"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND. (Specially Written for the Witness Ladies' Page.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 75

"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND. (Specially Written for the Witness Ladies' Page.)

TOPICS OF THE HOUR.

The short London winter season is over, and Society, with a big S, is out of town — has gone, in fact, in search of sunshine ho the South of France for the most part. For those at home balls and dances and the theatre are the order of the day. " Edwin Drood," the grand melodrama At His Majesty's, is drawing crowds. There was a good deal of speculation as to what answer the dramatist would give io the mystery of " Edwin Drood," which. Dickens did not live to complete, One critioism cays : — ' People who read their Dickens often wonder whether he meant to kill Edwin Drood or intended him to come back in the end. There are two reasons for thinking Dicken9 intended him to be really murdered. The first ia, that if he had oome back he would have been in the way. He would not have married Rosa, for in Chapter 19 they bad agreed to be brother and sister to each other. In Chapter 21 it is evident that Rosa is in love with^Mr Tartar an-d he with her. In Chapter 14 Edwin is in love with Helena Landless, but ho couid not have married her if he had lived, because in the last book of Forster's "Life of Dickens'" Helena was to marry Crisparkle, the Minor Canon. The second and strojiger reason for believing Edwin Drood zeally dead is that Dickens, in writing to Foreter, says: "I laid aside the fancy I told you of. and have a very curious and new idea for my new story. Not a communicable idea, or the interest of the book would be gone, but a very strong one, though difficult to work."' Concerning this, Foist er says: — "The story, I learnt immediately afterwards, was to be that of the murder of a nephew by his uncle, the originality of which was t) consiot in the review of the murdeier's career by himself at the clo&e, when its temptations were to be dwelt upon as if not he, the culprit, but some other man, .were the tempted. The last chapters were to be written in the condemned cell, to .which his wickedness, all elaborately elicited from him as if told of another, .had brought him. Discovery of the murderer of the utter needlessness of murder for his object was to follow hard upon commission of the deed; but all discoveiy of the murderer was to be baffled till near the end, when, by means of a gold ring, .which had resisted, the corrosive effects of the lime into which he had thrown the body, not only the person muidered was to be identified, but the locality of the crime, 'and who had committed it. So much was told to me before any of the book was written ; and it will be recollected that the ring taken by Drood to give to his betrothed only if their engagement went on was brought away by him -at their last interview. Rosa was to marry Tartar, and Crisparkle the sister of Landless, who was, I _ think, to have perished in assisting Tartar finally to unmask and seize the murderer." The play is melodrama, a big show, and « one-man play — Mr Beerbohm Tree. "Excellently staged, with excellent scenery and excellent incidental music, a gorgeous melodramatic production of opium thrills and agonies, a series of beautiful pictures, a consonancy of colour and atmosphere very pleasing to the eye — the whole thing being a crowning of slr Tree's histrionic ■virtuosity." But jvery little is said for the play itself. Mr Tree as John Jasper is everything, and while there is much praise, it -is regretted that His Majesty's " has returned to the artifice of the 'made' play, the one-man drama." The dramatic critic "A. H." says: — Mr Carr has, I venture to think, followed the story, sketched by Dickens /in undrajaatic form, so closely — the very language is often reproduced — that he has lost the rapidity and point of dramatic expression, and the play is in consequence expressionless. There is "a lack of drpmatic climax, grip, movemeut, and delineation of theme and character which, an it were not for the acting of Mr Tree, would throw the success of the thing in the meHmg-pot In solving the mystery he has accepted the theory generally held that Edwin Drood was not murdered alter all, but returns — to marry Bosß. But in the original, Drood was certainiy in the end njora fond of Heier.a Landless than of Rosa,, who was beginning to reciprocate Neville's affection tor her. Of course, the difficulty i« Jasper, and is a threefold one; yet in Mr Carr's version we are not even told what becomes of Helena and Neville, while Jasper dies in unctuous melodramatic fashion, blessing the timon of Rosa and Edwin. However, there is no need to "stand upon points" concerning the mystery or Mr Carr's solution of it. We begin, as Dickens did. in the opium den. The old beldame apostrophising her opium-eaters with "Dearie" is there; the l*scar and Chinamen, m drowsy opium delirium, are lying on a couch ; Jasper, scheming murder, is there; and through _ the window we catch a glimpse of the Thames — a dramatic and impressionist whole. Then we get a beautiful picture of Cloieterham Cathedral, delightful Dickens characters. Georgian costumes, and Mr Tree, unrecognisable, in a surplice, Durdles, and the queer iuny, Deputy. The second act is a prolonged agony of xnorphinistic introspection on the part of Jasper, fatalistically impelled towards the dead, and the great scene on Christmas Eve. Edwin Drood escapee, but Jasper, in the blissful agony of opium, thinks he has murdered him. This is a great scene for Mr Tree. The curtain falls on Jasper crouching in a corner. Mr Tree is very fine in this Btudy of the terror-stricken opium-eater. He lias never done anything better. Six months elapse, and the rest is the elucidation of the mystery. Mr Crisparkle takes the part in the book of (detective?) SEHktcitory, and there is a drama tio ajcm«nt ■when he and Durdles discover Jasper in the crypt of the cathedral — where the "old uns," according to Durdles, sing o' nights. But even then there is no climax, no conclusion, no consequence. In the meantime Jasper bullies Rosa into accepting him. and at last, in Mr Crisparkle'a room, he comes for his answer. She falls on her knees before him. Then Jasper feels the pity of conscience for the first lime, confesses — though without apparent reason— and is marched off to gaol. The end is in the infirmary ward of a prison. Jasper is brought in to die in limelight melodramatic unction, and Rosa and Edwin Drood, redivivus, are brought in to

