FOOTLIGHT FLASHES.

Evening Star, Issue 12762, 15 March 1906, Page 8

FOOTLIGHT FLASHES.

[By Caia Box.l The Geach-Ward-Willoughby Comedy Company, who will include such "star" perforaners as Mr Willoughby, Mr Hugh Ward, and Miss Grace Parlotfca, are to begin their colonial tour at the Criterion Theatre, Sydney, in ' The Man From Mexico.' With the exception of the, trio named all the faces will be new to the colonies. After playing in the centres of New South Wales and Victoria the company go to the West, making a record jump from Perth to the Bluff. The Dunedin season will begin on October 11. Q. Victor Beck, theatrical agent, is mak- , ing preliminary arrangements for a New Zealand tour of the Keith Kennedy Concert Company. , The company have met with great success in Australia, where they are at present touring. Master Keith Kennedy is a talented young violinist with a wonderful memory and splendid technique and accuracy of tone. Ho is ably supported by Miss Madge Hellnirich (contralto), Miss Cynn Mills (sopranfc), Mr S. R. Kennedy (elocutionist), and Mrs S. R. Kennedy (accompanist). A bioscope with the latest up-to-date pictures is included in the programme. It is evident from the published accounts of the recent train fire, which destroyed so valuable a port-ion of the scenery and wardrobe of ' Princess Ida' on the journey from Laiinceston to Hobart, that things would have been much worse had it not been for the prompt and energetic efforts made by the male members of the Gilbert and Sullivan Company. Indeed, serious injury, or even death, might have occurred had not one of them, at considerable risk, clambered along the footboard and discovered the fire before it had quite get beyond control. The Samage was, however, bad enough, and ihe ill-luck was intensified bj- the fact that all the material burnt was new, fresh scenery and new appointments throughout having been prepared for 'Princess Ida' on purpose for the present tour. Mr Williamson has the poor consolation that the loss was practically confined to that opera, the other deficiencies caused by the fire being so small as to be easily remedied on the spot. It was different with the ' Princess Ida' stuff, for the piece has had for the time being to be withdrawn from the repertoire. The full strength of the wardrobe staff in Sydney has been devoted to its renewal, however, and before very many days the company will again be in a position to once more produce it. It was not, of course, pos- . sible to play ' Princess Ida' in Hobart, but as it is sixth on the list of the recent plebiscite, that omission will presumably disappoint fewer playgoers than would the loss of any other opera announced for the season. During the Home General Elections Mr H. Beerbohm Tree felt compelled to send the following letter to the Press :—As some representatives of the Press, some members of my audiences, some even of my personal friends, are under the impression that in the public meeting scene of 'An Enemy of the People,' produced at the Haymarket Theatre last week, I was so carried away by electoral excitement as to interpolate references to the newlyelected Liberal majoritv. may I be allowed to quote briefly from the published ver- ;. sion of the play ? It will then be seen that I spoke on the stage as an actor presenting an author's words, not—as has been somewhat hastily assumed—a partisan intruding his private opinions on an inappropriate occasion. '*Dr Stockman : Yes, you may be sure I shall name them. For this is the great discovery I made yesterday : the most dangerous foe to truth and freedom in our midst is the compact majority. Yes, it's the confounded, compact, Liberal majority—that, and, nothing else. There, I've told you." Mr B. C. Steohenson, who wrote the book of ' Dorothy,' the comic opera, has passed away at the age of 6ixty-six. He and Mr William Yardley collaborated in ' The Passport,' and Mr Stephenson and Clement Scott adapted ' Peril' and ' Diplomacy' from Sardou. Mr Stephenson stood high with the playgoing public of the seventies and eighties. The completeness and extent of Mr J. C. Williamson's organisation is well exemplified in the celerity with which the altered circumstances caused by the los 3 of Princess Ida's wardrobe was met. Any other management would have found themtelves heavily handicapped by such an occurrence, but except for the absolutely unavoidable withdrawal of the piece from the Hobart repertoire, the accident will make no difference whatever to the tour and productions of the Gilbert and Sullivan Company. __ They have had a most successful season" in Hobart, and after their visits to Bendigo and BaHarat, will travel to Newcastle, and thence to New Zealand on a long visit. A prize of £B,OOO has been won in the Liege lottery by a theatrical company playing at the Theatre des Galeries at Brussels. Each member of the company bought a ticket on the understanding that any vnnnings were to be divided among them all equally. The news that one of the tickets had won was brought while the company was at rehearsal. Instantly the whole troupe went mad, impromptu dances were given, and the chorus and ballet girls promised themselves all sorts of undreamed luxuries. " I have won the lot terv" was the favorite "gag" during the evening performance. Each member of the troupe will receive about £l2O. Theodore Bernstein, who was known throughout the English nrovinces as the " Handcuff King," performed his last turn at Liverpool. For some time he had been in very bad health and unable to accept engagements, being dependent for support on a young woman, also a member of the music-hall stage, with whom he was in the habit of travelling. This depressed him very much, and on the night of January 26, when she was preparing his supper, he