HOME GOSSIP.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1733, 23 July 1874, Page 2

HOME GOSSIP.

. r \ (ritOM OtJB OWN COKUEBPONDENT). London, Juno 2ad, 1874. We have come to that time denomi* nated by the Barney Newcoines of Society " the full of the season," and our feeling is of,ljing on our oars, as it were. , The first rush is o\ er, and the " fast and furious " speed of the last three weeks or so has not yet come. . We,have sent.... home the Czar, and we were not sorry, " for dignity is sweet to see, but yet it keeps us on (he strain;" and we now wantto go on in the monotonous "round "of" ordinary doings until a hint is- giveh tht,lf Parliament will soon be up, and that therefore town* must -" put on; n spirt." The little difficulty atDrury Lane hajjbeen adjusted, and therefor,?* Madame, made her first appearance there this year on last Saturday night, .in her /javori**.,. characler of Margarita. That there was ' a difficulty no one-doubts, although the ■public know no more,of, ,the particulars than that tlio chief casks belli was this forthcoming opera of Balfe's 11-TaKsmano. ,It is saiil that she'at first"refused to make her appear: nee •at all until it was r<sady; as Bhe determined to make her entre this year in Edith Plantagenet, and would not listen to any proposal for coming forward; before then ; and this every one believe? to, be perfectly true; but why one great/ singer was so stubborn on this point, and how, or why, the compromise has now been effVctfd; and what are its' exactterms, are tho points upon which we' amuse ourselves by speculating.; The partizans of the lady'assert that had she not been yo' stubborn, .-«Mr; Mapleson would have postponed the app*aranco of the opera again, as he did last year, until too late in the season to- put it with advantage on tho stage, and that'her present concession only goes so far as appearing for a limited number of nights in some of her favorite characters, and that if II Taliimano.ds not then-ready -she, binds herself to no further performance' for the season. That II Talismano will shortly appear is certain. Itis in rehearsal'" " with a will," and the ladylsi confidential friend is in Paris procuring her dresses for the^heroine's part, Madame .Nilsson is also to assist at the inauguration of tKo v statue of- Balfe, to be placed in the lobby of:Drury Lane, before the close of the season. It is at present on view in tlfe Exhibition of tho Koyal Academy; and* is said, by those who knew the composer best,> to be a most faithful likeness. ' We who did not know him can only speak of, the artistic merits of the work-; and certainly, as far as it would bo possible to? give dignity-orspirit to such very coarse features, they are given, and the position, is natural and unaffected. The artist is' Mr. A. L. Mallempre, whose little ;work " The Youthful Shepherd," obtained such very deserved praise in the Art Journal last year.' The notice of this etatue of Balfe brings us easily to the -Academy itself, about which much cannot be said in one letter. On the whole the Exhibition this year is good. Of-the r high art pictures Herbert's "Adoration of the Magi" is the best. ",Clytemnestra," by Leighton, has its' many admirers* but, without pretending to be an infallible critic, it does' hot please your friend the writer of this |as .much as- it appears to please those critics who do pretend "to infallibility, or who at. least speak with the confidence which infallibility alone should give." In the first place, were the artist in a more humble position as regards art, I strongly <• suspect -it wouldr have been discovered —by these infallible" persons— that the figure^is very much oat of drawing; the bust bearing no proportion whatever to the limbs.. Why, ClytemV nestra should have such an extraordinary complexion may be only; a question of taste.. In genre pieces some of our favorites are scarcely, up to their mark t the best of Taed's is " The ' Sailor* . Wife." ■ - • v As Epsom races are, going On perhapf you will think it rather incorrect to have mentioned this as a languid period, of theLondon season, but then everyone knows that races, though an amusement for the multitude, are not an amusement for the whole multitude of. those who make the season in London; and, indeed, of late years, the' "Derby, th» great thing of Epsom, has been voted, somewhat low. There is no disguising, the facts that— putting aside those actually interested in the horses, those who have money to gain ' and money to lose—the swells on Derby day now are swell tradesmen; West End-, drapers, tailors, upholsterers, someof whom —tell it not in Gath-—inclining, like their betters, to^o a little faster than their profits come in, fly a kite for the occasion! making themselves subject to many a* sleepless night until the little bill is taken UPAs may be supposed we are having a m great deal of outside discussion on the two. — measures at present before Parliament, " The Public Worship Regulation " Bill, for the Church of England ; and the Bill for " The Abolition of Lay Patronage." in the Church of Scotland. Concerning this last the wrath of one journal of high conservative proclivities has been tremen- . dously excited because the General Assembly, in accepting by an immense majority the main principles of the bill,has proposed, as an amendment, that,' female communicants shall have votes in the • election of the parochial clergymen. - As to whether such amendment be judicious or not, there is no call, at present, to give an opinion; but the language in - which the disapproval of this journal is, expressed is not a little amusing. First/ - the innoyotion is declared to be "contrary to public decency and the interests of the church;" this opinion, as a matter, of course, being founded upon St. Paul's injunction against women speaking in the church; for what nonsense is there too absurd not to be founded upon some saying of St. Paul's, by " puzzle-headed?* theologians or politicians Next wo Me