clasp hands, to make a pretty, sentimental death scene. After that, as I have said, Mx Tree had to come forward many times to bow his acknowledgments. In this play the acting and the scenery are the thing, and Mr Harker's pictures are really admirable. So are the costumes So, too, are the light effects : what Germans call the "incidental illumination." Mr Tree himself gave a sustained and remarkable performance. In the scene with the lawyer in the third act he was singularly impressive. All through he held the stage. The part exactly suits him. His is a "subjective" - peronality, and the role of th» opium-eater allows him full scope for the display of his dramatic qualities. Every now and then he rose to » really high level. He dominated now by a glance, now a gesture, now a pose, now a dett touch, suggestive of the morphmist, and yet in his dual impersonation was real, human, eloquent, and suggestive. His make-up was marvellous. "Without question his Jasper is a great histrionic creation : polished, picturesque, fanciful, imaginative, and thoughtful, and he managed his voice admirably. In short, it is just the kind of character Mr Tree excels in. The only fault I have to find with his Jasper is that he struck the introspective note of the murderer too scon, and web generally inclined to be extreme and unnecessarily nvelodrHmatic. The book of the hour is " Christianity and the Social Order,"' by the Rev. R. J. Campbell, M.A., published by Chapman, Hall at 6s. It is certain to meet with a good deal of criticism by the orthodox, for it is an insistence of what has been termed Mr Campbell's New Tneology. Mr Campbell takes the position that "We are today confronted by the startling fact that in practically every part of Christendom the overwhelming majority of the population is alienated from Christianity as represented by the churches." But he seea a "greater day on the horizon when the motiv.es of greed and fear will have passed away for ever by the coming of a social older in which there shall no longer be any room for them. The rich man will lose nothing that he has now, and he will gain immeasurably in the joy of seeing everywhere around him a contented and happy people, his brothers and equals. To the poor it will mean the fulfilment of the promise uttered in the name of Jesus: 'I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly ' To all alike it will be the fulfilment of the- prayer of Jesus that they all may be one." Mr Campbell endeavours to prove that Christianity as represented by the churches is far removed from the religion of Christ, and sets forth how in his opinion one might become truly Christian by living nearer the ideal of brotherhood which He set up. The author regards Socialism as the practical expression of Christian ethics. He denies that there is any Gospel support that when Jesus spoke of the " Kingdom of God" he meant only a state after death, but " other-world-ism," when the moral forces, af the world redeem it from error, when the force of God in Godlike men gives out life and truth and love. Jesus was a social reformer, the "Kingdom of God" a state of society which the Jews, and Jeeus with them, fully expected to see realised upon earth. r "Being a Christian" dees not depend, Mr Campbell contends, upon what we believe, but the spiritual mind and deed, the pursuit of right conduct, the great redemption of the race. He seems inclined to think the Resurrection was the spiritual, and not the flesh Christ. "Is it altogether incredible that the familiar and beloved Voice spoke once again from the further side of the great ailence, and mr.de it plain to the griefstricken little community that the grave is not the last word, and that evil has no real power to overthrow anything that is of God? Perhaps we may be nearer than we think to a scientific demonstration of the fact that self-consciousness does not perish with the dissolution of the physical body." "The Black Stain" (Jarrold and Sons; Is net), by Mr G. R. Sims, is a book that is being talked of, and to tliose who want to know something of the horrors of English slum life it depicts scenes that are | incredible, onlr that Mr Sims knows the i dreadful things he is talking about, and verifies his statements with facts. I There are half a million children in Eng- '. land being reared in cruel neglect. Work enough here, one would tliink, for the mis- ; sionary, without going further afield. I These are not, of course, including hun- ; dreds of thousands who are cared for in ! the charitable institutions. Starved, illi clad, and subject to horrors so loathsome ! that those who can read of them even | unmoved must have hearts of stone. They j live in filth, and in many cases, are killed | outright ; for over-laying, mostly attributed | to drunken motheTs, but sometimes to murder, is one prolific cause of child morj tality, claiming, Mr Sims has proved, its j annual thousands. The deaths from burnI ing through being left carelessly near a I fire is also terribly frequent in * the case of infants. Mr Sims gives pictures homi , town after town he has visited in England j where the fate of the children was infinitely worse than the lot of any heathen. The author backs his vivid word horrors by photographs. Spite of the great work of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Society these things still . exist. Nor among those hon-estly poor is there fch-e most neglect and cruelty, but in many homes where the father earns good money but is drunken. Mr Sims considers child insurance greatly to blame. Out of 115,000 cases that came into public notice last 3*ear, 31,518 were insured for £164,887. The facts are incontrovertible. Talking of the children recalls the entertainment tragedy that took place a few day 6 ago at Barnsley, Yorkshire, where, at the Harvey Hall, there was a disaster on the staircase, and 16 children were stamped to death, while many others were hurt. Hundreds of children were