fatally stabbed himself with a table knife. He was thirty-five years of age. The large theatre at Antwerp, known as La Scala, has been destroyed by fire. The manager, with his wife and child, lived on the premises, and all three had narrow escapes. They jumped from the balcony, and reached the ground without sustaining serious injuries. Instead of going to Brisbane and then to Newcastle, as was first announced, the Knight-Jefferies Company, who began the last week of their farewell season in Sydney on the 10th inst., will go to the latter town first, beginning a week's season there on March 17. They open in Brisbane on the _ 26th inst., but their stay therewillbe limited, since- they are due in Adelaide on Easter Saturday (14th April), their visit there marking their last appearance as a company in Australia. Mrs Samuel Charles, who was at one time leading lady in Joseph Jefferson's company, recently celebrated her theatrical jubilee, having first apoeared on the 6tage at the mature age of four. Mrs Charles is a sturdy believer in experience as a teacher. " Don't fuss around with dramatic schools, but just pitch in and begin to act," was the advice she once gave a young woman who asked her what dramatic school she would recommend. "Experience is a hard school, but it's the only one I take much stock in. The 6tage manager is your best college, professor." Asked as to the part beauty and personal character olay in a woman's success on the stage by a New York 'Tribune' representative, Mrs Charles replied promptly : " I've seen so many plain women get on that I have come to the conclusion that beauty, like regular dramatic training, is one of the luxuries that can be dispensed with. Of course, one immediately thinks of a number of actresses whose personal charms seem about their only stock-in-trade. The actress who maintains- her prestige on the strength of her good looks rather than ability is one of the modern innovations in the dramatic art. But when you come to analyse these successes, which seem so inexplicable on any ground except nonnlar worship of a nretty face, you generally find the secret lies not in downright, beatrty at all, but in health, magnetism, charm something buoyant and wholesome." The death is announced of Mr Henry S. Edwards, a well-known journalist. He was war correspondent, • musical critic, playwright in collaboration with several stage celebrities, and a versatile author. He was in recent years a contributor to

the 'Standard' and 'St. James's Gazette.' 1 Mx Edwards was in hra seventy-nintn year. In an interesting article an tne 'Japanese Stage,' wiuch appears in ' The limes,' Mrs iiugh Fraser says tuat for some time past the dramatic world in .lapan has been divided into two camps, and tne conflict behind the footlights is tierce and active. The battle is, of course, between the new and the old school, and so far tho old has had all the odds in its favor. The leader of the new movement is Mr Matsui Shoyo, who is perhaps best known through a play written around the incidents of the war, the scenes being laid in Corea. The work is fragmentary in construction, consisting of very slightly connected scenes, enhanced by such varied and expensive settings as few European managers would consent to produce., There is a naval battle, if you please; a land engagement, a hospital ward, a Corean palace of great splendor, a most exquisite lake surrounded by forest, and, finally, a torchlight procession of all the political dignitaries, including Marquis Ito and the Emperor of Corea. The author told me, with a sigh, that the censorship had interfered, and bereaved him of these splendid personages, but still the play had gone well—" it had run for twentvfive nights." " WJiat!" I cried; " yon call that a good run?" "Oh, yes," was the reply, " three weeks is the best that a successful play usually has. After that our people want a new one." "What are you working a .t nowT I asked him the other day. His clever face lighted up with enthusiasm as he replied: "On the play of ' Francesca'—'Paolo and Francesca,' yon know. I am translating Mr Phillips's tragedy. We shall bring it out next spring, making the action take place in Japan. Our public will be delighted with it—the story is so Japanese." As an instance of the thoroughness with which Mr Gerald Coventry, Mr J. C. Williamson's "star" stage' manager, enters into his work, it may be mentioned that, not content with rehearsing the Gilbert and Sullivan Company every day for three weeks in ho went over to Tasmania with them in order to put the finishing touches on Messager's dainty opera _' Veronique.' Still fresh from his acquaintance with the English version, he has expressed the opinion that complete justice will be done to the piece by the companv. and prophesies a very pronounced popularity for it in New Zealand, when it will form one of the two chief attractions (' Utonia, Limited,' is the other) of the Gilbert and Sullivan Company during their forthcoming tour of thai colony. A tragedy in real life, enacted amid the trappings of the stage, is recorded b- the 'Bangkok Times' to have taken place recently at Aynthia. Amden Phing was young, pretty,.and (according to Burmese ideas) possessed a very fine voice. People flocked to hear her; everywhere she was welcomed with rapturous" applause. One night between 400 and 500 gathered to hear her in a gaming-house. She came upon the stage, and was just about to commence her song when the report of a firearm rang through the place, and Phing fell dead, shot through the heart. The assassin was instantaneously arrested. His motive for the crime was sheer, sordid professional jealonsy. A sineer himself, the greater popularity of Amden Phinc fired him with rage, and drove him to commit the crime.

