“ALIEN’S” LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3111, 29 October 1913, Page 67

“ALIEN’S” LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

September 12. The .Board of Trade, recognising the strength of public opinion against the 4 private inquiry concerning the Scotch express disaster, opened its doors to the reporters, and the details have been made known so far as the facts have been forthcoming. These seem to comprtqnise the company’s management, and point to to the economy of cheap coal as the first cause of the accident. The driver •of the first train, in his evidence, said the reason that he came to a standstill at the top of the gradient at Aisgill was because steam gave out owing to the poor quality of the coal, hut that he did not anticipate the disaster, as he relied on the on coming train being warned by the signals. The driver of the second train frankly admitted that he did not look for the signals. He ran past three without observing or looking at them, as he was occupied with oiling his engine, with which he was having some trouble owing to the poor quality of the coal, which that night was unusually bad. There is a big outcry of the public, who are asking explanations of the Midland Railway Com-, pany. The wrecked train discussion has brought to light some curious facts concerning the speed of trains, and it appears that although speed was increased generally, some of the trains round London were faster in 1853 than they are now, though more trains run the different journeys today. There is a diminishing number of railway travellers of short journeys, owing to motor cars and taxicabs, and also to the inferior accommodation for first class passengers, who do not receive the extra ■ comfort it make it worth while paying the extra charge. There are many complaints by those with first class season tickets of not being able to find room in the first class apartments, and to one gentleman who wrote to the company complaining that this frequently happened in his case, the company replied reminding him there was a later train. To a business man due at his business at a certain hour this is, of course, no answer to the question. The present week is, from the social point of view, chiefly occupied with the Doncaster races. In the days of King Edward thus Yorkshire meeting ranked almost equally with Epsom. The Town Moor Racecourse is in an elevated position outside the town of Doncaster, and this week the hill road has presented a won derful .sight with people in every sort of conveyance, motor, taxi, carriage, and brake coming from Leeds and York. This year so great a crowd was not expected, as the King was not present, being still at Balmoral; but the fine weather and the Englishman’s spoiling instinct combined lias proved triumphant. The St. Legcr (which dates from 1776) was run on Wednesday, and never have there been greater crowds. The stands, enclosures, and paddock were packed. Ladies wore the smartest and newest toilets, but nut the chiffons and muslins of a month or two ago, for the weather has not returned to summer warmth. Mrs Cecil Bingham wore a lovely Parisian dress with a tartan cloak edged with fur; Lady Fitzwilliam. saxe blue, with a rose-coloured sash; Lady Noreen Bass, rose-colour; Mrs Clayton, an exceptionally smart dress of white edged with fur. A large party accompanied the Duchess of Newcastle from Clumber, among whom Lady Villiers wore one of the exceedingly smart black-and-white combinations that are so fashionable. The style of the costumes is just exactly as picturesque or fantastic as you see on the fashion plates; so also is the millinery. Hats are of all sizes and shapes, but on the whole the smaller shapes are the favourites, -and ospreys and feathers thcr principal trimming. Some very beautiful frocks are appearing at the autumn production of several of the new plays. In “Sealed Orders,” at Drury Lane, one worn by Miss Madge Fabian is of ivory satin charmeuse, with a quaint sash of can de nil over the right hi]> and drawn up to the breast of • the corsage, where it is fastened on the left with a black tulle bow. A Persian basque of lace falls over the hips, and the top of the gown, including the long tight sleeves, is made of lace and net. The hat is of black velvet and tulle, with a wide, outstanding fluted brim of the tulle, and a trimming of paradise plume. From the sash under the breast-bow hangs a long .white silk tassel, which fa 11$ to the edge of the skirt. There is a flower show scene, which is also an exhibition of the latest fashions in dress, the high turbans of velvet, with deep, wide brims rising from the forehead, the waving plumes, the quaint waistcoats and tunics and picturesque collars make one fancy they have strolled into the Horticultural Society’s Rose Show this week. The immense sta>-e at Drury Lane makes it possible for these realistic scenes o na large scale, and this new drama by Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton, which Mr Collins has produced, is “that happy blend of sport, patriotism, and stagecraft which has scarcely ever missed fire at the Lane.” It is a tangle.i coil of drama, strong of nlot and situations. A scientific jewel robbery apnea’s just now, when the great prarf necklace robbery is occupying so much public attention. The espionage in high places of a friendly Power, evidently on war intent, is another topical situation, and the fashionable gambling “ hell ” and the wrecked flying machine are also topics of the hour. - “First nights” arc numerous at the theatre with the coming of September. His Majesty’s led with “Joseph and His Brethren.” The two plays of Sir James Barrie, “The Will” and “The Adorea One,” were given this week at the Duke of York’s Theatre, and attracted a brilliant audience, among whom were a good many

