CLIPTOMANIA. Extracts from Society Paper and all the most interesting sources.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 56, 28 June 1884, Page 5

CLIPTOMANIA. Extracts from Society Paper and all the most interesting sources.

Mr Moncurk D. Conway, it is said, is about to return to America, and will take up his residence at Washington. When will Continental reporters learn to write English titles properly? The following are a few names registered in a Cannes newspaper as fashionable arrivals in that town. I wonder who will recognise them :—: — "Sir Arthur Bart, Corn well-Stepney, Son. Hon. Dundas, Son. Hon, Knatchubull Huguesen, and Sir Henry Bart Vavasour.' "Sir Henry Bart Vavasour" is good —"Truth." Madame Sarah Bernhardt has recently again been offered an engagement for the United States. But her terms were too high, and no business was done. At the Porte St. Martin she gets £60 per night and half the profits, and the takings exceed £300 per night. A biography of Madame Patti, telling the story' of the early years of her professional life, is said to be in course of preparation. The author is said to be a lady who travelled some sixteen years with the prima donna. The work will first be published in Vienna, and it is proposed to translate it into several languages, Mr Hunt, "the Michigan millionaire," who died recently, bequeathed legacies of £1,000 eaoh to Josh Billings and to the mother of Artemus Ward. His widow has taken proceedings^ contest the payment of these sums, as she considers that he must have been insane to make such bequests —"World." It is very proper that the French papers should take an interest in English affairs, but would they not do well to steer clear of the boat-race ? The readers of the Gaulois, for instance, will gather rather a false impression of the business from being told that one of the features of the load-race is the coachman who directs the manoeuvres.

During the last week all the papers have announced that Gounod has just composed an air to Byron's " Maid of Athens " for the benefit of the heroine of those verses, who is described as living in London in great poverty Mrs Black, the Maid of Athens, died nearly ten years ago, and it is thirteen years since Gounod composed the air in quostion, which produced about £20 towards the fund for the relief ot tho old lady. —" Truth." Reckoning the performers and others ongaged both before and behind the curtain, the new Empire Theatre gives employment to nearly five hundred persons. The proportion of these who actually take part in the performances of " Chilpeiic " is. we believe, unprecedently large, a cii'cumstance due to the pains bestowed upon the spectacular portion of the entertainment. With all his simplicity and naivete, Charles Reade was a poseur, and from an early poriod of his public career pospd as an eccentric. He greatly surprised and outraged the old fogies of the original Garrick Club by parading that august establishment in a pair of worn slippers, for which he exchanged his boots in the little neverused card-room at the top of the house. AH his wild explosions of printed rage against the critics, or those who accused him of plagiarism, or those who stole his plays, were really merely business advertisemonts, for, by nature as by practice, he was a most kindly man. — " World." "Num brut dhe most censofisteketed in literari enterpi-^iz wil rckwair tn bi told dhat dhis periodical iz not a komershali profitable underteking. On dhe kontrari, it haz enteld on its projisktar and condojkter diiuing dhe ptet yir an cenremiiinerativ expenditiur ov sertenli raor dhan wcunforth ov hiz veri moderet inkojin, in adishon tv mental and mekanical labor." This is to be tho Queen's English of the future, as recommended by "The Spelling Experimenter "; but we cannot help hoping that the projdkter and condce'kter will soon think better of his conremiiinerativ venture as soon as convenient. — "Globe." One blue dress-coat, mix houtons dor, has been seen in London this season, and the young exquisite for -whom it was built is very sorry by this time that he ever showed himself in such a "get-up." Not even the example of the bold and daring Due de Morny, plus our own Oscars, can induce English gentlemen to go to evening parties in coats suggestive of the masquerade. Having dealt so characteristically with "The Poets' Birds" and "The Poets' Beasts," Mr Phil Robinson is now engaged in collecting and commenting on, in his most humorous manner, the allusions made by our poets, from Chaucer downwards, to fishes and reptiles. The resulting volume ought to be the funniest of the three. —"Figaro." It is lecorded of Prince Bismarck that on his birthday a week or two ago, as he stood before a table on which were heaped the masses of flowers that had been sent tohim, he exclaimed, "Now I feel like Madame Patti." The feeling was not strong enough, however, to find vent in song. Prince Bismarck's friends were spared that trial. Mrs Ann Stump, of Columbus, Ohio, has fallen a victim to her love for a pet dog. She could not bear the thought of dying some day, and leaving her dumb friend to the pei'secution of an ungrateful world. So she poisoned the dog with strychnine. Afterwards repenting, she poisoned herself. English actors are said to be occasionally chilled by the imperturbability of the stalls. Bostonians are said to pride themselves on emulating the British sang froid. When Henry Irving was playing at Boston, a lady, who was seated next to two highlycultivated young ladies, who were witnessing with icy indifference the great actor's performance, exclaimed, half to herself, "Is he not superb ?" The elder of the two damsels fixed her with a chilly stare, and replied calmly, " Pardon me, but I do not yet experience any thrill." Mr Ruskin has written of the projected new railway through Derbyshire :— " Though I should" be driven out of Brantwood by the trippers dancing on my lawn, and the smokers sauntering in my garden, I could still set up my rest where I could see the lamb leap, and hear the windhover cry." By which it must be understood that Mr Ruskin does not object to Birmingham excursionists coming to Brantwood, as long as he can get out of the way. Whether the tripper dance, or the dancers trip ; whether the smokers saunter, or the saunterers smoke ; so long as lambs leap — that is to say, until the end of June— Mr Ruskin would let the the railway do its worst —"Globe."

Thoro are a good many euphemisms for homicide. The Irish- American conspirator " removes 3 ' his man ; the average English rough threatens to "do for" him. One of the latter class, who was brought up at Hompstead the other day, may lay claim to so! o uiiyinality in the language of menncu. His threat to the policeman who charged him with violence was that he would get the officer " ready for the undertaker,"