SARAH BERNHARDT'S COMPANY ARRESTED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 451, 9 March 1909, Page 3

SARAH BERNHARDT'S COMPANY ARRESTED.

Paris was startled (says the correspondent of the "Standard") by the news that Mme. Sarah Bernhardt ■ had been arrested in St. Petersburg. The news was very nearly true. Mme. Bernhardt and ;her company are playing at the Theatre du Conservatoire, in St.' Petersburg, and, having a free afternoon one day recently,, they thought they would like to pay a visitUo 'the-' slums of the city. Not wishing to be noticed, they dressed in the parts of beggars, "arid, more or less in rags, and with downtrodden shoes, wandered about the narrow streets, into low vodka shops, and thoroughly enjoyed, themselves. But tho police that day. were on the lookout for a number of men and women forming a gang which combined, advanced politics with burglary. They thought, theso Trench-speaking beggars decidedly suspicious, both in appearance and behaviour, and after following them for some' hours arrested the whole crowd. They kept them under lock and key until less than half an hour before their evening's performance should have begun, and they were not released without the personal intervention of tho French Ambassador. But Mmo. Sarah Bernhardt herself was not with them. She was almost alone in the theatre, nervously awaiting their return, and when they arrived under police escort she did not recognise them. The performance was half an hour late that evening, but the audience did not regret it, for Mme. Sarah Bernhardt, in her inimitable manner, went before tho curtain and told the audience, to their intense amusement, the reason of tho delay.

An American woman; Mrs. W. J. Bcggs, has produced what is believed to be the first thornless rose. Many attempts have beenmade'in this'direction by horticulturists, but it is said that this rose, of Mrs. Bcggs's, is tho first developed absolutely without thorns. The grower lived next door for some years to Luther Burbank, and studied his methods. The fight for woman suffrage grows oven stronger- in Americaj arid many of tho most influential papers aro on tho side of tho women. Amongst the important periodicals tliat have lately declared themsolves in favour of the reform are tho "North American Review," "Harper's," "Collier's," and the . "Christian Herald" of New York. A story of a confirmed man-hater was recently recorded. An inquest was held at Hackney on the body'of a spinster, Harriet Evans, aged 68. lii giving, evidence, deceased's landlady said that the old woman was a thorough man-hater; that she refused , all' coins bearing King Edward's head. If they wore forced on ,her she threw them in the fire. Queen Victoria's effigy she readily accepted. She dealt only in shops kept by women. She never-spoke to: men, and even declined to receive letters, as they bore stamps with tho King's head..