(Specially Written for the Ladies’ i'age.)

THE MID-SEASON.

literary and dramatic admirers, Mr Anthony Hope, Mr Hawkins, Mr Bernard Shaw, Mr John Galsworthy, and Mr Maurice Hewlett among the number. Lady Lytton wore black diamante with old-rose draperies, with diamonds. I he “gods’ 5 in the gallery seemed very disappointed with “The Adored One,” and did a good deal of “booing.’ 5 The piece is intended to amuse, and is a skit on the beautiful woman who even in the dock manages to make both judge and jury fall in love wdth her, and acquit her. Mrs Patrick Campbell looked charming as Leonora. The play was staged with great realism. A wonderful reproduction of the ! new Old Bailey was presented in one of I the scenes, where judge and jury and | constable are all under the influence of ■ Leonora, who is being tried for having caused the death of a man by pushing him out of a train. The play is supposed to be a mixture of fantasy and synrpolism ; but despite the fine acting of Mrs Patrick Campbell in the part of the heroine, and Sir John Hare as the judge, it fell flat. | Mr G. Bernard Shaw’s “Androcles and _i The Lion” its Mr Shaw at his best, i A fable play of humour and seriousness ! which is bringing full houses to St. j James’s, although it has given rise to discussion in some places on the ground of * religious tradition. i At the Aldwych Theatre “The Ever , Open Door,” by Mr G. R. Sims and Mr j H. H. Herbert, is a melodrama of London ! life, the scenes of which are chiefly laid in Westminster, including a wretched slum street. “The Ever Open Door ” is a rescue home in Westminster “run” by a High Church clergyman, Father Clement. ! Lady Dereham, who has lost her husband, : was deceived into believing that she killed her baby son 14 years previously in delirium, and she has become a Sister of the ! home. But her boy Robbie is living in i the slum with an awful old woman, whose husband is a burglar. The burglar I and a pal would have stolen the gold i plate from the Mission Church, which had been presented by ‘Sister Miriam, ' but their plans were frustrated by Robbie, • who also protects his little companion, Maggie, whose “beautiful” cough qualifies her in the eyes of her guardians to, sing in the streets, and so win sympathy and money. The night scenes of London are very realastic, and the chivalrous boy carries the heart of the audience with him, bearing ill-usage in his endeavour to shield Sister Miriam and little Maggie The villains are all unmasked in the end, and Robbie restored tp the mother he already worships as the one beautiful and tender creature of his dark childhood. He is proved to be the real Lord Dereham, and the evil uncle (who had caused him to be hiddemand reported dead) gets his deserts. But little Maggie enters with Robbie into the wonderful new life, for Lady Dcreham takes her under her protection. Miss Hilda Spong makes a beautiful and sweet Sister Miriam, and Miss Ruth Bidwell plays Robbie with the real cockney humour and the pathos of the part. Miss Moys Nugent is a pathetic and natural London child, ofxthe gutter. At the Lyric Theatre “Love and Laughter” received an enthusiastic reception. Full of romance and nonsense, light and colour, pretty gipsies garbed as no gipsies one ever meets, stalwart soldiers, a prince and princess, political skits, and a full programme of exciting situations, the piece passes the time delightfully. I Mine. Sarah Bernhardt arrived in London on Saturday for a six weeks’ season at the Coliseum, as wonderful as ever. Every season this great tragedy queen gives' evidence that genius never grows old. She opened her season with the central tableau in M. Rostand’s dramatic : poem, “La Samaraline,” in which Photine, the woman of Samaria, exhorts the people of her town to come out to Jacob’s Well and see the Master who told her all the things that ever she did. Bernhardt held her audience spellbound to the close, and then came boundless applause. The scene has an Oriental setting, the music is primitive and wild, the shepherd’s shrill pipe blending with cymbals, and the market place of Sicham has its merchants in Eastern garb calling their wares. Women are gossiping and seers taking counsel, and Azriel, the man who loves the woman of Samaria, who is “not her husband,” is waiting for her to return from the well. She comes, breathless, the beautiful woman who has been loved by five husbands, dressed in an Oriental robe of golden tissue, wearing strange jewels; but she has forgotten her beauty, forgotten her lover. In her eyes is the light of the divine love and its message, which she delivers ; in that wonderful soft emotional voice of Mine. Bernhardt, now thrilling with ecstacy, now hoarse with emotion. With exaltation of look and eloquent gesture of hands she tells of Him Who came to win the world from sensuality and pleasure, i Who has won her. She is magnificent in . the end, where, after being imprisoned for ; her passionate zeal in announcing the divinity of the Man of Nazareth, she is ’ set free to convince the people that He I is their friend, the friend of the Samari- ! tans and all the outcasts of the world. I It is a superb climax of inspired eloquence. And so the “old, old story” gets ! told. And those who will not hear it ! from the pulpit hear it from the stage. } Now that the new plays are on, London , in. the evening, alight and alert, hums i with movementr The Court may bo at j Balmoral and the society that revolves 1 round the Court elsewhere in the vicinity of the north, but London is awake again, Johnnie comes marching home again- from ids holidays, .sunburn is disappearing from j the cheek of the crowd, the printing presses are brisk with their output of the autumn books, and many society folk | who are scon off to warmer climes are

