What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1991, 22 May 1875, Page 2

What Everybody Says.

"In multitude of counsellors there is safety." "" ' —Old Proverb,

: Mr George Darrellevidently-did not relish what everybody Tsaid, although it was kindly meant.' No wonder lie" didn't like it. He had been surfeited all the' week and longer with .fulsome "notices " peppered with superlative adjectives and running over with -unqualified praise of his acting in the heavier lines of the drama, and everybody was wrong to expect that ho would consent to take a little advice when it did not accord with his inclination.^ So he made a feeling appeal to the audience whether they would not rathersee him " endeavoring " to play Hamlet than singing comic songs. Of ?course, the. audience sa^d :yes ; yet | they had been him round after round of applause as he gave them songs, and .recitations in the characters which he had chosen to play in his farewell performance. The inconsistency displayed by the audience did not seem to strike him, but it did everybody else ; for they said-"rTliere's Darrell playing ija. part or ■ ..parts and singing songs^as he used to do, arid its the bWt billiihis season ; " While others, when asked their opinion about Barnlet, shooked their heads, shrugged their shoulders, and said, " Oh! very good, you know;. I stayed for two acts ; that was enough for me." This specimen of everybody's criticism is a mild one; some were very much less complimentary. If all writers would tell the truth more frequently to actors arid actresses, they would not be so sensitive to criticism; they would very soon be classed amongst the pachydermata.' But Mr Darrell not only appeared hurt at ,lho bit of advice tendered him, ho put a wrong construction'on it. "He was not told comic singing was his legitimate business, but that i lialit business and a little singing as of old would go down better and afford more amusement; and that very last night's ! performance proved the truth of what' everybody said. As to iteration of the statement about the best company ever got together in New Zealand (it was qualified last Saturday night) thero have bocn companies playing in New Zealand which comprised as many " stars" as the whole strength of the company Mr Darrell had under his direction. As everybody admitted, 'tho company was very good and produced pieces creditably; but they would have done better still if they had not been so heavily weighted. An authority says that in Duncdin there is a lawyer for every sixl hundred people, and, including clerks and pupils, there is one limb of tho law for every two hundred of populafion, and, the authority says, making a living. They must be very fond of law in Dunediu. What a change in a few-years. One of the first—perhaps the first who regularly settled down to the- law m.l>uneclin (he. is practising there yet) wrote home about twenty years ago and said tUore was nothing for him to do in law business, aud ho had to go into shoep*farining. Next mail, or soon after, he wrote again and said ho vras" doing fine." Another lawyer had madehis appearance, and between'them they* had given "the-folks a taste for the luxury of, the law. There was plenty of work for iVq where one would hare starred but>fbrlidapting: himself to other-pursuits.;: ; The 'same character seems to adhere to Dunedin. As lawyers increase so ?does; the work for them; and if they go on much;, faster it will soon come to"be " everyanan his pjsrh Mjjef," with perhaps fools for clients. " ' '.■,.:■> ■ ]"/,

If all be true there ; will. soon be room for a few more of the ♦•learned. "longrobed " geutlenien on the Thames. Litigation looms in the distance, and the $pe.njng campaign .is: to be inaugurated next week, whenthere.yill^e an "'array " of " lpgal taienfc" ' several .1" pminprit;" members of tho " profession " being cspeeted from Auckland, liboral."retaiuerg " having been given. It; looks like a "case" of the carcase and the caglco, especially that against; the prospectors,

aprojios of which a " fellah " made a joke the other day. He said these jumpers, or what you call them, had not lost their tasf;e for " Neave's farinaceous food," and they,were so fond of ifc that they wouldn't mind taking the bread out of his mouth. Now, as everybody knows, farinaceous food is generally given to infants, so perhaps the jokist intended his sally to apply %o sucking' lawyers.