NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 956, 16 May 1889, Page 28

NOTES BY PASQUIN.

The Payne family gave their first concert in Baeedjaat the Choral Hall on Tuesday evening. le, seemed to be intuitively known that the Paynes were really clever* and their entertainment of more than average merit, for the seating accommodation,,of the building was taxed fp the utmost before 8 o'clock, and a number of people had to be content with standing room only. The company comprises :—Mr Payne, tenor; Miss Lizzie Payne, soprano, violimste,,' and pianiste *, Miss Nellie Payne, flopranp, violiniste, and pianiste; Miss Maud Payne, contralto,.violiniste, and pianiste; Mr W. J. Payne, baritpne and. flautist; and Mr Ralph Steelp, baritone and pianist, i AH these show unquestionable musical talent and versatility. I It. is not to be supposed that they are even in all tjDeir accomplishments,,and it may therefore be at once stated that the part singing ia extraordinarily good, while the violin playing, although clever,. reaches nothing like so high a standard of merit, if we except, perhaps, Hiss Maud Pay,Bs, the youngest of the family. She has ability.as an executant.wonderful for her years, and her performance of " The mocking bird," with an imitation of the warbling played ja( harmonics fairly brought down the house. „.,,'•', , „ , Still it'is) the part singing, (unaccompanied) that calls,for the warmest praise, and the first cong, "f" f The, bells," was certainly the bes^, vocal item upon the programme. The performers gave i rnbst clever imitation of the harsh metallic olmig, and also the softer vibrations of the bells, and the modulations and the whole management of the voices was consummately clever.^ Of the other part son^s, the best were the slave.melody, " Steal away to Jesus " (sung. here by the Fisk Jubilee .Singers), and the humorau^cprapositions, 'which comprised very funny Sneezing and sobbing songs. Wherever drollery/was required the facial expression of Messrs, Steele and W. J. Payne' stood them in gopd. stead.; Among the vocal solos, special praise, is due to Miss Lizzie Payne, who has a very fresh and strong soprano, for her singing of the ballad " Waiting "; Miss Nellie, whose voice, although less mature, is managed, with great skill, and whose song, " The, cnokoo," was encored; and Miss Maud, who possesses a, very promising contralto, and who was likewise recalled for her contribution," O steer my bark.V ' ' the " Three little maids " trio from " The Mikado," has never, been sung so well iv Dunedin as it was by Misses Lizzie, Nellie, and Maude Payne, last night. Mr Steele, a very useful' baritone,, gave an effective rendering of Pinsuti's favouritesong,"Queen of,the;earth," and Miss Lizzie Payne was encored, for her violin solo, " The last ,rose of summer,'' which theme, by the way, was treated with a lightness that was rather. astonishing. The entertainment on the whole was one of peculiar .attractiveness.

Simdnsen's Opera Company arrived by the Mararoa on Monday, and lost no time in opening at Inveroargil], " Maritana " being billed for the following night. Their opening date in Dunedin is the 21st inst.

In Wellington the Vivian Company have continuedto do fajr business with rapid changes of bill. Hugo's Buffalo Minstrels, are to open at the Theatre Royal Wellington on Monday next." SB;The following story of a New Zealand aspirant, for fame appears in .Modern Society, a London weekly;—" Miss Harriet Muir, now residing in the aristocratic quarter ,of St. James' (Workhouse),',!?,, a Scotchwoman, who was born in Kirdoudbrightshire, and emigrated many years ago to New Zealand with her parents. Like many other girls she was bitten with the stage mama, and finding no field for her histrionic aspirations in Australia, made her way to this country, and possessing a good figure, the necessary amount of cheek, and some education, managed to " get on" 1 as a ballet girl, and thenceforth. dubbed herself as an aotress. After " doing the smalls " for some time, the girl was convinced that she had mistaken her vocation, and endeavoured to return to her colonial home by engaging herself as a ship's steward. To this end she dressed herself in male attire, and visited the London shipping offices, only to find that her lack of experience precluded all hope of success. Then Miss Muir lost courage, and her funds being exhausted, attempted to enlist as a soldier at St. George's Barracks. Of course her sex was immediately discovered, she was brought before a magistrate, remanded to the workhouse, and will, before long, be returned to her home in New Zealand, at the expense of some sympathetic admirers. So ends the romance of Miss Harriet Muir, and her experience may serve as a lesson to numbers of stage-struck girls who imagine that an! actress' life is all beer and skittles, or rather all cham-, pagne and .bracelets." ' „ Mr George Grossmith is about to issue a second book, to be called " Grossmith's Travels."

