TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10175, 24 October 1898, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

If ever a man was entitled Chronicles to write the annals of a of the theatre that man is John "Gaiety" Hftllingshead, inventor, manager, ■ and champion of tie w.irld-faraous London Gaiety, He has done it, and done it well. Since the earliest sixties, when he was writing with Charles Dickens in the "All the Yera: Round," dramatic affairs 'iiad shared his affections with journalism. In 1868, being, as he describes himself, "a literar- hack, an anonymous scribbler, and an equally anonymous manager of a music-hall," Mr Hollingshead, ■with a capital of £200, took upon himself the responsibility of opening a new theatre upon entirely new lines; and the Gaiety arose and .flourished, a big success in theatrical enterprise from the first, There is an amusing account of a incident. Owing to accidents an<T"\ delays during the building, with all Mr Hollingshead's determination to drive things ' through in time, the place was so barely finished that rehearsals had to take place elsewhere, and the scattered parts of the Gaiety Company came together on the appointed' day before the contractor's men had departed. Abcmt twenty pnst six the last of the liugering workmen filed out with the implements of their handicraft* leaving a trail of lime-dust behind them. '.'They filed off the stage," says Mr Hollingshead, "out not out of the house, and took up a firm position, with their implements, in the front vow of the upper balcony. When the acting-manager remonstrated with them, befwc he opened the various c!»-*ors to the public, they declined to move; and said they had built the [adjective] theatre, and they meant to see it opened. The difficulty was reported to mc, and I recognised a certain justice in the contention. They were allowed to remain, and see the [adjective] theatre opened." W. S. Gilbert-was the author of one of the first night pieces, and Captain Alfred Thompson made a revolution in stage effects, as the artist who designed the dresses." The eld costrse costume combinations, strong reds, strong greens, strong blues and strong yellows, were doomed from the time Alfred Thompson's dresses appeared before the footlights." , A little later, he dressed the first Japanese spectacle ever put before a London audience, rihd did much to spread the craze for Japanese decoration. Then,' also, he first achieved the idea of utilising upholstery cretonnes fcfr dresses, with the effect, under the stage glamour, of gorgeous bivjcades j while his embroideries, a» Mr Hollingshead says, "to use theatrical slang, were 'faked.' On a groundwork of white satinette he stencilled patterns with brown 'smudge,' rubbed across a.perforated piece of paper. When the paper was removed, the pattern was visible on the satin, and had the appearance on the stage of elaborate needlework. Duchesses wrote to know where they could buy this cpstly and unique material for ball dresses. They were not told the whole truth, but just enough to pacify them.".

The Gaiety took its title Gaiety from the Paris house of the Actors" and same name, and above all Authors. things the title was to be

played, up to. "It scarcely pointed to Shakespeare, but it favoured taste and the musical glasses. This theatre was one "of the first' to offer its patrons comfortable seats in a well-arranged, wellI lighted, thoroughly well-appointed building. Llt abolished fees, hitherto the burden of the I play-goer, and, as another innovation, established on the same premises a first-class restaurant. Having" thus set an"audience at ease to be amused, it proceeded to . secure their pleasure by means of cleverness, bright-1 ness, and a perpetual change of programme. The long list of plays given during Mr Hoi- j lingshead's seventeen years of "strenuous and | somewhat defiant management," shows an astonishing range, both in actors and authors, i It was on this stage, in "Thespiu," pro-' duced in December, 1871, that Gilbert and Sullivan .were first brought together as collaborators. "The various notices of the piece ' were not far-seeing, but critics are not .paid to act as prophets." F. C. Bernard, Herman "Merivale, George Sims, and G. A. Said' were Gaiety writers. Besant and Rice con-1 tributed a toraedy. Dickens and Thackeray , "pined for success upon the stage, but never attained it;" Charlea Reade, on the other hand, was as successful a dramatist as he was , a novelist. Historical plays, farces, burlesques, the old "legitimate," and the newest and maddest extravaganza took their turns in the Gaiety panorama, and the actors and actresses were as varioue as the plays. Charles Matthews, Miss Neilson, Xellie Farren, J. , L. Toole, Sims Beeves, and Sarah. Bern- j hardt, alternated with music hall stars or' young women, of genius discovered by Mr Hollingshead in "penny gaffs." The, con-' trailer of this "theatrical treadmill" iud a great assistant in the journalistic pen that could- turn to anything, , from adapting a j French, play to cnufliing a newspaper critic, or framing magnificent advertisements. His perpetual "manifestos" to the public are not j the leaet amusing part of his books. There is a quaint suggestion about them of af.T.i Stead in another atmosphere. Those in-1 terested in figures may like to hear that the gross receipts during seventeen years were £675,000', or .an average of close upon £40,000 a year. "As a booth in "Vanity Fair,' the Gaiety did its work and\ received its reward. h

