NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1862, 29 July 1887, Page 28

NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Mr Charles Hugo, of Buffalo Minstrel fame, telegraphs me from Auckland, that he will visit Dunedin shortly with a full company.

In Dunedin Messrs Alexander and Brown's automaton "Ali " has been the only attraction during the past week, and " Ali," although a puzzle, does not properly come under the heading " theatrical." That the automaton is a marvellous example of ingenuity, however, cannot be denied. The trunk of the figure contains a perfect network of wires, and these are exposed in order to show that mechanism — not trickery — is, the agent employed. The automaton is dressed like a Turk, and is seated on a table in orthodox Eastern fashion. It is worked by the aid of electricity, and goes through the following performance : — Commencingwith the salaam, it imitates the Mahomedan form of praying and reading the Koran, exhibits some sword play with dexterity, writes figures with a piece of soap on glass, takes snuff with all the concomitant gestures of a confirmed habitiie, and manipulates in perfect time tambourine, bells, drum, and triangle to tunes played on a pianoforte.

The Mammoth Minstrels are doing well in Ohristchurch. Auckland is as barren of amusements as Dunedin.

Miss Maggie Knight, the popular actress, left Australia for America and England per O. S. Mariposa, and intends being away six months. The journey is solely for her health, as she has been far from well for some time past.

Miss Amy Sherwin's reception in Tasmania (her native land) was a big affair and ran into columns of the local press. Tasmania generally, headed by the Mayor of Launceston and all the available bands turned out and presented an address, of which the following is the text : — " To Miss Amy Sherwin—Madam, your friends and admirers in Launceston hasten to offer you their sincere congratulations on your return to your native land. They have heard with much pleasure of the high professional success you have achieved in Europe and America, and feel proud that Tasmania should be the birth-place of so skilled and sweet a singer as the " Australian Nightingale.' They trust that the cordial reception which awaits you when you appear before them as a vocalist will show their appreciation of the position you have attained in the musical world, and will prove that neither time nor absence has served to weaken the kindly feelings entertained for you during your former residence here, by those who now welcome your return. They express the fervent hope that your future musical efforts may increase the popularity your have already obtained, and that even greater success may await you in your professional career, and assure you that you have the warmest sympathy and best wishes of those who now offer you their congratulations. — Robert Carteb, Mayor of Launceston." Miss Sherwin, it is said, " replied in a clear, musical voice — with a pleasant foreign accent " — as follows : — " Mr Mayor, ladies, and gentlemen, — I cannot express my feelings for the good wishes which you have conveyed to me. I am too much overcome by your kind reception for many words. My gratitude is due to the committee and to all who have been so kind. I feel that' I have no words to tell you how sincerely I appreciate this honour, and I have no need to say much, as most of you know me well. When I come before you to sing I will try to show you that your confidence has not been misplaced." The Sherwin concerts proved as successful as these gorgeous preliminaries would lead one to expect. Of our New Zealand tenor, Mr Stockwell, the leading journal said ; — " We honestly compliment him on the success achieved. He has a very good tenor voice — \ve use the word in its proper sense. It is a voice the equal of which is seldom heard here, and jwe can say we have not listened to such in Launceston since the visit of the Montagu-Turner Opera Company. It is of good compass, and his intonation is really excellent. It is not necessary to know his song : the vocalist utters every ; word as plainly as if it were spoken ordinarily. His best effort was in the wellwritten song of Blumenthal's, "My Queen," which only an artist should attempt, and to which Mr Stockwell did full justice. When- ; ever he appeared he was received with hearty applause, and listened to with appreciative pleasure, securing encores on each occasion.

The reporter of a Melbourne paper has invaded a threatrical dressing room and exploded the following information upon the public re "makiag up " :— "Actresses have to follow simple and quick methods to make up for a stage appearance. When carefully done, the process is about as follows : — First she washes her face in water, and then in bay rum. Oriental cream, or a whitening liquid, is then applied with a soft sponge, and when the face is dry it is powdered with the softest of chamois skin. When the back ground is ready, the carmine or rouge is put on with a fine velvet sponge and the lips are simarilarly, but more deeply reddened. ,All this is done by an expert, very quickly, and then the artistic part of the work begins. A small camel's hairbrush is moistened with Indian ink, and the eyebrows darkened, and a delicate line is also drawn under the lashes of the lower lid. This makes the eyes appear large and brilliant, and in this way the actress is prepared for the stage, if she desires to look young and " pretty." If she is to personate an older or "character" part, other methods are resorted to, and she uses cosmetics and paints to produce wrinkles and the necessary age appearances. The enamelling process, which originated in France, , is very rarely resorted to now, on account of its injurious effect on the skin. Some actresses and nearly all actors use " greasepaint," a composition which covers the face, and on which the rest of -the make-up is founded, and this is easily removed and all traces of it disappear, There is high art in making up as well as in acting. In going into a well-stocked dressing room the appurtenances and materials for making up are so numerous as to create t>b,e that a

drug store has been dumped in there; It is next to impossible ,to enumerate them all, but here are some of the most important : Glycerine, Indian ink, powders, carmine, lead pencils, sponges, powder puff, crimpers, frizzes, shamois skins, puffs, braids, hairpins, tooth paste, bay rum, Florida water, nailbrush, tweezers, cardamon seeds, dyes, curling irons, hand-glasses, and scissors." •

. H. A. Jones' new piece for the Vaudeville Theatre is to be entitled "Fair Play's a Jewel."

The encore fiend will be appropriately " fixed," if the following programme can be relied upon : — The encore fiend whom anyone catchea, his doom's extremely sore, He's made to st.tnd by a German band and forever yell " Encore "; And there he listens to " Home, Sweet Home," from early morn to night. | And at every etanza of that old romanza give symptoms of delight.

The Moore, and Burgess Minstrels, whose boast it was once that they never performed out of London, haye — probably out of regard for the " darned mounseers " of whom Mr Gilbert speaks in " Ruddigore " — arranged to invade Paris, and give a few entertainments at the Kden Theatre.

American actresses are' warned that audiences will certainly expect them to wear some of the French Crown jewels next season — indeed it is said that any star who appears without some of these famous adornments " may as well cancel her dates, and discharge her press agent and diamond robber." The "diamond robber" is presumably that member of the actress' suite who, under pre-arranged circumstances, takes possession of her jewel case, making her thereby an injured heroine and securing a splendid advertisement.