A conjurer named Blumenfeldt was shot dead on the stage at Bade (France). He was performing a trick with a revolver, and for<rot to extract the bullet before handing it to a spectator, who was helping him in his performance. At Blumpnfeldfs instructions the spectator fired and lolled the conjurer on thp snot. The American papers state that Miss Edna May, who is now at Chicago, has become engaged to Mr Oscar Lewisohn, yonnger brother of the "Copper King." She refuses either to confirm or to deny the report. Not long ago she obtained a divorce from her husband, Mr Titus, and at that time announced that she intended henceforward to devote herself to her art. The Royal Mnsic Hall at Holborn (London) has been reopened as the Emp're. It was a one-tier house, containing a bilcorry only over the ground floor. The architects were unable to go higher, owing tn "ancient lights," so they went lower, with the result that the bulk of the new house is ■underground. . A company of Japanese actors has been performing to crowded houses in Christiania. The members of the company s-pend their spare time in studying European acting at the other Scandinavian theatres. The leading members) of the company say they will endeavor on their return to introduce European acting on the Japanese stage. Madame Eleonora Duse, the favorite Italian actress, recently appeared at the Folkstheater, Copenhagen. The house was crowded, and the actress was received with the greatest of enthusiasm. Madame Duso goes on tt> Christiaiiia and Helsingfors. ' The Shop Girl,' produced for the first time on Saturday, the 3rd inst., at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney, by the Royal Comic Opera Company, was a success from first to last. This was due not onlv to the excellence of the piece, which, though one of the early examples of musical comedy, still remains' one of the best, but also to the admirable way in which the principals acquitted themselves in their respective parts. Miss Florence Young's Bessie Brent, both in acting and singing, was quite worthy to rank beside her Winnie Harborough—a statement which says all that is necessary regarding the excellence of her work; and Mr George Lauri was most comple/telv at home with the humor of Mr Miggles, shopwalker. Mr John Doran was welcomed back after his lengthy absence, and Mr Haigh Jackson's fine voice was heard to much advantage. Good comedv oarts were also entrusted to Mijß Clara CEfton and Messrs W. S. Percy and Claude Bantock, and, indeed, the whole performance wsts so thoroughly and so evidently enjoyed bv the crowded audience that a long and nooular run may confidentlv be arpticinated for the piece. Miss Dorothy Grimston, the youngest daughter of Mr and Mrs Kendal, who made her first appearance some two years ago under the management of Mr Arthur Bourchier in Haddon Chambers's play, ' A Golden Silence,' lias been unburdening herself to an interviewer'regarding ht=r nrrriaae with Mr B. A. Meyer, says 'T.A.T.' ('Tales and Talk'). "A strnnge weddingday mine would seem to most people," she is reported to* have said. "I was married at ton in the mornins at Uxbridge. We came up to Charing Cross by the next train, my husband and I, lunched hurriedly, and then I had to go and play a matinee at the 'Garrick' At the same time my husband went off to his matinee at Wyndham's, where he was at that time under Charles Frohman's management. Wo met at dinner, and then once more separated, although, luckier than I. he was given a night off, and Mr Bourchier kindly placed at his disposal a box for my play." The first English pantomime ever seen in Belgium was produced at the SaOe dTLavenir. Brussels, recently bv members of the British colony in aid of "I/a Societe Royale Protectrice des Animaux." It drew crowded houses. The story -chosen was that of 'Cinderella.' Leroux's opera, 'William Ratcliiff.' was performed at Nice the other day, and was a.great success. The performance was attended by an audience which included manv foreigners and critics from Paris and abroad. The last act was especially masterful. It was only, to be expected that Melbourne would endorse to the fullest extent the entirely favorable verdict already passed upon ' Leah Kleschna' by playgoers who have already had an opportunity of seeing C. M. S. M Indian's powerful play. The strong story was unfolded to a com-

