suggestion of various obscure J nervous diseases, such as certain forms of c paralysis and hysteria. The theory apt parently is first to mesmerise the patient, f and then, while he is in that state, so to f work upon his will by force of suggestion as r to induce him to throw off the disease, I which, in many cases, as is well known, is 1 inly of a mental or hypochondriacal form. Many remarkable instances of cures wrought £ in this way have been recorded from time to 1 time; butwhetheruponsatisfactorye% r idenco g ive cannot say. At any rate the experience of ( Dr Charcot, an extensive one gained at the c Salpetriere in Paris, does not enable him to j jutertain any sanguine hope that the system e will prove more beneficial than others which a lave been tried and found wanting before it. c Whatever theory may be held as to the t treatment of paralysis by hypnotic sugges- C iion, Dr Charcot docs not hesitate to say o ihat in practice the system is not so effi- « jacious as it was expected to be. He says : v —' Since my first experiments in hypnotism g it the Salpetriere we have often employed it t ivith advantage in the case of patients sus:eptible to it to cure tnem of the various ii lymptoms commonly characteristic ot hys- e, ;eria, and we almost thought that nothing C ,vas easier than to cure quickly and cer- d :ainly in this way all hysterical affections, a Hut we were soon forced to the opposite con- t: 'iction; the study of male hysteria especially a-»a'-e the death-blow to the illusion. We hj liscovered that with a little perseverance d ye could hypnotise a whole number of ii vomen, and while they were in thiaconlition free them from their momentary f< lymptoms; with a number of others it was w mposßible to induce hypnotism. In the S :ase of the male sex the position was re- a 'ersed. In the far larger number of cases t is exceedingly difficult to hypnotise T lysterical men ; and it may be added that ti t is often dangerous to do so, and in the g najority of cases useless. The danger was T ihown by the fact that more than once it " wppened that in the effort to hypnotise an si lysterical man an attack of convulsions was is irought on, and that thenceforth the dispolition to such attacks remained ; so that tho ti tttempt to cure, far from benefiting the w patient, only did him harm. In summing tl ip, Dr Charcot admits that the system may ' je useful in the case of hysterical women, li vho are easily hypnotised ; but that it w s valueless as a therapeutic system in organic fi lervous disease, such as epilepsy. Those d vho expect more of it, or employ it un- n sritically, will, he says, derive "nothing ir rom it but mischief and perplexity." hj I can from my own knowledge add a few S acts to this. You may remember my describ- w ng to you a remarkable series of exhibitions cl if mesmerism by a Dr Milo De Meyer at St. w 'ames's Hall last winter. I told you then B hat some of the subjects experimented upon tl yeut every night to the platform, and that 1« irhen closely questioned they averred the e: irocess seemed to do them little or no harm, si Yell, the other day I met quite accidentally tl n the train one of these young men. He w ooked ill, and volunteered the information lu hat he had never been right since the De R lever seances. At first he said he went to I cr it, James's Hall because he lilted going, | B

but after a time it began to uffect his sleep and upset his nerves. He tried to give it up, but every night at eight he somehow found himself in the hall. The Professor never asked him to come again when awake, but ho believed he ordered him to do so when mesmerised. At last he taxed De Meyer with this. The horrid man only laughed, and said his nerves were unetruntr; I <;.'. v.".!dd i'.iv,- hurt ;i ton ; c. When at l;i"t S i •>• M.:-VC!' h'i't i, ; ,..::.(ir. fur 1a..l v.:u\ U: i'»r h.-'i.•.■•.■ \hx.i ;•« moil*!'.. »ii' !';iid J''...- ili<';i.dti ; . !."..,i«'.'ly in-;etii i,;;' ij : Aj.'yU!' Ui.:aiii. .IS ill! I;uew he would bo obligeil to do whatever the man told him. Others also could mesmerise him now. Hia elder brother occasionally did so to get him to sleep. He slept very badly now, whereas he had onee slept very well. He added that he cursed the day he allowed the hyperotist to fascinate him. This is not a very dreadful story, perhaps, but it should suffice to prevent sensible youths from tampering with unknown powers. Personally, I am now more than ever of opinion that hypnotism should be made the subject of legislation. Eight performances a week were beginning to tell on little Vera Beringer, and, in consequence, * The Real Little Lord Pauntleroy' has been taken out of tho evening bill at the Opera Comique. Willie Edouin and Alice Atherton replace tho Beringers with a silly farce called ' Our Fiat,' which met with a doubtful reception at a matinee recently. Another apparently equally foolish play, called ' /Esop's Fables,' was unequivocally damned at the Strand Theatre on Saturday. It is not correct that Sir C. Russell has accepted a brief for the defence in the Maybrick case. The fair prisoner's interests have been confided to Mr