THE LARGNETTE

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 948, 27 February 1897, Page 8

THE LARGNETTE

Cakl Hebtz opened on Saturday night to' a crowded house in the Opera .House. I fc goes without saying that his hand has not Tost its since his last visit to . Auckland. - If . anything, ■ the entertainment he furnishes has improved- in brightness and variety. His ' patter ' is mote pointed and telling, and the exhibition of the cinematograph provides enough fun and genuine, entertainment to earn the price. of admission. The card tricks were all most deftly executed, .and whenever, at .. 'odd intervals, the knowing ones among the audience began to imagine they had discovered the modus operandi, the arfcißt very neatly turned ~ the tables upon them by showing that he had been merely throwing them off on a wrong scent. The thought xeadinghand raised a laugh at the expense of the Benedict in the stalls for whom it counted' up a record of eleven children for two years, and the vanishing cage quite confounded the young man from' "Waitekauri from whose armpit the canary was drawn forth. The Noah's Ark illusion was a quite new feature, and everyone who has seen it has been cudgelling his brains ever since to divine how it's done. First of all, the ark was taken to pieces to convince the -audience it was full of emptiness. Then half a-dozen buckets of water were poured into it, and immediately afterwards the conjuror drew out in succession a large variety of live stock, embracing a couple of pigeons, a brace of guinea pigs, some cats and a dog, three ducks, two bantams and a lively young porker. Finally, the aides of the ark were thrown open and Mdlle D'Alton was revealed reclining at her ease inside. The cinematograph is a very palpable hit. Some of the pictures came out rather obscurely on the screen. Perhaps the best are the landing of a boating party oh Brighton beach, the manner in which a young lady who is carried ashore whips up her Bkirts and disappears as she is dumped down on the sand always fetching the gods in thunders of applause ; the widow's kiss, the comic costume race, the race for the Derby, Loie Fuller's serpentine dance, the Czar's arrival in Paris, and the sea cave with, the waves breaking in foam upon it. These particular pictures are nightly encored, and several of them have to be repeated. After this exhibition there are other illusions to mystify the audience, lovely bouquets produced out of nothingness under cover of a small red handkerchief, no end of r0368 shaken out of an apparently empty paper sugar-bag, handkerchiefs crumpled up in the hand into ivory billiard balls — all these and' many more that we have no space to recapitulate. And Mdlle. D'Alton, in a light soprano voice, sings some pretty jingling ballads. The closing illusion is ' Stronbaika.' which must be seen in order to be fully appreciated. Carl Hertz . js still raking in the shekels.

Look out for the Butcher's Picnic on Wednesday next. Whipa of fun ! Don't miss the National Oddfellows' picnic and sports at Pine Island on Satarday this week Bead the programme, and you'll make up your mind to be there. Saturday, the 13th of March, bids fair to be a red-letter day. Ho other explanation is needed than that the Polo Club's sports and raceß are. fixed for that date. Have a look at the programme elsewhere. Those are very neat and attractive little scoring cards that have just been printed at the Observes Office for the Auckland Bowling Club. Room iB, given ior scoring up to 31 heads, and the cards are quite a' model of neatness G. Kent and Sons, bakers and confectioners, of Newmarket and .Symondsstreet, have put np a big record in honors for their success in purveying the staff of life— nine first and special prizes. And as . for their wedding-cakes no bride-elect who sees them will allow her young mv to give Kent and Sons the go-by. 'Hinemoa' by tbie combined forces of the Musin Concert Co. and the Auckland Amateur Opera Club, and under the baton of its gifted -young composer ■ft&r All J?. Hill), ia the bus musical event of next week. . Jtas,full of good-things^jtad the man or woman who misses seeing it y?ill regret the Ides when too late to repair it.