"SAVE ME FROM MY FRIENDS."

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 149, 12 October 1876, Page 2

"SAVE ME FROM MY FRIENDS."

It is a very prevalent, but equally erroneous, idea, that toy one can edit, manage, or write for, a newspaper. Let a man be able to write a fair legible hand, construct his sentences without assassinating the Queen's English, and he forthwith lays the flattering unction to his soul that a writer for the Press is his especial vocation. Now, what are really the facts of the case ! Take nine men out of every ten possessed of classical educations, men who can make excellent extemporaneous speeches, or can pen letters of business, without blot, blemish, or blunder, and ask them to write ten lines of a paragraph for publication, and all " Lombard-street to a china orange," but there will be a screw loose somewhere. Tirnaru rejoices in the possession of one of the " nine " alluded to, and the South Canterbury Times is the favored journal through which the world has been blessed with the work of " his ! 'prentice hand," or rather head. The theme selected has been the recent visit of The Lingards, about whom the writer is most anxious to say some gushing things, but whether the persons so immediately concerned will be able to appreciate the hyperbole indulged in, is quite another affair. | The editor has very wisely informed his readers that the critique is "communicated," and for the honor of the profession I am glad that that fact has been published. My gushing friend commences his panegyric thusly :—" Every person has seen actors and actresses, and lately the mind and attention of every one has been directed towards the famous singer, Mdlle. De Murska. ' Music hath its charms,' says an old critic ; but what about the drama and farce'? Everybody has his hobby, but to enjoy a good piece put upon the boards, it is essential to welcome a good actor and actress, who return the feeling in every sense and movement. The Lingards wipe out every blot which pollutes the stage and renovate new life into the scenes, which enliven the representations of the earlier and present time." I agree with "Gush" that most people have hobbies, and think that his is the clothing of his ideas in a mass of verbiage of such a hazy nature that ordinary mortals are totally unable to penetrate its mist. As a perfect specimen of the amateur word - painting the closing sentence of the above extract is a perfect gem in its way, though I must confess I do not see the utility of renovating new life. To my matter-of-fact mind, it would appear that old life would be more necessary to require renovating. However, I suppose the writer is a poet, and though indulging in prose (exceedingly prosy), he has taken poetic license with his subject. But the crime de la crime of the article is the following : —" Most performers represent the pieces without feeling or emotion, but it is different with the Lingards. Everything said by them is accompanied with feeling and expression, .which brings the piece home, as it had taken place before a parson." Of course, never having seen performances gone through in the special presence of gentlemen of " the cloth," I am unable to realise the feelings which effervesce under such circumstances; but nevertheless, I am quite prepared to fully recognise the abilities of the artists without that powerful motor—the presence of a parson. Although I will yield to no one in my respect for the Church and its ministers in their own sphere, I must confess under the circumstances alluded to, their absence would be more desirable than their presence —the latter having the effect, as far as I am concerned, of a " wet blanket." The eulogium concludes in the following tribute to Mrs. Lingard, which, if that lady can understand, must be very flattering, always providing that both she and Mr. Lingard are able to pocket the " compliment on crutches" conveyed in the concluding sentence :—" Mrs. Lingard casts every other actress in the shade who may take part in the play, and everything attempted by her turns into true life and veracity of character. Mr. Lingard is similar, and between th-e tv)o it is hard to say anything which is injurious to good acting." The equivocal wording of the last encomium is very like the cow which yields an immense supply of the lacteal fluid, but which, upon filling the pail, ends by scattering its contents around. If its true reading be not that, either Mr. or Mrs. Lingard is injurious to good acting, then I don't know how much two and two ma,ke. MLa-Gguffin.