" LA MILO'S" POSES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13325, 3 November 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

" LA MILO'S" POSES.

MR. STEAD AND A CHALLENGE. Mas. Ormistox Chant has joined issue with Mr. W. T. Stead on the subject of "La Milo's" poses at tne London Pavilion. It .will be remembered that Mr. Stead recently paid' his first visit to a music-hall, arid, in giving his impressions of the performance, described "La Milo's" turn as "the only redeeming feature in the long, monotonous succession of ugliness and vulgarity." : In a characteristic article in the Free Lance, Mrs. Chant discusses Mr. Stead's visit to the Pavilion, with special reference to his judgment of "La Milo's" poses. -."London'is in danger of sinking into the moral torpor that overcame ancient Athens and Rome," says Mrs. Chant. '.'Profound gratitude is due to any who can rouse her from her present stage of descent into that lethargy, and stimulate her to a cleansing of her foulness. It is a pity Mr. Stead's first visit to a music-hall was to the Pavilion, if his description of the programme and the audience is an accurate one, for the former appears to have been an unfortunately unusual one, and the latter most unusually unfortunate. He regards, so he says, '.La Milo' as the only 'redeeming feature' of a programme that has bored and j disgusted him— one that, to my mind, is far and away the worst! But then I am a woman, and ' LA MlLCl' IS A WOMAN", and I being so, feel the sting of profaned womanhood, as she, poor soul, may perhaps have felt it long ago, and forgotten. Mr. Stead, being a man, does not seem to realise the enormity of such an exhibition; and there are numbers of other men equally good and equally obtuse on this point." Mrs. Chant's article has had a sequel in the issue of a challenge by La Miio's" manager. In a letter addressed to Mrs. Chant, Mr. Oruickshank writes: —" There is no suspicion even of sinister intention in any portion of the act. On the contrary, our artistic standpoint— speak for Miss Montague and myselfis based on the fact that any suggestion or feature that might be in the least calculated to appeal to the baser minded of our audience lias been carefully excised, and I claim, without any fear of contradiction from any person who has seen the act, that it is entirely, free from offence in any particular. Furtherthough this is certainly not the raispn.d'etre of the exhibition—it" exercises, if anything, a refining and elevating influence on the spectators." Finally. Mrs; Chant is requested to visit the Pavilion• and see for herself "the worst feature of the programme. Though perfectly willing to abide by the result," " La. Milo's" manager adds his conviction that the poses will not " shock you profoundly," and expresses his confidence of numbering Mrs. Chant among the converts.;