An- American magazine Perfumes,aa a writer has' a suggestive , Character • article, on the study of xest. ' perfumes,, though, some

"' of his conclusions must be taken with rather more than the average grain of salt. ' The sense of smell'is the most disregarded oi all the senses, yet it is the moss subtle and the most powerful , in bringing up associations. The breath of the wattle can transport an exiled Ausrtralian back' into' his native lrfn'd"' ! figaitf "j Eau-de-Cologne has brought on a renewal: 1 ' of violent grief its associations with the sicio-oom ana death. Writers of fiction have occasionally dwelt, on the effect of perfumes, not only in descriptions, but sometimes to help the plot. Novel readers will probably remember the incident of Jane Eyre strolling through the gardens of Thornfield at evening amid the scent of flowers, when she becomes conscious of Rochester's presence by the faint fragrance of his cigar. The Ladies' Anti-tobacco League took fright at this passage, and jte Secretary implored the author to suppress it, "for the perusal of those lines is enough ( to make a«y smoker at once oegin to grope in hia pocket for his cigar-case." Since the sense of smell can so powerfully affect the imagination, the writer goes .on to make a rather fanciful attempt to classify people's moral attributes, according to their favourite perfumes. There are, the writer assures us, only a'few really differ ent kinds of people in the world, the infinite varieties we notice being only matters of detail duo to different environment. Correspondingly, there axe really only a_few classes of perfumes. He treats only artificial odours, though his opinions on the natural ones would have been more interesting. The paoplo who, buy several at once, or one .after another, are out of his classification; they have nothing distinctive good 1 or bad. Only those who have

■ ■ • - .-•■ ~M4j 1 ' .... '.".'■' ■■*•% ■ preferences need be counted. A ; of the vices of White Rose is enough tt» - make the manufacturer's hair stand on end. ' Persons fond of it are- "indolent, sentj. * mental, garrulous, sensual; fond of lustirv, <- flabby both mentally .-and morally; anti (terrible climax) with a tendency to be;fah" Such a person will invariably turn out fa be "insincere, utterly untrustworthy, nn( j both a moral and physical coward" ' liking for musk appears to be on n}l'fo n » h , * with the use of profane language or ovor. indulgence in Musk is a sign of:' "a strongly animal, unrefined, and ah&os* brutal nature." A saving clause is that if combined with a taste for the refinements of heliotrope and violet, a love* oi musk may simply express a strong physical development. Preparations of violet imply refinement, good taste and natural purity of character, and a love of the beau, tiful. A person who exclusively favours Eau-de Cologne is distinguished by refinement, purity «(uid nobility, a clear and sane intellect. Surely ..uis will mean' ;i large increase in the sale of these odours in America. The Stephanntis class— Opopomtx. Jockey Giub, White Iris—j n . dicate a character that depends largely ou surroundings. On the other hand, certain out-of-the-way odours, including burnt Oriental woods, denote caprice ar.d <J 0 generacy. t This elassilictition, \va •A.mld $». requires a little modification; but die vvita ' does indicate some interesting Hues of thought. Highly civilised, nervous." and imaginative people have keen perceptions of odours, pleasant or unpleasant, while the uncultured are generally deficient iv a rense of smell, failing to discriminate between dif. ferent odours and feeling no naus«aat> the strongest scents. Some scents, like that of the azalea, ai*e absolutely imperceptible tathe ordinary person, liesides being an in-" dication of character, it is just passible perfumes may influence us for good or evil. A. very imaginative mind anight even inquire. - whether something corresponding to a human soul may not reside in flowers. This piece - , '' l of transcenientaliaia might naturally have ■ occurred to a -fellow-countryman of Haw- - thornes oa« of whose most powerful tolas iq an elaborate urtistfc description oE ilia intoxication and final destruction of body arid soul by the evil influence of the perfumes of poisonous flowers.

