THE ONLY SNAZELLE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 51, 23 December 1893, Page 529

THE ONLY SNAZELLE.

Snazelle has, according to a contemporary, been up to his old games in South Africa, letting his temper get the better of him, and calling a local reporter hard names because he failed to duly appreciate the Snazelle’s moral entertainment. It is probably more true of thegreat “ Bill Adams ” Snazelle than anyone else in the world that he is his own worst enemy. A real good fellow, a prince of raconteurs, a brilliant actor, a good, if slightly passe vocalist, and absolutely an Al entertainer, Snazelle is cursed with as hot

and violent a temper as was ever bestowed on man. His fits of ungovernable passion have lost him piles of money, but have rarely alienated friends, though they must often have sorely tried them. The most extraordinary part of the thing is that the fits are of short duration, and once over, Snazelle is his old genial self again, fraternising and ‘ rid manning ’ a person whom an hour before he has cursed with a comprehensive fluency and fury terrible even to remember. Bearing no resentment himself after he has half killed his man, he will apologise most handsomely and be astonished to the verge of violence again if there is the slightest hesitancy on the part of the cursed or knocked out to be as cordial as ever five minutes after. Perhaps the most amusing instance of this occurred during the run of ‘Paul Jones’ in Sydney. Snazelle had an important part—helped to make the success, in fact. One night he was in a rather worse tantrum than usual, and knocked more people over than was customary. Manager Musgrove appeared on the scene in the midst of the melee, and naturally, but unwisely, expostulated with the irate Snazelle, who promptly awarded him • two lovely black eyes ’ of the most tender description, and rushed from the theatre. Next morning as Musgrove was sitting in his office, his eyes bandaged up with beef steak, Snazelleentered withagenial ‘Good-morning.’and demanded a rise in salary. Such is the yarn told by a late distinguished dramatic visitor. Si non y vcro ben trovato. Anyway it’s very like Snazelle.

The opinion which a person gives of any book is frequently not so much a test of his intellect or his taste as it is of the extent of his reading. An indifferent work by one who had neither time or opportunity to form a literary taste.