FOREIGN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5115, 24 November 1894, Page 2

FOREIGN.

It is reported that the parents of Cissy Loftus, who was recently married to Mr Justin Huntly McCarthy in Scotland, have taken legal opinion regarding the marriage, and it iB stated that proceedings will be taken against Mr M'Carthy.

In an article in "The Young Woman" for October, dealing with women's hobbies, Miss Ellen Terry writes : — "My hobby is a cottage! For many years I have had a mad desire for every pretty cottage I have pasaed on my drives in the country — the smaller the cottage the more attractive I find it. The only suggestion I can offer to young women on the subject, 'Don't give you hobby big head ! ' " A. very plucky thing wbb done by one o£ the junior a^eistan's on the Drury Lane stage on Sent. 15, during the opening scene of The Lerly Winner. Coffee baa to be served in an earl'a dmingroooi, and in these days coffeo can never apparently be realistically served on the stisga without a Bpint lamp on the table. By Bomo accident the spirit lamp was upset, and there was a blaze. The actors very properly went on with their parts as if nothing had occurred. But the stage aHßistnnt coolly walked acrosß in front of tho fietors, taking off his coat, and with that garment he succeeded in Btifling the flames. Sir Augustus Harris is said to have doubled tho young mun'a salary at once. " A New Sensation ! A Story in Real Life! Emblems for Dead and Blasted

Hopes." This is tf"^ r " '. en' "rely accurate heading oi .•*. „ vc: sisiuiuis in which an American variety show— the Ninth and Arch Dime Museum, Philadelphia — sets forth its leading attraction. Eesides a "continuous" variety performance on the Curio Stage— where "Sixteen Star Vaudevilles " are to be Been —there ia an exhibition of real divorced ladies : " Twelve lonely, Sorrowing, Sympathetic, Grief Stricken Ex-Wiveß : Twelve Heartbroken, Abused, Misled, Unhappy Divorcees;" These are, farther to quote the advertisement, "An Object Lesson in Establishment of the Fact that Marriage is a Lottery. Each One had at her Feet the Man of all the World She Loved Best. Now Bho will have at her Feet a Framed Copy of the ' Divorce Decree Which tellß the story of a. Good Man Gone Wrong. They will be on view beginning next Saturday, attired in Widows' Weeds. Their Decrees are all genuine, each bearing the Seal of the Court and the Signature of the Judge granting it. 250 dollars in gold to the pbettiest, the most _ modest-looking, &o. To be Decided by the' Popular Vote of the Visitors."

The management of the. Empire Theatre, Londonh,aß,it Beems,determined " to go one better " in tbe matter of the looking-glaßß danr.-e, introduced some months ago by MiBB Clara Weiland in Farfalla. Acoording to report, ifc is now thoir intentibn to suspend over the estate a huge mirror, by means of which the performer will be seen by the audience executing her dance head downwards. The experiment reminds the "Morning" of an incident which occurred many years ago to the doyen of London dramatic critic;?, who happened to be attending a performance in a provincial theatre. The introduction of opera glasses was then quitereaent.andjaeateiJnthefront of a box, the critic raised to his eyes one of those strange, and, at one time, imperfectly understood, instruments. Suddenly the sound of hissing was heard, followed by a storm of vituperation, in which loud cries of "Turn him out "could be distinguished. Ignorant of the cauße, the critic sat placidly observant until his meditations were roughly disturbed by the entrance of the manager, who explained that the public believed opera glasses to have been invented with tho sinister motive of revealing, people " upside down." He begged the critic to beat a hasty retreat. So enraged was the audience that in order to save the intruder from their fury it wag found necessary to smuggle him out by the stage door.

[from oub own cobeespondjnt.C

London, Sept. 29a

Mr G. W, An?on haa returned to town af ber a very successful tour with Truthful James, a comedy by James Mortimer, the well-known dramatic critic, " Alnmviva," and fonnder of the London " Figaro." This paper was once the most popular of penny weeklies, and that it should have been messed up as it waß is inexplicable. Mr Mortimer has now taken the unlucky Eoyalty for a season, and proposes to run Truthful James, there with Anson as star.

According to the enterprising impresario, Mr Henry E. Abbey, who runs Miss Lillian Bussell in America, that songstress commands and receives £300 a week all the year round in the States. Yes, perhaps. If Mr Abbey speaks truth unadulterated, Miss Buaaell mußt be Borry she was persuaded to try a Bix weeks' season at the Lyceum, for although the piece has been fairly successful, the leading lady'a share of the proceeds of the houses that bave witnessed the Queen of the Brilliants will Dot run to that figure by some tens of pounds per week:

Little "Justin Juuior" and his Cießie will not, after ail, visit Australia. Mrs M'Carthy is developing a soul abovethe'alls and mimicry, and acpires to the legitimate. Mr Daly has engaged her for three years to play (or rather, one supposes, underatndy) Ada Rehan's parts; terms £10 a week for the first year, .£SO for the second and .£6O for the third. The idea of this little chit attempting to do anything save imitate tho greatest comedy actress of her age makes one smile. Still, Mr Daly knows his business. America ie large, and as a " sensation " Miss Ciasie will last out three years. Moreover, ehe may, of course, prove the genius her husband anticipates. Mr Ben Brown, " Cisde'a papa," is, I find, well-known to you. He aud his partner Newland vieited the colonies with the Laroches and Folly and O'Neil in 1878, and spent three years in Australia and New Zealand. .

