NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1932, 30 November 1888, Page 28

NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Monday evening witnessed the reopening of the Princess Theatre by the Crawford-Hunter party of Scottish vocalists, who have been doing more than moderate business ever since. Perhaps the long dramatic interregnum had whetted people's appetites; anyhow the audience were hysterical in their expresions of appreciatien on the first night. On second thoughts, the Scotch element had probably a good deal to do with the matter. All Mr Crawford's jokes were Scotch, and therefore, needless to say, screamingly funny if you could understand them. He sings too ill a style that fairly catches the gentle publio. Encores were plentiful as blackberries on Monday night, and came to all the members of the company alike. Miss Hunter (Mrs Crawford) has a really fine soprano of considerable range and power, and better still, Ehe knows how to use it. Martial ditties, or one of the sweet old English ballads are alike to her. . She can negotiate them both, and with equal credit. Miss Macgregor, who also assists, has a very serviceable soprano, and there is also in the company a Crawford youth, aged 12, who is an apt accompanist, and dances Highland flings and reels in first-class style. He has a very promising voice too, and when he ceases to sing through his nose will no doubt win fame and fortune and all else that boys aspire to. Phil Robinson, the well-known war correspondent, is to lecture in the Garrison Hall on Thursday of this week. There is a talk of Mr George Darrell revisiting New Zealand, but nothing is as yet fixed. D'Arcy Stanfield is playing burlesque ("Little Monte Christo ") in Brisbane, and besides Mr Miln in tragedy the same city boasts Harry Rickards (" Bric-a-Brac ") and Mr Arnold (" Hans the Boatman.") This is a contrast to the melancholy dearth of amusements in Dunedin. Mr G. C. Milne, who is at present at the Brisbane Opera House, is about to produce there the romantic play " Damon and Pythias." It is on the cards that Mr Milne, who is an actor of undoubted power, will visit New Zealand before he leaves the colonies. The American actor Roland Reed tails the following funny story of a famous old antediluvian, T« R. Harm, who used to boast that he played in the Ark exactly over the spot where Chicago now stands : — I remember the last night as if it was only yesterday. We were playing in a hall over a store. It was " Lucrezia Borgia." I played Jeppo; Harm was Gubetta. In the third act of the play we were all sitting around as cavaliers and going through a jolly old time drinking and singing. Near me was a wine glass full of liquor which I took up, emelled and put away from me right off, as it had a mysterious odour. Just then poor old Harm came waddling on in his queer, loose-jointed way. His legs were rheumatic, as his voice was chromatic ; but he would sing — nothing could stop him. He ambled over to the table where I had laid the glass down, picked it up, and began shouting : Sir Peter, I pray you, come open your gates, And let in some topers I know. With voice thick and Btrong, all thick puddle pates, In chorus we'll chant, ho, ho ! With that he quaffed the liquor down. There was a noise at his mouth like a rocket exploding. He yelled*" Good G ! It's coal oil !" and sank doubled up in a chair. I shall never forget old Harm's face as he fell. The audience roared, the curtain came down, but he was a' mighty sick man after the dose he received. It seems that when Charles Sugden (whose sentence for contempt of court I mentioned last week) presented himself at Holloway Gaol the quarters for first-class misdemeanants were full, or something of that kind, and it is seriously asserted that this giddy leading juvenile has never really been in durance at all. One correspondent, writing from London on the subject, says:— "l told you in my last that Charles Sugden had been sent to prison for three weeks to purge himself of his contempt of court. Rumours are now flying around that the ingenious Cnarlea has never had the key turned on him at all, but that all he did was to • pledge his honour' that he would come up when called upon — whereupon he was allowed to retire to his own apartments. He has this week been advertied to reappear at the Olympic as The Tiger on September 29, when, of course, his ♦ time ' would be up. The name of the pawnbroker who took the ' pledge ' above alluded to is not given, which ia perhaps just as well, all things considered. Edgar Bruce has issued manifestos stating that he alone and not Edith Woodworth ia responsible for the action which led to Sugden's imprisonment. Some say Edith compelled Edgar to mako this proclamation; others that he did it because he is ' that good in his 'art.' Others again— and among these you may include ' yours truly ' — say that the whole business is a more advertising fake, though Sugden might doubtless have desired to pledge his honour for what it would fetch. The bare idea of anyone taking such a pledge is quite too dreadfully funny for anything." J. K. Emmet gives warning that the title of Fritz is his trade-mark, legally restricted to his personal use, and professionals must refrain, under penalty* from using Fritz as a title to plays, acts,* and specialties iv any form whatever. The once famous German soprano Mdlle Marlow has met with a sudden — almost romantic —death at Stuttgart. Twenty years ago, while touring in Italy, one of the papers announced that she, while visiting the tomb of Dante, had suddenly dropped down dead. This was a journalistic falsehood. But on the 22nd September the lady, who had long retired from the stage, went to the Royal Opera at Stuttgart (the scene Of many of her former triumphs) to hear Wagner's ," Rheingold." She had just taken her seat when she fell forward. Assistance was immediately at hand, but the poor lady survived only a few minutes. Madame Marlow was born in 1835 at Stuttgart, and at an early age she made her debut at the Opera there, and subsequently won great success at Kroll's Theatre aDd at Dresden. The latest society beauty to take the stage is Mrs W. O'Sullivan Dimpfel, of Baltimore. She is young, beautiful, and melodious in voice, and is modest enough to have chosen her debut in Philadelphia instead of the Metropolitan Opera House. There is no histrionic reason now known why Mrs W. O'Sullivan Dimpfel's should not become a name to conjure by. The divine Sarah is a grandmother. The famous tragedienne is greatly excited over the event. Moreover, she is providing for her future grandchild by setting apart for it 10 per cent, of her income. Madame Patii is goiug to sing under Mr Abbey's management in Cairo at Christmas time, and Constantinople at the New Year. - Mr Beorbohm Tree's clever impersonation of the returned bushranger in Mr Hartdon Chambers' drama is undoubtedly the strongest feature of the piece, which is drawing large and fashionable audiences in London . Matinees of " Captain