Gully, Q.C., M.P., who shares with Mr Addison the honor of getting most of tho smart briefs on the northern circuit. Mrs Maybrick's friends moved Heaven and earth to secure Sir Edward Clark, whose great speech on behalf of Mrs Bartlett in tho Pimlico poisoning ci\se was the most brilliant forensic effort of recent times, and unquestionably got the lady off. Unfortunately, Sir Edward's official position made it impossible for him to appear at Liverpool Assizes. It is worth remembering, by the way, that before Mrs Bartlett's trial people professed themselves quite as certain of her conviction as they do now of Mrs Maybrick's. Sir George Chetwynd first came into notice in 1870, when as a mere boy just of age he married the widow of the notorious Marquis of Hastings, a lady seven years older than himself. The Marchioness began life by engaging herself to Mr Henry Chaplin, but repenting of her choice, eloped with Lord Hastings. Hence the feud between the two men, which led to Lord Hastings splenetically laying enormous bets against Hermit (then a crack two-year-old) winning the Derby of 1867. How the colt, after going all to pieces, and starting at forlorn odds, won Mr Chaplin the race and LIOO.OOO in bets all the world knows. Lady Hastings was a daughter of the late Marquis of Anglesey. It has at length been formally announced that Phyllis Broughton's divorce suit against Lord Dangan has been compromised for L 2.500, the bridegroom paying all costs. The fair Phyllis for a long time held out for L 5,000, and at the clubs many wagers were laid that she got it. Lord Dangan's parents, however, refused to be intimidated. They were anxious, they admitted, to avoid the disagreeables of a count celebre, and would pay a reasonable sum to avoid it, but L 5.000 was too much. No jury would give Miss Broughton that. It is quite, untrue that, as stated in a number of papers, the Prince of Wales tried to bring about a reconciliation between Lord Durham and Sir George Chetwynd. He has all along been strongly of opinion that the inquiry must be pushed to an issue. The rumors of a settlement rife at Ascot were the result of a mischievous forged telegram sent Mr Henry Chaplin, and signed "Henry James." Lord Durham's assertion in the witnessbox on Monday that he believed both Sir George Chstwynd and Sherrard to be impecunious, and forced to do just what Wood wished, caused a great sensation, as did his declaration that all Mr W. Burton's horses were really Wood's. Sir George managed to look indifferent and unconscious, but both Wood and Sherrard scowled horribly. The stable commission on Danbydale, the horse that was so unluckily left at the post for the Hunt Cup at Ascot last Wednesday, was L5,0C0, and of this L 3.000 was Captain Machell's own money. They had tried the coit within 101b of tho famous Seabreeze, and looked upon the race as all over but shouting. The public expected that an attempt would be made to get bfick the Hunt Cup losings in the Wokingham Stakes on Friday, in which Danbydale was also very well handicapped, but Captain Machell preferred to keep him for some bigger stake. After Surefoot won the New Stakes at Ascot on Thursday a bet of Lfi.ooo to LI.OOO was taken about the colt winning next year's Derby. Donovan will not reappear on a racecourse until he comes out at Doncaster to contest the St. Leger, for which (dismal recollections of Kisber, Bend Or, and Ayrshire tragedies notwithstanding) the Derby winner is already an odds-on favorite. For the Wokingham Stakes at Ascot on Friday the Hunt Cup winner Whitelegs was made a good favorite in a respectable Held, but Blake failing on this occasion to get off half a dozen lengths in front of everything else, his mount never showed in the van. Another youngster, however (little Peake), successfully adopted Blake's tactics . jf Wednesday, and slipping the field with the lightly weighted Bret Harte (by i Speculum out of Rent Day) won anyhow irom Johnny Morgan and Veracity, both much fancied for places. Bret Harte belongs to Mr George Cleveland, and up to ; Friday last had never won a race. Pending the production of George R. Sims's new piece, ' The Shaugraun' has jeen revived at the Adelphi, and really ?oes extremely well. Terriss, tho irresistible not a day older than when he i created the part at Drury Lane in 1875), i Mays Captain Molyneux as spiritedly as jver, and Miss Mill ward is a delightfully ■ irch Claire. Little Johnny Shine, the low . ;omedian of the theatre, has a great oppor;unity in Bouey's own particular part of j Uonn, the Shaugraun, and makes the most i if it, though his brogue struck me as a trifle i 'off" occasionally. The scenery, etc, are i vhat one expects at this house, and alto- < »ether the programme should draw well for \ ;he few weeks it is wanted. ] Miss Murie Tempest, who has been living < n retirement since the Leslie divorce \ ■sclandre, assumed the role of Doris in Mr i ]ellier's comic opera at the Lyric on Satur- i lay evening for the first time. There was j m immense house, and when Miss Tempest, \ rembling visibly, made her appearance, f ome stern moralists in the pit began to ( itss. They were, however, quickly clapped lown, and later the lady, who proved to be t n beautiful voice, was recalled twice. i Leonora Braham, who has not been very ( ortunate since her Australian tour, takes t irhat Aug. Moore calls a "begabit at the \ iavoy this afternoon. Scenes from Gilbert's ] omic operas form the programme. e The private performance at the Empire i ?heatre, which Mr Reuben Sassoon has r aken for the night of July 4, will be c ;raced by the Shah and numerous royalties, a ?here are to be two ballets, various variety \ ' turns" of the best class, and a grand a upper. About 1,000 invitations have been n 3sued, t A Bomewhat odd coincidence in connec- a ion with the "Lambeth tragedy" maybe r Forth mentioning. In the June number of a he ' Sunday Magazine,' under the title of hj An Acrobat's Girlhood,' the story of poor t ittle Beatrice Currah's life is told almost I rord for word as the world knows it to-day t rom the daily papers. Almost the only a ifference in the two narratives is that the p ames are different, and the father does not I a fiction murder the head of the aero- a; atic troupe. The authoress, Miss Hesba e Itretton, whose life seems devoted to ti writing tales of this class, has not yet de- e lared herself as to whether or no she was p ?riting the biography of the unfortunate tl Jeatriee, or, on the other hand, whether G he story was pure fiction. If the 1 »tter, surely it is one of the most ] xtraordinary cases of a type of second b ight ever known. Almost all details— ti he putting on of plasters, the gradual p weakening, the father's grief—are abso- n itely identical. Beatrice is changed to tl Losa in the fiction, that is all. The child's a nmpanion in the Letine troupe is named fi tosa, toy the way, which would enm to \ M

point that Misß Strctton uvm acquainted with the fact and told her story, sticking as closely to it as possible. Ordinarily the ' Sunday Magazine' has no very great call on back numbers, but this month they have completely sold out. The long promised new edition of Mr George Bernard Shaw's 'Cashel Byron's Profession ' made its appearance on Monday )>i«t in VV.Ulcr StviM/s • sf:n.i'.w. J .'j■i:'!r.)i'!-u-r;'.!-'ci tl;.-- .vhi;;:sicai wcil; to you v. hi. 1 ;, it iirni ,>;ipc;u\:;l ::ori:e y<\;).'s Vtsek : but people wroUi iuo liny couli" r,i-.t limi ihe publisher. The fact was Mr Shaw tiiiisleii on his book being brought ;>ut under the auspices of a society for distributing Socialist tracts, and as moat people mistook it for one of these it fell flat. Now I shall not bt a bit surprised if " Labby " or some equally omniscient person discovers • Cashel Byron's Profession' and makes it the fashion. Another cheap edition I can commend is W. E. Norris's ' The Rogue,' which was most successful in three volumes, and will be found particularly easy reading. Grant Allen calls ' Norris' Thackerayan, and so he is in some respects, but without the cynicism of the greater man. Grant Allen, by the way, boasts that he finished ' The Tents of Shem' in six weeks. Well, it rather gives one that impression. Such a man can't write a bad novel, but the story of ' The Tents of Shem' is old, trivial, and slip-slop to a degree. The pictures in the 'Graphic' were far the best part of it. A usually well-informed flaneur declares that the Queen, and the Queen alone, stands in the way of the publication of Lord Rowton'a ' Life of Lord Beaconsfield.' The work, he aver 3, was submitted to Her Majesty in a forward state six months or more ago, when she promptly (of course after reading it) vetoed publication during her lifetime. The authorship of the famous American novel ' Democracy,' for many years a wellkept secret, has just been divulged. It proves to be neither Mr Howells, Mr James, nor Mr Bishop, but Colonel John Hay, the author cf • Little Breeches,' ' Jim Bludso,' and other Like County ballads. Colonel Hay is at preseut in London, and quite one of the lions of the season. The first edition of Rider Haggard's 'Cleopatra,' published on Monday last, numbered 10,000, and was sold out by Wednesday, which shows that the lucky young man's popularity is by uo means worn out yet. Another very interesting book of reminiscences about the great Duke of Wellington has just been published by Sir William Fraser, of Saltoun. It is called 'Wordsabout Wellington,' and contains a number of new stories, somo of them distinctly good. One cannot, however, quite swallow Sir William's yarn about General Grant and the late (I mean the second) Duke of Wellington. It is alleged that when the ex-President of the United States first visited England some years back he was asked to dine at Apsley House. During a pause in the middle of dinner the General, addressing the Duke at the head of the table, said : "My Lord, I have heard somewhere that your father was a military man like myself. Was that the case ?" I understand that the plot only of ' Wild Darrie' must be attributed to Mr Christie Murray. Mr Herman wrote it out and monopolises the lion's share of the payment. George Meredith's ' The Journalists' will bo published by Chapman and Hall in October next.