being admitted for a penny each, to a variety entertainment with animated pictures. The district is a mining one, and many of the children were those of miners. The proprietors of the entertainment had made the offer to the schools that on the Saturday afternoon the children would be admitted for a penny each. The delighted youngsters had looked forward all the week, and very early in the afternoon boys and girls, in charge of smaller brothers and sisters, were congregated in hundreds in the yard which led to the gallery entrance, which was reached by a passage from the street, on which were the main doors of the hall. The stairway was guarded at the yard entrance by a responsible man. At the top of the stairway the proprietor took the money. But the stairway itself had many twists and turns, and the middle stairway where the tragedy occurred was a flight between two landings, where no one was stationed, and out of sight or sound of the man on the gallery floor and the man at the yard door. The happy, chattering youngsters, grasping the pennies in their hands — some were afterwards found still tightly clasping it in death — trudged up and up. Bub when the proprietor thought the gallery comfortably full he told the still-arriving children to go down and they would be admitted into the body of the hall by the main door. They turned and rushed down, anxious and eager, and meeting the advancing children knocked them backwards and fell on them. Five feet high the suffocating children, were piled, unable to scream because breathless, a moaning, struggling mass. When at last the screams of the children who had not fallen drew the attention of the man at the yard door, he found it impossible to extricate any without pulling out their arms, so he climbed to the balcony window and informed the proprietor — who was still sending children back — what had taken place, and the fallen children were taken off from the top.

Men were at last managing to disentangle the pile. Dead children with discoloured faces were carried out to the open air Straw torn from crates in the yard was scattered on the ground, and on the straw the bodies were laid Mothers mad with anxious terror were already there. Some were tearless, but their lips and hands trembled as each body was brought forth. Others were screaming hysterically. Telephone messages called for help broadcast, and firemen and policemen were now running up. The scene was one of agonised confusion. Then Dr Hall, the first of the medical men. arrived and swiftly restored order. He instructed the police to sweep the people back from the bodies. He had no mercy on the relatives or anyone else, for his work of saving life had to be done at once if at all. People pulled him hither and thither, but /soolly and rapidly he worked. He gave aid in a dozen directions; he tried to put breath into those who were breathless ; he restored some who were not too far gone. Later he had other doctors to help him.

But in spite of devoted efforts 16 little children were found lifeless. There were indications that every one had been suffocated. Of those who escaped with their lives, many were injured by shock. Parents with eyes streaming with gratitude carried home those not seriously hurt. Several were taken to th« local hospital. "Someone pushed us," said a child of seven, "and we all fell down. I was squeezed tight, and I could not cry. Then it grew dark." This, in effect, is what others had to say. Maud Taylor, another of the children who escaped with only a shock, said : "I was near the bottom of the steps. The children began to come down again. We did not know why. I wanted to get out, but I could not. Then all at once they fell. I waa pushed down. I could not breathe. I do not know anything after that. When I awoke I was in bed in the hospital."

Doris Pickering, who was bruised by being trodden upon, said: "I felt them tieading on me. I tried to scream, but the weight on me was too heavy. I do not know anything after that." Walter M'Grath. aged 12. gave a graphic account. "We were going up the stair very slowly, a step at a time, when the boys and girls above came pushing down. I was knocked down on the top of some other children and fainted. When I woke up I had a few on the top of ma. I could not get out. and cried to the men who were lifting the children, but they were too busy. There was another boy with a small child in his arms that I had noticed as we were going up. When I woke up I again saw this boy, still holding on to the child in his arms, and trying to get out with it He sort of rolled out with the child held above him, and I got out close behind him." The mayor drove round to the homes of the bereaved parents to convey the King's condolences, adding a wo-d or two of comfort on his own behalf. i.iis was the most painful duty he had ever had to undertake.

"The parents were literally stricken with grief," he said. "No words of mine can picture the series of scenes. The one consolation which lightened the duty was the marked and deep appreciation with which his Majesty's kind message was received. 'The King never forgets! God bless him!' said one poor mother fervently."

His Majesty had sent kind messages at once, and a public subscription was raised to defray all costs of illness and burial.

The scenes at the inquest were heartrending, each poor father and mother having something to say of the happiness with which the children set out for what had promised to be a rare pleasure.