A LADY'S LETTER FROM LONDON. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) London, February.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 352, 20 March 1889, Page 3

A LADY'S LETTER FROM LONDON. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) London, February.

The Moriimek- Menpe's Faxcy Dress Ball— No Suiter, no Notice-King NtIKTIC AT THE CKITEItIOX PIiKMIEKE — Mrss North— Mns Bekxaud Ueeue's GoUGUOUSDItESSES— SOMK INEW SONGS MR • Juadsto.ve's Latest Fad—" Divouie"— A New Series ok Handbooks—'" Alex of Action."

Mr Mortimer Menpes, the young Australian artist, who hjb made t ho Japanese his speciality, gave a children's faney-dres ball the other cvoning, chiefly, I fancy, with the idea of adveibisino his abilities as an advising costumier. At any rate, the newspapers were requested to* send repre sentatives, and oaoh editor, somohow, imagining his paper to bo the only one invited, good men were .put down for the job. Instead of that the tiny rooms were crammed with"! pressmen, some in evening dress, others not. Menpes supplied everybody with little brown note books, and ran from one to the other asking if he could supply any information. The disgust of Broad ley Pasha, Horace Voules, Mrs Humphreys (of the "' Dai'y News '), and Chas. Mor ley at;? finding themselves treated as on nn equal footing with shabby " space liners," deiies description. There was (oh ! most mistaken Mr Menpes) po supper. We had of course missed our dinneis (being invited for 6 30) and were famishing by ten. Need I say after this hardly one of the papers gave the entertainment moic than a couple of lines? Th& Nitrate King and party were the observed of all observers at the Criterion on Saturday evening. His Majesty is a bloivsy, sandy-haired person, with free and eisy manneis, and a rancous laugh. Miss North, a pretty blonde, sat at his right, and Mrs North at his left hand, Mr Harry North and a friend occupying the back ol the box. I met the said Harry the other day, and found him really much less objectionable than one would expect. Various stcries are told against him, none of them, however, very bad. 'Tis said, * for instance, that wishing to make a Cambridge friend a present on his birthday, he overdid the thing, and &ent a superb set of diamond studs. The friend, -Unaccustomed to such magnificent, gifts, concluded the stones were .imitation, and annoyed at the bad taste of such a gift, returned them with an intimation tha f < he " never woie glass." They must have been worth quite four ponies (£100). He groaned subsequently. King North and the Princess are going to \isit the nitrate domain next month, and. for their accommodation on the voyage the most elaborate preparations are being made. One of the Pacific boats has, indeed, been partially knocked pieces to make room for the Royal party. For the first time in a professional career, extending over 32 years, Henry Irving has been laid up and obliged to abandon his part for a few nights to other hands. The new "Macbeth'" is Mr Hermann Ye/sin, a conscientious old ranter of the Kemble school, who must feel grotesquely out of place amidst the gorgeous pageantry and scenic splendours of a Lycum revival. Ellen Terry, however, is a host in herself, and to ladies, I fancy, the scrutiny of her long sorie3 of gorgeous robes forms the chief portion of the evening's entertainment. "The dresses for. the Criterion revival of •"Sffill" "Waters' Ruti Deep," .over which on dU the fair " Bernie "' Beere expended the trifle of £2,000, whichshewonabJSlonteCarlo, are indeed magnificent, and make poor Miss Mary Moore's pretty toilettes. look almost plain. The dinner robe is of poull de Sole and silk gauze of a lovely blue shade. The entire train, back and sides hang on straight folds of the poult de Sole, whilst the front •is a, graceful drapery, of the gauze over a foundation of silk, having at the edge three gauze flounces ; the waist is formed by crossway bands of soft silver tissue, giving a iHrecioire lone to the bodice. Knots of the silver tissue ate fixed daintily on each shoulder, and a bunch of loosely- tied bo^sof the same is draped on the left side of the skirt half covered by the blue gauze. The neck of this dress i 5?i 5 ? cut low enough to show the throat, which is framed, as it were," in soft f tills of gauze which flutter at the slightest movement. The same effect is produced in the sleeves, which are entirely of gauze, the arms being faintly seen through* the folds. Bronze shoes and brown silk stocking 3 finish a really ideal gown. In the second act Mrs Bernard Beere pours oub tea in a clinging gown of her favourite colour — yellow. This dress is slightly c'assical in thesimplicity and straightness of its lines. The yellow crej)- in front is held in pleats by some beautiful old point lace, which forms the collar and descends on both sides to the edgejof jthe skirt. The back and the train is of the crepe, only tho waist being shaped at the back byp\=sementerie of gold and bronze. The sleeve 3 reaching a little below the elbow arc formed entirely cf the lace. Bronze shoes and brown silk stockings were worn with this effective costume. The last dre3s is a masterpiece of colour and style. The skirt is of bluish pink r/vos grain silk, over which falls a di apery of black gauze thickly embroidered in gold, under which is another skirt of tlesh coloured gause. The bottom of the skirt is finished by a thick pleat of tha rose silk, train and skirt being lined underneath with . black lace flounces. The bodice is the same pink silk, covered with the black and gold gauze, giving an appearance of a bodice without seams. The sleeves ate llesh coloured silk gauze. Finishing the edge of the bodice i 3 a scarf of golden tissue, which falls in the centre of the skirt, the golden fringe almost touching the edge of the skirt. Not only were these costumes triumphs of Worth's art, bub they were admirably suited to Mm Bernard Beeres particular style of beauty, and it may safely be said she never looked to greater advantage. We heard a capital new baritone song of the " Nancy Lee " and " Sailing " sorb the other evening. It is by Mr Maybrick, with words by Wetberly, and is called "Six o'Clock in the Bay." Mr Edward Lloyd has made a hit with " Mona," by the author of " The Blue Al&alian Mountains," and 1 hear good accounbs of the work of a young composer, pseudonymed Paul Rodney, who not long ago wrote an effective ballad " Alone°on the Raft,'' or some such name, and has now again achieved success with " The"! of Yeans." . I mentioned "Love's Golden Dream'' to you, I think, some weeks back. Ib is being tremendously pushed. I hear Sims Reeves gob £25 for singing it at the Albert Hall on Saturday, and Marie Rose introduces it at all 'her concerts. _Of course it's only when there's the chance' of a song becoming veVy popular like "Once Again" or " In the Gloaming" that ib is worth whiledoing 1 that. Of new (really new) comic eongs there are none. The so-called comic vocalists warblethe same dittie3 for a 12 months at a time. Now, curiously enough too, there are no really good " topical " songs except " Who Killed Cock Warren " in the pantomimes this winter. The last novel that has taken Mr Gladstone's fancy is a painful story called "Divorce" by an American lady named Margaret Lee. Macmillanshave published an English edition at six shillings re-

