DRAMATIC NOTES.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2492, 1 April 1882, Page 3

DRAMATIC NOTES.

[By “ Prompter.”! [From the “ Weekly Press.”] Of course the event, par excellence, of the week has been the production of Gilbert smd Sullivan’s the tic opera of “ Patience.” This took place on Wednesday, and Mr Williamson deserves the utmost credit, not only for the way in which the opera has been brought out, but also for the very perfect arrangements made for the comfort of his patrons. The Zulu chieftain, after a prosperous campaign, has sought fresh fields and pastures new in the Northern districts. His six weeks' reeeipts totted up £1975, a pretty fair sum. As the warrior himself remarked to the impressive De Vivo, his prima donna was a suite of furniture, and instead of letting out it brought in notes. [N.B. —This joke has been patented, and the original copy deposited under the post which the Zulus attempt to pull up with such success in the panorama. Anyone infringing the rights of the author had better beware.] At Bangiora on Wednesday the genial W. H. Thompson’s show drew more people together than has hitherto been seen in that metropolis, and that wonderful chronicler, the' oldest inhabitant, stood aghast as myriads of persons filed slowly post In the direction of the show. On Thursday night Kaiapoi was shaken to its centre by the presence in its midst of the panorama, and more money was seen to pass than on any former occasion. Such is the power of genius when properly directed, hence Thompson’s good fortune. He opens in Wellington on Easter Monday, Mr Denton has concluded hil series of lectures, and goes for a short period to tho Weka Pass, where there is a rich deposit of fossils.

Mrs Walter Hill has appeared in Melbourne in the “ Lancashire Lais, and her friends will be glad to hear that she scored a success.

Mr E. 8. Smy the, the emperor of agent*, kindly forwards me an intimation of the movements of the famous Special Correspondent, Mr Archibald Forbes, whose avant courier In the Australian colonies the genial E- S. S. is. Here is what he say* :—“ Mr Archibald Forbes, the famous Special Correspondent, will make a lecturing tour through the Australian colonies and New Zealand, beginning in May, 1832. The course will consist of five lectures, viz.:—l. Inner life of a war correspondent; 2. Bings and princes 1 have met; 3. Warriors I have known (with illustrations) ; 4. The armies of Europe ; 5 Lecturing experiences in both hemisphere*. With regard to the third lecture I can give a pretty good idea of the warriors I have known, a very good regiment of them, too. Here is just a quotation from the biography of the great correspondent : “ In the spring of 1877 Forbe* joined the Eussian army in tho campaign against the Tarts. Owing to Eussian seoretivenes*, he was sorely puzzled to learn where the Danube would be crossed. Thanks to Prince Merski, who gave him a hint, be was the only English correspondent who eolved the problem, and hurrying to Bucharest with the news, again did his journal great credit. Sole English correspondent present at the murderous and disastrous Eussian assault on Plevna, in July, 1877, Forbes was decorated with the order of Stanislaus for personal intrepidity in rescuing the Eussian wounded. By desperately riding his horse to death, Foibe* reached Bucharest —a distance of 100 miles —the day after the battle, and telegraphed eight columns of description, which apptared in the “Dsily News” of tho following morning. For sixty hours he underwent continuous physical and mental exertion, almost without food and entirely without sleep. The narrative telegraphed to London bore so hard on the Eussian s that all anticipated tho writer's expulsion from the Muscovite army. Eecognising the truth, however, of the English account, the Eussian military authorities instructed their press to accept it as accurate. “Again, having witnessed the fight at Shipka Pass, and being convinced that the Russians could hold their position, Forbes quitted tho scene of combat at six o'clock in the evening, on his return journey to Bucharest, and riding all night reached the Imperial headquarters the next morning, having outstripped the Russian couriers. Taken before the Emperor, who was anxious and careworn, and very shabbily dressed, Forbes gave him all the information at hie command, and was warmly thanked for his promptitude. Eadetzky had exclaimed at Shipka Pass, 1 I’ve got this place, and, please God, I’ll keep it as long as I’m alive.' Forbes assured the Emporor that the Pass would be held ; but as reports of a different nature reached headquarters during d»y, Forbes passed more tnan one maurais quart d'hevre, the German military attache o< the Imperial staff assuring the Emperor that Forbes had led them astray. At last news came that corroborated his statements, whereupon tho Emperor turned upon Major Lignitz, exclaiming, 'You were wrong. I believe Ignatieff’s Englishman is the only man among you who knows anything about war.’ ”