“passing through” to see the plays and do shopping. The great restaurants, ashine from their August “spring clean,” are again crowded with theatre, dinner, anti supper parties. The new millinery and autumn goods are “out,” and the great shopping centres are awake from their doze —of which one eye only is ever shut. London has been early overtaken by the sere and yellow leaf, the wych-elms are almost bare, and the plane and lime are dropping their foliage. In the parks and open spaces the gardeners are busy carting away the leaves. For our summer is over, while yours is to come. Leaves- have their time to fall.

And flowers to wither at the North wind's breath, and man with all his partial conquest of earth and sky and sea has not yet discovered how to check the wind from blowing where it lieteth, or to , arrest a leaf in its decav.

The reply of Miss Maud Allan, the dancer, to the objection’’of the European public of Calcutta to her dancing there, that what is good enough for England and England’s King is sm’ely good enough for Calcutta, has caused a good deal of Controversy in London, where as “Salome” she created a. sensation. Anglo-Indians and those most intimately conversant with the customs and traditions of the East point out with great emphasis that it is not a question of what is good enough for England and its Sovereign not being good enough for Calcutta, but that, on the other hand, it is too good, a casting of pearls before swine; a difference of the “as far as the East is from the West” in the traditions regarding its women. In the West a woman dancing on the

public stage is regarded and admired according to the degree of her art; she in no wav lowers her prestige, as she would do bv'the exposure of her face and form to the natives of India, who regard her as one of their own dancing girls, as outside the pale and a target for insult. bne would thus lower the prestige of the white women in India, and the Europeans before whom she may appear. It is impossible to educate the native mind in Indiain the Western idea, of womanliness, the few Indians who visit the West become accustomed to our .women unveiled in the streets and public places. The Indian in his native land can no more realise a chaste woman dancing in public before a mixed company of men than we can understand their virtuous wives malting one of a harem. With reference to the ■question of a white dancer m India may I, as one who passed a lifetime in the Ear East, be permitted to say a few words?' When Miss Maud Allan says, “What is good enough for England arid England’s King is surely good enough for Calcutta,” she must pardon my saying that she is talking arrant nonsense, resulting from an entire ignorance of the Asiatic way of regarding these matters, which is quite different from the European.