pletely sympathetic audience, which over-' flowed Her Majesty's Theatre last Satur- \ day evening, and Miss Tittell Brune, as ' well as those who assisted her in the interpretation of the intense scenes and emotional situations, wore enthusiastically applauded for their entire appreciation of the possibilities of the plot. Miss Brune herself found many opportunities for the display of her keen perception and sympathetic treatment, while Mr Roy Redgrave, who played Kleschna, and Mr Gaston Mervale, as Sylvaine, afforded her valuable suiwort. Mr Black advises me that the Black Family are at present in Dannevirke. They visit Blenheim and Nelson next. Business has been excellent. Miss Nellie has recovered from the mishap which befell her near the Strand Arcade, Auckland, and has resumed her violin-playing. Mr Bland Holt does not appear himself in the production of 'The Prodigal Son,' with which ho is now terminating his Melbourne- season. This is the first time Mr Holt has " stood • out of the bill" for many years. The last *»-ca6ion, on which he did so was in Adelaide nearly twelve years ago. He then had a most severe accident to his left hand, and his disappearance from the cast was compulsory. Oddments.—Mr Horace Lingard (the ori ginal Butterman in ' Our Boys' in the colonies) has joined Bain's Entertainers at Hobart.—MacMahon Brothers have secured a military play, 'Human Nature,' a sensational railway drama ('The Pointsman') from Mr J. C. Williamson, and the late Mr Wilson Barrett's- 'Hoodman Blind.'— Mr Brougb was sufficiently restored . to health by his visit to the Blue Mountains to warrant his appearing in 'Little Mary' at the Sydney Criterion on Saturday last.— Miss Maggie Knight joined Mr Bland Holt's Company for 'The Prodigal Son' season at Melbourne.—Mildred Stroller, an American burlesque actress, is suing the New York Tramway Company for £I,OOO damages for injury to a dimple. The lady alleges that she was struck on the cheek by a conductor, and thereby lost the use of her dimple, which was of considerable stage value.— 'The Kelly Gang,' as staged by the MacMahon Company, was as great a success in Christchurch as at Dunedin. In the Cathedral City the theatre was filled to overflowing nightly.—Mr Alfred Rolfe and his wife (Miss Lily Dampie.r) have left Sydney for London. —Mr Knowles's tour of the colony will last nearly three months. Every town where there is a public hall will be visited.—Mr PbiL Bracy, son of Mr Henry Bracy. is in the cast of ' The Little Cherub' at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, London. His brother Sydney is now in America. Both were married recently, the former to Miss Laura Nicholls and Sydney to Miss Dorothy Martin, of Skegness.—Mr I empriere Pringle, the Tasmanian basso, is at the Glasgow Hippodrome, and the Dartos (in New Zealand in 1901) are aplxaring at the London Palace.—Miss Gertie Campion came over from Sydney by' the Manuka, ■ and is an inmate of the Cambridge Sanatorium.—Miss Marion Winchester, the young- Califorrdan dancer who is one of the attractions of the London Gaiety production of 'The Spring Chicken,' has been on the Fta-tre since she was four years of age. She is known as the " Sugar Queen." in consequence of a lucky deal in hiujar by which she netted £20.000. Miss Winchester is paid to wear £40,000 worth of jewels nightly during the run of the piece. A THEATRICAL LIBEL SUIT. An unusual libel case was heard on January 30, before Mr Justice Bingham and a special jury, when Mr GeoTge Edwardes was sued by Miss Julia Mackay, a music hall artiste. Plaintiff, an American, was in New York in 1902, when she heard a popular song called' ' Under the Bamboo Tree.' She approached the publishera (Messrs Stern) and obtained their permission to sing it in England. She was singing it at the Tivoli and Oxford in 1903, earning £ls a week at each, and the song was a success. Mr George Edwardes's ' solicitors wrote to the managers of these places, saying that he had purchased the sole rights for the production of the frong in Great Britain and the colonies. The song was then being sung in 'The Girl from Kay's,' which was being produced by Mr Edwardes at the Apollo Theatre, the result was that her singing of the song was stopped, and her livelihood interfered with. Miss Mackay was at the time doing well with the song. Then it appeared that Mr Edwardes paid to Messrs Stern, of New York, £SO for the rights of the song for 'The Girl from Kay's,' but his solicitor* alleged that he had the exclusive right to it in this, country and the) colonies. This constituted the alleged libel. Mr Edwardes, in the course of his evidence, "aid that he first heard the song sung at the Apollo Theatre by one of liis own artists, and EV cabled to Stern's, New York, and got the reply already mentioned. His agent"? paid the £SO for "the rights for "The Girl from Kay's.'" He understood, however, that he had the entire English jrights, or he would not havf paid