The advance booking at the Adelphi is the heaviest known for many years. Evidently The Fatal Card will run well into 1895. Mr Murray Carson, who plays the villain,l?oneßter,with. such force has, of course, been interviewed. He tells therein of a quaint incident which befell him ■when playing Lassoulitoh in The Red Lamp, In one of the important scenes of this play, the Pole has to use s knife. Mr Carson, unfortunately, was so nervous his hold Blipped and the dagger spun out of his hand. "I Baw," he says, "the glitter of steel aa it flashed over the footlights and sped straight towards the stalls. There was a gasp in the house, for the weapon darted directly towards a gentleman sitting in the middle of the front row. Lnckily the orchestra barrier stopped it, and there, in the rail, it stuck quivering." The individual in peril was Mr Joseph Chamberlain.

Of all the sickening specimens of what Labby calla " barbarouß, besotted bigotry" it has been my misfortune to read, I think the following letter, addressed to the Shaksperean actor, Mr T. R. Benson, by the Vicar of Drypool, Hull, fairly " takes the cake." Mr Benson sent to the reverend gentleman (forsooth !) a copy of a circular announcing a forthcoming performance at the local theatre, and must have been considerably flabbergasted when he received this reply : — *' Dear Sir, — If, in sending the enclosed to a minister of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jeius Christ, you did it in contempt of Hig holy calling, then may God Himself show His diepleaßure upon you. But if you did it in ignorance of His6acred calling, may God iv His mercy so open your eyes to see the sinfnlncss of your present course of life, that you may turn and flee from tho wrath to come.— l am, faithfully yours, J. Hethericgton." Truly, that such intolerance should linger in the present day even in a country vicarage in the garb of religion, is, aa "Truth" puts it, " little short of a miracle."

The Derby Winner, notwithstanding its thirty-seven principals, three hundred Bupers and cix race-horaeg would, off the big stage at Drury Lane, seem a very ordinary melodrama indeed. But at our so-called National theatre it pleases even the most hypercritical playgoer. I think myself, indeed, that those colossal autumn concoctions are far greater proofs of Sir Augustus Harris's managerial capacity than the Christmas pantomimes. His method is to select half-a-dozen sensation scenes and to write or set other's to write up to them. One would think such a system was bound to fail but it doesn't. The Derby Winner story runs beautifully smoothly. The idea waß at first.lbelieve.to dramatise Haw ley Smart's " Bound to Win j" but Sir Augustus rejected the leading motive as insufficiently strong. So the authors fell back on the "Family Herald." In the opening act, a splendid set showing the family mansion of the Earl of Desborough, we learn that that over-fast young nobleman is on the verge of ruin, and that only his colt Clipstono winning the Derby can by any possibility save him. Naturally, tho scoundrel oJ the piece (none other than our old frieud Charles Cartwright) wishes to prevent that dovoutly-to-be-deßired consummation. He has a horse in the race himself, and furthermore he hates Lady Desborough. Did she not once spurn his love with contempt ? So, for three long acts Major Mostyn (to give him his stage name) Buccessf ully carries out the good old game of stage villainy. By a venerable letter device he makes Lady Desborough believe the 'worst concerning her husband and an adventuress yclept Vivien Darvillo, and when, after a .tremendous scene at the military ball, her ladyship leaves the Earl, ib is in Mostyn'a company. She truota the Major, of course, but be soon undeceives her as to his intentions, and just as the unfortunate woman learns ahe is irretrievably compromised

Deßborough bursts in upon them, and denounces her. With the ruin of his home and the sale of his horses at TatterBall's, Denborough's troubles culminate. But Mostyn is not allowed to get Clipstone. Mrs John Wood, who, as the jovial, good-natured Bporting Duchess of Milford audaciously caricatures Lady Gerard, comes to the rescue. After an exciting auction scene she buys the Derby favourite for the Earl, and the horse returns to his old stables. In the next act the Earl and Countess are reconciled over their child's sick bed, and Mostyn, as a last reßort, gets at Clipatone's jockey. Desborough'a trainer and original jockey have been alienated through believing him to be the seducer of the former's little girl. ' Fortunately jußt in time they learn Mostyn was the culprit. The jockey thereupon throws off the latter's jacket, and donning Desborough's, rides Clipstone to victory. On Saturday night the final scene did not go as it should owing to Clipstone's obstinacy, but on Monday he won with immense . spirit. The chief Rcenes are the military ball, a triumph of sumptuous realism ; the trial of the horses on Malton Downs ; the sale at TattenaU's j the paddock at Epsom and the Downs on Derby Day.