chiistened (with a view to the " tarnation prejudices" of this " worn out old country ") "Faithful and Unfaithful." I read it last i Sunday, and I cannot honestly say tho book struck me as anything specially lemarkable. I mean I cannot seeany thing to call forth remark from a critic of Air Gladstone's exalted position. Lady novelists innumerable have \ handled tho marriage and divorce question | from the same standpoint as Mi.is Lee, and ! one of them certainly (Mrs Lynn Linton) has worked a more powerful story out of it. ! Has Mr Ga d stone read Mrs Lynn -Lin ton's " Throuahout tho Long Night," or Mrs Oliphant's "Sir Tom" and " Madame V" Don't imagine from this that " Failhfuland Unfaithful "is uninteresting. A* a picture of middle-class life in a certain sort of American societ\* it would alono be worth road ing. You musn'l expect a plot, that's all, and you must expect long and luminous reflections anent mairied life, ill-as&oited unions, and the dangers (to society) of divorce. A? a companion series to their admirable "English Men of Letters" Macmillans will next week initiate a monthly issue of biief biographies of "English Men of Action," commencing with "Genoral^ Gordon," by Sir William Butler, better, known to fame as Colonel Butler, author of ] "The Great Lone Land."' This will be followed by "Henry the Fifth,' by Rev. A. J. Church ; "Livingstone," by Thomas Hughes; "Lord Lawienee," by Sir Richard Temple; and "Wellington," by Mr Geo. Hooper. " Clivo "' nnd " Raleigh " have already been fairly well done in tho "English Worthks'' series (now, by-the-bye, all obtainable at one chilling), so that it" seems a pity to double on thorn ; but "Dampicr," by Mr Clark Hr.tsell, ''Captain Cook,"' by iVa'ltor Besant, " Ra\ clock,'' by Aiclubald Foi bes, arfC" Diake,"' by J. A. Froude, sound paitioulaily templing. For general excellence and usefulness the "Men of Litters" seiies of popular biographies as yob has never been outdone. All a-e good, whilst some ha\e become classic 3 . One or two only of the " English Woi thies " reached this love. Grant Allens "Darwin" is, of course, a model of what ?uch a handbook should be, and Mowbray Morris's " Claver House" and George Sain&bury's " Marlborongh" ought not to.be passed over. Walter Scott began hi'sseriesof "Lives" well with Professor Robeitsoii's "Longfellow," but dropped oft in a month or two, though, of course, everyone read Austin Ben ell's "Charlotte Bronte." Of the "Eminent Women" series, Mathilde Blind's "George Eliot" wa=? most successful. Miss Constance Fennimore Wjolson, whose two charming stories "Anne" and "For the Mayor" raised her into the fionfc rank of American novelist?, i-i, I see, contributing a serial called "Jupiter Lights" to "Harpei'a " this year. Some Boston critics have, with curious clensenes=, classed Miss Woolson and Miss Amelie Rives together. Miss Woolson's style more nearly resembles Thomas ' Hardy's than that of any other English I novelist, whilst Amelie Rives is (or was when she w rote that grotesque story " The Quick or the Dead ' ) an immature disciple of OuiOa at her woist. Imagine what a clever, sensuous Southern girl, nourished on "Fuck,"' *' Friendship," and " Othmar," would wiite a and then you will get a i\ir idea of the fair Amelies masterpiece.