the money. Witness gave evidence as to instructing his solicitors to write and have Miss Mackay stopped from singing the song. In so doing he was not actuated by any malicious feeling towards her, as he had never seen her before that day. In charging the jury, the learned judge said that Mr Edwardes had only obtained the rights of the song for 'The Girl from Kay's,' and therefore had no right to stop tho plaintiff from singing it in England. The defendant's solicitor's misstatement of fact might be some evidence of malice, but there was no libel. Before the jury could find for plaintiff they must come to the conclusion that defendant was actuated by malice, and was not simply asserting what he believed to be his rights over tho song in dispute. He had read the gong himself, and a sillier thing he had never come across. In terms of His Honor's direction the juryfound that there was no malice on defendant's part, and therefore no libel. Judgment was accordingly entered up for the defendant, with costs.

WHAT IS A "GIBSON GIRL" WORTH? That was the question which Mr Justice Ridley .and a special jury at London were called on to decide when Miss Ethel Karri Thomas, formerly a " Gibson Girl " in the musical comedy. 'The Cath of tb« Season,' sued the lessees of the vaudeville Theatre for damages for alleged wrongful dismissal. The plaintiff's casa was that she was given a speaking part, and was therefore an actress, and as such her engagement for the run of the play. The defendants contended that she was a ononis girl, and was subject to a fortnight's notice. They further said I hat it was an actual term of plaintiffs engagement that it should be liable to determination at a fortnight's notice. 'The principal witness for plaintiff was a well-known New Zealand vaudeville artist. Mr J. L. Shine, who said that a person who had to speak even one single line, whatever its length, was an actor or actress, as the case might be. His Honor: Can a person be an actor without speaking?— Certainly. A pantominrtet is an actor. Bub do you recognise acting without a part at all? Yes, I do. For the defence it was urged that it was the rale at the Vaudeville Theatre, with very few exceptions, to engage artists on the terms that they gave and received fourteen days' notice, and this was explained to the plaintiff. That arrangement was very much to the interest of those people, because if a piece ran as long as this one did there were) many people who did not desire to" be fixed for that length of time. Plaintiff was not engaged; as an aetress. If the other "Gibson Girls," who hacl not to say the silly words which constituted plaintiff's part, were subject to a fortnight's notice, and the lady- who had the silly words to say were engaged for 600 nights, that was not a very sensible distinction. Mr Seymour Hicks said he was joint author of the play, and had sanctioned plaintiff's engagement. The "G:b?on Girls" were not actresses, but very attractive "show" girls. They were never asked to do anything but be attractive when thev were engaged. He knew nothing whatever about plaintiff before she came.. He had had twenty years' experience of the theatrical profession in every. capacity more or less, from callboy upwards. The average salary of a chorus-lady was £2 a week, and of a "show" lady ,£3 10s to £5. Covent Garden porters were sometimes given a line to sneak, but if they were to be

called actors, where were they- to end?' During the run of the piece there had been about eighty "Gibson Girls," who had left either of/ their own accord or through his giving them notice,., and there had never been any question ab&ut it before. Mr Mervyn Dene said' he distinctly told plaintiff that her engagement was terminable at a fortnight's notice. The jury found, in answer to questions put to them by the Judge, that nothing was said at the time of the engagement about afortnight's notice, but Were unable toagres' as to whether a " Gibson Girl" was or was not an actress, but wished to give" plaintiff £SO damages. His Lordship said he could not take that verdict, as it was nob conclusive, and as the jury could not agree on the second question they were discharged. ■ ■"■'■' ' ' ■' THE SYDNEY THEATRES. On the occasion of a recent flying visit to Sydney I took advantage of the opportunity to visit the various "shows" in progress there* The Royal Comics were in occupation of Her Majesty's with ' 'Veronique.' ' The opera is tuneful and admirably staged, but there are really only two catchy numbers—the swing duet and ' Under the old apple tree,' sung' by Miss Florrie Young. The cast includes our old comedian friends George Lauri and/ Will