The death of Charles Dv Yal seems to have excited the most widespread regret, and mournful references to him appear in nearly all the English papers. A well-known London journalist writes :— " One sad word about poor Dv Val, the light-hearted comrade, the frank, free, jovial, generous friend of the days gone by. The poor fellow had been for some time touring * entertaining ' in Africa, India, and I know not where, From letters I have from time to time received I doubt whether everything was always rose-colour with him. He was a man of infinite versatility and experience. He sang, he acted, he ventriloquised, he lectured, and he wrote. •Through South Africa with a Show 'was his great work. Illustrated sketches in' one of the lesser London weeklies from his pen and pencil has lately been appearing. Londoners will best remember him at Prince's Hall. He was by turn soldier, actor, editor, poet, and artist. In India he had a sunstroke. In Ceylon he became • queer,' and returning home with his wife on board the Oceana, in charge of au attendant, he was seized with a fit of mania, evaded the vigilance of those around, and leaped into the Red Sea. i think he was but 40. Alas ! Poor Charles— a graver man had been less seriously missed."

A rather painful sensation was created in America by the fact that Mary Anderson, just before her breakdown, was the viotim of a frenzy of newspaper abuse started at St. Louis and Louisville. The persecution thus begun was kept up steadily until the actress, prostrated and unnervgd by the ordeal, was forced to withdraw from public view. Even then her illness is said to have been made the subject of slanders. The New York Mirror, one of the best of the journals published in the dramatic interest, says in commenting upon the affair : — " The St. Louis press surpassed all previous achievements in the field of unadulterated blackguardism. It sneered at her virtue, sooffed at her religious fervour, ami poured a dirty stream of malicious vulgarity alike upon her public and her private affairs. It was all vilely, irretrievably disgraceful. Other journals of similar character, or lack of character, in other localities took up the hue and cry, and there would have been little cause for surprise had the latest libel— the story that the actress' reason was lost— proved true." ,