Are the Chinese brave? Curzon, Chinese in his book, "Problems of thfr Courage. Far East," evidently thinks „■ they are, and Lord Salisbury, in ' a recent speech, expressed the same belief. v [[ When war broke out with Japan it was niv/ serted,that the impassive stolid Celestials would sweep their lighter and more fickle ! foes out of political existence. ■ Their utter "V defeat by the Japanese, the tameness with which they let themselves be used as pawn* • . in the game of European diplomacy, bagaa to shake English, confidence in their imper*'. turbable heroism. "A contributor to the , "Nineteenth Century" explodes the whole •* theory of Chinese courage as a myth ' in- • vented by General Gordon in ' the - flush of his victories as head of one section- ( of the nation over another section." Th 6\ , account of the war with the rebel Taipihgs^.. ; * however, gives us anything but an inspiring {". spectacle of valour. Here are some $pjjej»t: •*' inens of their "holy horror of an equal foe,***' In 1863 an Imperialist Chinese force set to suppress the banditti. The native officer.*: commanding the cavalry refused to budge\ r from the protection of the British officer of"'" j foot, in consequence of which the two hostile : forces wandered aimlessly over the country,;'', the mounted rebels always a day's martih front. At last "A British volunteer, (si)ila>Q,s\ offered to the cavalry, being accepted, promptly brought hia troojafc!; within sight of the enemy. Quite , a 1 battle occurred. The Imperialist stood stock still, much too frightened , attack; but on the other hand the.Yebei ',;f 1 Chinese fled headlong, the solitary British, officer pursuing them on his own' account?,"'.;", When the "Ever-victorious - Army 4, Vμ formed it was found necessary \o troops in European uniform, even < doWq fo , , their boots, that they might leave the impree- l i sion of the "foreign devils." Gordon's Vio ' 1 tory at Quinsan was another tragi-eome{|yf c As soon as the' garrisoq saw that he Vffa[ : * cutting off their retreat they ruelied .out o£ ? - < the city and, panic-stricken *- ' rounded the' terrified Imperialists. ' '_ European guns won the day by sheercfetfajji* " and Gordon entered the city unoppdtoE writer in the 'Contemporary , * attsnilsE; ; ; Chinese inertia less to jactiial cowardicelJMtn/ to indifference to the fate of their j Saliva, At Kiaochao, the defenders made m) rely pretence at resistance, and then, doffin r *fr?fr " uniforms, took service under the, ■, ■ at 2d a, day. Gordon's , own -.plaflj for , Chinese warfare de .not bear out ft?]fei.-,-comiums.on tiitix valour.' ■ "China;;' Iβ .. - wrote, "should never'engage in pitcij«B feat* * 'f ties. If the enemy come out (to '•' rifles) the Chinese can run away. ~ j''VSjHeit' -" any enemy cornea up and breaks the wall* ' f of a city the Chinese soldiers ought i)ot fe?''-''; stay and fifhfc the enemy, but attack %e> -, trains of b»fgag» in th.c rear'and on the roads lie came by. , " On the ifc seems probable that if. there is-inMix*'}j: future a partition of the Chinese iJEmpirfj .;-' the only fight will be between the $uroj«aa'.''\ Powers. But the supple shrewd Celestial ..;'., with his capacity for living on ttfetfe tfi >: v' nothing, may, and'in all probabaii/wilr^, prove a dangerous commercial foVio f Kos* pean artisans and agricultural labouw*B,"e»di;'* J may thus fully avenge the partition" df ltte->. ± country. ' • /' ' . \"