NEWS BY THE LATE MAIL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9089, 22 May 1891, Page 2

NEWS BY THE LATE MAIL.

At present the name in dramatic circles to conjure with is Ibsen— even as Wagner was a year or so ago. The intellectual drama has adopted Ibsen, and aesthetics and neutral-tinted women sit at bis feet. Do they understand the god of their divinity V What does it matter ? Or, if ! it does matter, it matters j only to themselves. " The Doll's House," a play by him, is being acted in the Novelty Theatre, a dull, obscure little house in a sordid neighbourhood abutting .on Drury Lane. It is badly lighted, and less than half f u'l, but Miss Acburch's intelligent rendering of the chief rtffe— the Doll — is something new in the .dramatic and dramatist's art. Ibsen, the Norwegian playwright, is a great and hitherto unappreciated genius, Mr Wilson Barrett brings out " Pillars of Society " by the same pen. Irving is the man for Ibsen's unnatural characters, and Mr Beerbohm Tree decidedly also—he isso subtle. At a meeting of the Royal Botanic Society, the secretary brought to the notice of the meeting a portion of a large poplar lately blown down in the gardens, showing a network of roots running almost round the trunk between the bark and the wood at some distance above the ground, the plant thus apparently deriving its nourishment, not from .the soil, but from the decaying portions of itself. Mrs Alice J. Shaw, "la belle sifikuse," continues to charm Russian audiences with her peculiar talent. She is just starting on a xhree months' provincial tour down the Volga, and will also visit Constantinople, so that her Australian tour will be delayed till towards the close of this year. ■ -•• Charles Davis,' whilst acting as postillion of the carriage in which Mr and Mrs Gladstone werje being driven to the .Hastings station, lost control of the two horse?, nearly dashing into a triumphal arch and running the vehicle on to the pavement and almost upsetting it. The uccused was taken in charge, and on the way to fie station a- scene ■of great ' excitement prevailed, the crowd hustling, hooting, and threatening the police, and attempting to rescue the prisoner. Davis, when before the Police Court next morning, in answer to the charge, said that he was ' very sorryhe had, had a glass of beer, and with Jho noise and 'excitement the horses became frightened. He would have been all right if the people had not " bodily pulled him off his horse." ,' The Swiss" people are alarmed by the decadence of the watch industry, which is one of the leading sources qf revenue in the country.* American and English competition is yearly becoming more- pronounced, and the demand for Swiss watches is falling off. At New Orleans, Mrs Nelson, a young married lady, was murdered the other night by a clerk in her husband's employ. The clerk, named George Baker, was settling the week's accounts with Nelson, at the house of the latter, when a quarrel took place over a financial matter, Nelson accusing Baker of some wrongdoing, whereupon the latter knocked his employer down with a blow of the fist, and then drew \ a knife. A struggle ensued, the noise of which , was heard by Mrs Nelson, who rushed from the bedroom in her nightdress. Baker was in the act of raising hta knife and plunging it into her husband when Mrs 'Nelson grasped the clerk's arm and turned the blade. She could not stop the blow, however, and received the full force of the knife in her neck Baker fled, while Nelson, dazad with fright, rushed into the street crying '{Police I" On returning, he found hio wife dead. The murderer escaped.