Percy. It gave place on ; Saturday, the 3rd inst., to 'The Shop Girl,' a piece somewhat on the lines of ' The Girl from Kay's.' The Brough-Flemming Companv are at the Criterion,.where they remain till Easter. - A revival of ' The Passport' had to be put up owing to Mr Brough's indisposition. "Standing room only" is-the nightly ah nouncement at the Royal, where Mr Ander son's Company are staging 'La Fille du Tambour Major'! The revival is so admir- i ably staged, 'and there has been 1 such liberal j provision of chorus and spectacle, that the" audiences are moved to enthusiasm. The stirring entry of the French soldiers into Milan, headed by a full brass band, with the tricolor waving from every window of the well-set scene, and the stage fully occupied with horsemen and footmen, causes the curtain to be raised time after time. Harry Quealey is Bambini, and the ever-green Edward Farley appears as the Tambour Miss Addie Campbell, the Victorian soprano, who appears as Stella, is nineteen years of age, and the winner of numerous medals for singing—at Ballarat (twice), at Bendigo (twice), at Prahran (twice), at Daylesford, Warrnambool, and at many other places. She has never been beaten. Her only prior professional appearance was as Serpolette in 'Les Cloches de Comeville.' Mr Rickards has a strong combination at the Tivoli, including the Scottish Meistersingers, some clever cyclists, and the Sterndale musical quartet. . The Knight-Jeffries Company were appearing in a short farewell season at the Palace, playing 'The Sign of the Cross,' 'Monsieur Beaucaire,' 'Comedy and Tragedy,' and other plays produced in this colony a few weeks ago. It is understood that when Miss Jeffries signed on for a fresh engagement with Mr J. C. Williamson after her marriage that she stipulated she was not to be called on to appear in any new parts; hence the revivals. Mr Geach was busy paving the way for the appearance of West's Pictures and the Brescians, who inaugurate an weeks' s f son on. St. Patrick's Day (March 17). Much curiosity is evinced regarding this' show in consequence of their phenomenal success throughout New Zealand, and the different managers entertain varied opinions as,to the success or otherwise of the entertainment in the principal centres of the Commonwealth. AMERICAN AND~AUSTRALIAN STAGE CONTRASTED. BAROLD ASHTON'S IMPRESSIONS. \ Mr Harold Ashton, well known through-' out the colonies as Mr J. C. Williamson's principal touring manager, is at present on a visit to America with a view to securing novelties forthe "firm." His impressions , \<% n £ nca „ n sU £*> conveyed in a letter £ Call Boy, may not prove uninteresting to my readers. Mr Ashton writes:' j > T Ve ten hfcard ™ ito rs to Australia and New Zealand say how splendidly Mr Williamson and other managers stage their pi-cductions, and .thev arc right. I have seen nothing better so far, though, of course, several as good, but when everything is taken into consideration-p-our bmited populations, the shortness of run of the piece, and sundry other things— Antipodean theatregoers are more handsomely treated and at figures a good deal less than are paid here. I remember when I took our Royal Comic Opera Company through New Zealand some two years ago. A good deal of surprise was expressed at the circle price being raised from five shillings' to 6ix shillings, and it was necessary that explanations should be made on behalf of the management as to the enormous cost, etc. Why, a company of that magnitude anywhere' out hero would not dream of charging less, than two and a-half dollars (10s) for the best seats, and then speculators would buy them and retail them on the streets for three and a-half. dollars (14s), or four or five- dollars (16s or 20s). You see that going on every day hero with the successes, and these 'ticket scalpers' seem to: thrive on it, as with such a huge population here there is always a large number who, when they arrive in the city and want to go to a theatre, don't mind what they pay for it._ Thank Heaven we haven't got those ticket scalpers, and I hope we i:ever will. The managers are absolutely; powerless against the evil, and have tried to crush it in several ways, but it won't work, as, strange to say, there doesn't seem to be any very great public outcry against it." My Ashton heard Sousa'sfamous band at New Orleans, and was very favorably impressed. He has, he advises, paved the way for a good many attractions for the colonies, but of course it would be premature to disclose anything till contracts were submitted to his principals and ratified. Mr Ashton expects to return to Sydney by the San Francisco March mail steamer.