BACHELDER'S NEW AMERICAN COMBINATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5657, 5 January 1880, Page 5

BACHELDER'S NEW AMERICAN COMBINATION.

Tins exhibition and entertainment commenced a season at the Theatre .Royal, on Saturday evening, and was wtll attended. The programme embraces a series of magnificent pantascpic views of the San. Francisco Mail YorktoSydney, including views of the Harbour and Port of Auckland, taken from the summit of Mount Eden There is only one thing to be said of these pictures, that they a.rc perhaps the finest of the class of art to which they belong. The most lively impression is conveyed of the scenery and incidents of a journey which may be said to embrace at least half the circuit of the globe. It is alao a feature of the exhibition that the gentleman who perforata the office of guide accompanies the changes 'yifch pleasant anecdotes, and very efficiently sustains tiio interest throughout. The pictorial entertainment is divided into two parts, but there is aperformance betw .on, which is also one of the most talented of the kind wc have seen, or rather heard. M. Chalet is a ventriloquist of extraordinary adroitness and ingenuity. He carries on what we must call an "imnginary conversation with eight or nine persons, three of them invisible, but tbe rest represented by full sizid figures on the stage. Billy Wilson (an adult American negro), Uncle Josh (a rather cultured Yankee), Hans (a German), Bob (a negro boy), and Paddy (an Irish youth), the two laßt being verv precocious specimens of their respective class. Thie conversazione is so foil of cro9sta'i'iUig that f.iio figures seem to speak all at on<W, and tuf y uenume all the airs and tones suitable to t?i<i moods of the moment. The audience applauded the ventriloquist nlmos-t continuously. 'Xhe second pictorial entertainment illustrates the recuvit endeavours made to reach the North Polo, like the first, the pictures are full of artistic effsct. Bear-hunting, sleogmg, scenes between deck, natural scenery, are all completely—indeed, admirably exhimted and described. To many not the least interesting part of the entertainment .a the presentation of gifts to the audience Some o£ these are o£ substantial value, and amp y reward the visitoi for his attendance.