"JO."

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2211, 28 August 1889, Page 2

"JO."

Tbo dramatised version < f tbat part of Dioken'a well-known work " Black Hcusa" whloh dea'a with tbe career e c the little street waif "Jo " Is familiar to many of our readers through Ub perform ance by Miss Janny Lee a few yeara ago. A somewhat d ff-rent version la presented by tho Ogden Oompany, but the principal inoldents m Jo's career are depicted In tbe same vivid manner. Regarding the assumption of the prinoipal oharaoter by " Baby " Ogden, a little girl of aoms seven Bummers, the " Otsgo Dally Times " 8»yB :— " Infant prodigies are not aa a me, regarded with yery great favor, for the reason that It ia almost invariably the oase that they play their part, what ever It may be, by rote, without any adequate comprehension of what the thing means — a mere parrot-like repetition of words wbloh have been committed to memory by a system of " oram," that oan only ba hurtful to the objeot. being attempted to ba passed for aptitude. The parading, by theatrical managers and others, for purpose of personal gain, of Infant p?o_i,l is of that kinda calls forth »nd has obtaiied tbe severest reprobation. The case of '• Baby " Ogden Ib a dlfforeat one. Whatever views may be entsrtalned as to the propriety vl Instating snob, a child as tbe central figure In a dramatlo | compsny — and there will oartalnly ba d fferenoaa of opinion upon that pomt — and whatever may have been the way m whfoh tho child acquired her knowlege of of the oharao'er she rapresentf*, there ooncot be more than one opinion about the child herself, and that opinion must be that she ia a wonder. It id not In tho fact that her memory Is *o perfeot that she does not miss a word of hee part, but It is ln her amazingly natural acting — whloh Is so natural as to be ludicrously natural, considering the age of tbe oh! ld— that she la entitled to be dissociated from the olass of infant prodigies already mentioned,