, ,In, Sydney Grundy's new piece, "A Fool's Paradise," there is a medical character which has attracted a good deal of attention. Sir Peter Land, as he'is called, is the incarnation of j science in its most learned and domineering form, as gruff aft a bear, as autocratic as the OW of Russia. The following are a few of his surly epigrams :—" What will my patient do while, I'm away ?—recover!" " How can I tell you what is the matter with you, unless you tell me first? —doctors only repeat in Latin what yoatell them in English." •♦ Know ?—I know nothing —knowledge is the monopoly of extremely yoang practitioners." " I never express an opinion on subjects on which I am ignorant —unless they be medical." f• I am a doctor, I may be, as you. say, a man of the world—but I don't,give consultations in,: that capacity." .. The following is Miss Kate Vaugh&nV best song in, the Guards' burlesque. She sings it with discteetest underlining: — „' \Littlegirto, they tell me* never 'Ought to think a£oufc a man } . , It should be their one endeavour To avoid them If they can. When they come in my direction I demurely let them pass, If I want to see perfection I consult my looking-glass. You may fancy me one-sided In despising them—but then >. ' Kindly Nature has decided Girls are girls, and men are men. , Still, to push the matter farther, I imagine one or two Men despiiers, take a rather lUltra-comprehenßive view. And I ovfjx to think it over, M« a thought will sometimes'strike, That I shouldn't mind a lover, Just to see what love Is like. | ' Many maidens think as I did. . " Why should we despise them ? When [ Kindly Nature has provided Men for girls and girls for men. Ah Men. " • In recounting the impression made by Mansfield's "Richard III" in London, one firetjnighter says: —" It chanced that what with light, and gleaming armour, and swiftly shifting scenes, and the tumult of an ill-conditioned pit, the audience at first took but' little notice of Mansfield, He appeared as a fairly comely ; young gentleman, with a slight hump on his right shoulder and a slight,'kink'in his right leg. But as the play proceeded, his hideousness —the hideousness of awful moral, not physical ; deformity —grew on us. His face became lividly evil, his thin lips twitched with cruel malignity, and his cold, small eyes gleamed with'deadly light, like those of some noisome lizard. Thus his power over his audience increased, until at last even the most cynical; grew half awestruck and frightened." The fortune left to Clement Scott by the | eccentric maiden lady who fell in love with his | dramatic criticisms has dwindled from £20,000 to a mere legacy of £1000.- Such is rumour. Mr, Austin Brereton and his wife'(otherwise Edith Blande, a tolerably well-known aotress) .have sailed for Australia under engagement to Williamson, Garner, and Musgrove. The wife is going to act, but whether-the husband is going to pursue dramatic criticism, which is his line pf business, does not appear. ' Quite a bunch of English players are about leaving London to join Williamson, Garner, and Musgrove's antipodean companies. Among them are J. H. Olynds (who was in America with Wilson Barrett), Alfred Buckland (a celebrated provincial Silver King), L. Calvert and his Wife, , Clara Cowpeir. '■ ''"~' ■ Mrs Bernard Beere is said to have more in- \ fluence over the dress of ' feminine London to-day than any other woman. Ladies, especially, Americans, send their maids and milliners nightly into the stalls to mark, learn j inwardly digest, and copy the gowns. ■ ' r , - ■ , A theatrical statistician- estimates that at-the present time in .America there are more than .50,000 people in various capacities depending for their living upon the dramatic profession. He figures that the total per annum for professional transportation is 6,000,000d01, a considerably larger sum than the railways receive from any other particular olass of travellers. He also states that in one season theatrical people spend 4,000,000d0l for hotel accomodations. A son of Henry Irving played a minor part in. the production of " Julius Caesar " by the Oxford, University Dramatic Club recently., Irving JUs got himself up in exact,imitation of Irving pen and received a considerable amount of puffing. A Transatlantic contemporary says; —" If report speaks truly, London will soon witness the debut of a young lady of 15 summers, whose talent lies in playing with extraordinary dexterity on the single string of a viplin. She is the daughter of a rich merchant, and almost in her infanoy began to develop a remarkable taste for music. ■ Her father encouraged it, and her enthusiasm and perseverance surprised all who knew her. She had the violin in her hand eight or nine hours every day, and then only relinquished it at the strict injunction of her parents, who were afraid that her health might have become impaired. Recently the young lady has developed a taste for performing extraordinary feats on one string, and she is nowdpsirousof displaying her accomplishments on the concert platform. The only obstacle is her father, who is strongly averse to his child appearing in public." A son of Sir Morell Mackenzie is upon the London stage, and plays a part in Hall Game's drama, " The Good Old Times. His norn de theatre is H. H. Morell. The new Garrick Theatre is to be opened, under the management of Mr Hare, with a> comedy by Pinero,.entitled "The Profligate." The company includes Messrs Willard, ForbesRobertson, Misses Blanche Horlock and Kate Rorke. Joseph Jefferson has nearly completed his autobiography, which tells of his travels as,. a* boy in his father's company in the primitive towns of the West, and gives a complete ac-' count of the subsequent stage work of the great Rip Van Winkle. G. R. Sims' poem," Ostler Joe/ about which / a puritanical controversy arose some time ago/ has been- dramatised, and by a New England' woman. At the Standard Theatre, New York, where the Gaiety Company* are performing, a determined stand has been made against the domination of the house by the "Johnnies" and " chappies," and the performances are witnessed nightly by audiences of the better class of playgoers, including a liberal sprinkling of ladies.'