Swift " are to be repeated every Saturday till further notice ; and the successful play seems likely to run the entire season. The Princess Imperial of Brazil has made Coquelin an officer of the Order of the Rose. "Faust" has been translated into modern Greek, and is to be performed shortly in that language. Mrs Langtry has ordered a new play from Robert Buchanan. Mr G. R. Sims has written a piece for Wilson Barrett called " The Good Old Times." The action .passes,- of course, in the merry days of

Miss Marie de Grey has been playing " FrouFrou" at the Globe Theatre, London, and critics say it is a pity this charming actress is not seen of tener in the metropolis. Clement Scott has been interviewed lately, and spoke his mind, as he always does, in a very direct and very interesting manner. In reply to a question as to the moral and educational position of the stage, he said : — " I believe that the advance of education and the cheapening of literature have done immenseharm to the literary and poetical stage. In old days people went to the stage to learn; now they come to be amused. They learned Shakespeare at Sadler's Wells (Phelps) and the Princess' (Charles Kean) ; they read it at home now for 6d. The taste for elevated and elevating stage work was never so low as now. Its censures were never before bo pitiless, so scathing, or co irreverent. The most conscientious manager must tremble when he puts the honest labour of months of toil and study before the stalls who sneer, and the pit that howls at an instant's error. I wish I could see audiences more devoted to the art, more earnest, more tolerant, and less obstructive."

As regards respectable young women who wish to go on the stage, Mr Scott said : — " My advice would be, • For heaven's sake, pause I ' There is always an opening on the stage for real talent, true genius ; but the talent and genius of stage aspirants must not be taken at their own estimate. There are hundreds and thousands of pure, moral, and respectable women on the stage, but the atmosphere of the theatre is trying to the healthy moral constitution. _ A woman not born and bred in the profession, avowedly of a theatrical stock, must in a certain sense, lose her self-respect and encounter familiarities, temptations, and outlets for the display of natural vanity from which good women should be safeguarded. A woman may take a header into a whirlpool and be miraculously saved — but then she may be drowned. If a girl knows how to take care of herself she can go anywhere ; but I should be sorry to expose modesty to the shock of that worst kind of temptation — a frivolous disregard of womanly purity. One out of a hundred may be safe, but even she must hear things that she had better not listen to and witness things that she had better not see. In every class of life women are exposed to dangers and temptation; but far more in the theatre than elsewhere. All honour and praise to them when they brave them out."

Roland Gideon Israel Barnett,tbe disreputable husband of poor Nellie Power,is being prosecuted for obtaining money by false pretences. ■ There are various charges both in England and America.

Mrs Frances Hodgson Burnett is held to have established an important principle by the position she took up in the "Little Lord Fauntleroy " case, and she i* mnsequently to be presented with a testimonial by the London Society of Authors. In this case the judge laid down the precedent that dramatists must have the consent; of the author of a novel before they can legally dramatise it. I mentioned last week that a stenographer who had been hired by Miss Jeffreys Lewis to crib a play at one of Mrs Langtry's performances was persuing his fair employer for the cash. It is now stated that to avoid service of the writ Miss Lewis has been imprisoning herself at her residence in Oakland, California, and according to reports from the scene of hostilities the stenographer has had three men watohing the house day and night.

The New York press has been much exercised on the subject of short skirts, and has pressed Kate Castleton, Fanny Rice,Georgie Parker, and a number of other footlight favourites into a discussion thereupon. An American actress, Miss Kate Claxton, who had her diamonds stolen from the Continental Hotel, Philadelphia, has brought two actions against the proprietors of the hotel for the value of the jewels. Both suits ended in a disagreement, but the actress, nothing discouraged, is going to try again. A good story, which may or may not be true, is told of the comedian Rogers, who at one time appeared afc Bow street Police Court to present publicly the sum of 13s 4d to the poor box, remarking — " That Californian sum, your Worship, is the amount I have received for acting before her most Gracious Majesty, the Prince Consort, and the rest of the Royal Family at Windsor last night. Kindly put it down as the joint contribution of her Majesty and her loyal subject, Jammy Rogers." This incident becoming known gave such offence at court that it was not until the year 1887 that theatrical performers were again allowed at court. Musical London is aghast at a proposal to bring out the Russian Opera Company at opera recitals in costume at the Albert Hall. As part of the extraordinary scheme it is suggested to engage 48 lady pianists to play upon 24 pianos the " Semiramide " overture and a polonaise from Glinka's « Life fer the Czar."

Those who remember Mr F. Antey's amusing story " A Fallen Idol " may be surprised to hear that there is at present in London a very fair counterpart of that amiable ass Nebelsen. He is a " Colonel " Olcott, who is lecturing and in other ways trying to convert the fashionable world to his creed of " Theosopby." He has written a catechism in which the doctrines of Buddhism are adapted to modern needs, and the work is issued in London with the official sane-

tion of the great Samangolo, supreme high priest of Buddhism in Ceylon.

Coqnelin, with Madame Jane Hading as his associate, has commenced a season in New York. The Americans admit the finesse of Coquelin's work, but think it belongs to the mathematics if not strictly to the dynamics of art. To Madame Hading they render absolutehomage.