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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 57, 6 March 1873, Page 4

" Snyder," ,in the Weekly Herald, says : — The* legitimate drama is being stamped out in the colony. Just as one species of animal has exterminated another so has the flying trapeze and infant phenomenons on bare-backed Arab steeds stamped ont Shakespeare and the whole . list of modern dramatists. Such is our refined and exquisite taste that we now infinitely: prefer to see Lottie taking a flying leap from the dress circle on to the staged to be caught head downwards at the risk of her neck by a he-trapezist, than we care to witness Hamlet done to rags or Macbeth torn to tatters. Farces and burlesques won't stand against "nigger business;" comedy /won't draw whilst Haymarket comic <, songs are done in character. Opera plays to an empty dress' circle, while the dashing lady in pink silk , who aßks fou to join in the chorus to " Good-bye, Charlie," coaxes a full house. The tightrope girls and the slackrope girls and the girls who ride, horses in short muslin skirts and pink fleshings, who jump, through- hoops and over skipping ropes while at full gallop, .draw more money than* our Colonial Treasurer does with- his • travelling expenses and r allpw- r ances thrown in. And: tins we know is no small thingi Y Who will |,now care to see a dramatic represeHi^ acttess, yWh^ woman and ihe mother o^ ■•• a ■"idye^-blb^qm^^ '*. .;, viUian, lover insted of staking,, her to ..the ysJ^lser*^ ' r -hei^^^^ *-' sufficient ebdurance to sit but,a_lve-act ', : tra-- : aedy-io see the hero at the closeof the last y>*?y?,*M->.4vZ;i^»r^ icene stab lunMelf /v^ith a ;^poden s daggei^)

-~ ■ y ■-. , . ... ,■%,,,,*„.,„ ... -—■ or the heroine drink water out of a twoounce bottle which she declares is tlie deadly drug that will <_o the deed. The glory of the past is fading out of memory.: Jugglers,^ spirit, mediums,. conjurors, lifters; of heavy weights, men who can stand on tbeir heads and throw somersaults in the air six times before they touch the earth,, and men 'who balance on their qhins : women on the top of poles, will draw larger salaries, in the colonies at least, than tbe best star dramatists that shine in the terrestial firmament. Mr Peebles,; the spirit medium, is soon to be in our midst. He is performing in Dunedin. He professes to converse with the departed, and bring messages; from your old friends in the other j world. This he does of course for a" consideration. He says he can see the insides of people, and knows what are their ailments. When he told this to a Dunedin , audience, one man rose in tbe body of the hall, and eaid he could do more tban tbe lecturer; for whereas he (the lecturer) could see the inside of a man, while he (the speaker) bad been able from the very first to see right through Mr. Peebles. , All the Spiritists cried shame at tbis piece *of artj but those who were not Spiritists laughed heartily, and declared they could do the same.