-^ojd among the reasons why women are Injafit—apart it may be supposed from a pivine command —to exercise the suffrage , .'in such case's,'"are "their simple devotions," and - " their religious virtues." Plain minded people like ourselves might be disposed to consider " simplo devotion" and " religious virtue " no disqualifications even for male voters— " But isn't it a mercy we've got folks to tell us, The rights an' the wrongs o' these matters, I vow God sends '■' loader writers' an' other wise fellers, To drive tho>orld's team when it gets in a slough." And in a ilough we must be, no'*doubt, not to be Sable to tee the force of the last argument against female voters in this case, namely, that " Nthe majority of the. communicants are .always women;" A reason which (on account of our being in the slough) ire thinkmight prove it the* duty, of .the men to-communicate- more regularly; but which, for the life of us "As»{c«Nng of course to the slough) we cannot perceive the. weight; on •„ the other side;! We. have not yet recovered our hydros' phobia panic. Cases are cropping up now and then. v But during the late necessity of running down "the Czar, and during the present necessity of hearing and' telling something of the doings at Epsom, even when we don't run down there; the running after, or away from mad dogs has been,.as -a. pastime a little laid -aside. One caietf ccured not long ago which led to ja'display, of courage very seldom equalled. > vA' large mastiff was seen in Fleet Street in a most dangerous, condition of undoubted canine madness, making attempts on several persons ; when a policeman heroically attacked the animal with his bludgeon ; and'although, failing to kill or even disable him-at the first blow, he drew the fury of the brute on himself.;- he continued his".stand-up' fight until He had- succeeded in 1 stunning the enemy, when he was assisted in giving him the finish. More than once during, the .battle, the dog seized his assailant but did not succeed in doing more than damaging his clothes. Some tirre ago, in the very beginning of the panic, a dog which .had bitten several children, .wan followed' and killed,-in one of the main thoroughfares of the Borough, by a policeman, but the animal was a small mongrel terrier; it certainly requires no ordinary pluck to attack single handed a large mastiff, whether mad or not mad. The remainder of a lease held by LordDudlej of Her Majesty's Theatre in the Haymarket-Wki sold by auction the-other day. The unexpired term extends only to 1891 and it wai knocked down to a Mr Last, a solicitor, who intends, it is. said, to; preserve the theatre, and let it—if he can. —for its original purpose of public entertainment : the other buildings on the premises are the United Hotel, and the Clergy Club. Mr Mapleson, the present lessee of Drury Lane, bid £21,000, but was, outbid by Mr Last: whether he will be disposed, next season, to rent it from its present owner, and put Her Majesty's Opera once more in Her Majesty's Opera House, or whether they shall be kept in Drury Lane .until that house gets burnt down in its turn, is still matter for conjecture ; also.for much dissatisfaction. All the L world knows that we English don't like to have things too smooth. We prefer to have some cause for grumbling; but really what the opera goers endure— paying our high English prices for admission—in Drury Lane theatre, in its present state, is beyond all reasonable cause. The heat, the want of ventilation, the wretched accommodation notwithstanding the size of the building; and,; above all, the suffering from affectionate parasites which seize on each member of the unlucky audience as soon as he takes his place, and are not only unceasing in their attentions during the performance, but even accompany him horne —these "miseries are not to be exaggerated by the most determined grumblers; and would try tbe jollity of a score of Mark Tapleys. I can veraciously . assert that I have felt fifty stings at one and the same moment during a night in the few weeks of warm weather which we had last season. The crop of migratory dark spots which white-dresses, shawls, and opera cloaks put forth, aftrr the first few minutes, their wearers are too accustomed to to be sensitive about. The fact is, no metropolitan theatre ought to be allowed, for "sanitary reasons, to exist be* yond a given time.; and Drury Lane has fully run out that time since its' lastdetruction. The impossibility of thoroughly ventilating a theatre <>yen during the few hours, Which intervene between the night's perfomance, and the afternoon's rehearsal; and the fact that even though ventilation during those houis could not cleanse it of the foul vapors collected; and the other fact that during the short period when there are neither performances nor rehearsals, the theatre is not ventilated at all, but all its foul vapors shut in to ferment at leisure, are enough to make any oit£3rith common sense perceive that no theatre should be used for performance continuously without periodical occasions of a week's duration at least, during' which, by the removal of the partitions between the different parts of the house, between the public and private passages,' and so forth, all of which partitions should be made moveable at the first, .the outer air should circulate freely into every corner of the building. Indeed it seems almost incredible that in these days of legislation for health such a necessity has never even been hinted at. v CLBBICAL WIT. A very indifferent preacher of the - Established Kirk was appointed to tho chaplaincy of 1 the Dunfermline Prison. " Weel," said a witty Baptist minister, Brother David Dewar, a member of the Prison Board, when giving his assent to the appointment, " I hae nae objection to the man, for lundeistandhe has preached a kirk empty already, and if he be as successful in the jail may be he'll preach it empty also." —From Dean Pamsay's Recollections of Scottish Life and Character.

, Dr. Gilchrist, of Greeriocic was one day met by a former parishioner, a very careless .man, who had lately taken a sitting in an Episcopalian chapel. The gentleman " thought it right" to inform the doctor that he "had changed his religion." "Indeed," said the doctor, quietly, "how is that ? I never heard you had any to change."—lbid. ;; ■• :. ,>, Curran once" said to the Bey. Father O'Leary, "Father, I wish you had the keys of St. Peter." " And why, Counsellor ?"; said- Father, OJLeary.{ "Because then you'd let me into Heaven." "By my • conscience, Counsellor," said the priest,. Vit wQuld.be" better for you-that I should have the keys of the other place, for then I could let -you out."—From i Anecdote Lives of the Later Wits and 1 Huruourists-iTimbs. d .-.v;. ; 1 LEGAL WIT. A Judge, whose wig being a little awry, caused much laughter in court, said to Curran " Curran do you sec anything rUiculous in this wig?" "Nothing but the head, my lord," said Curran. -Mr. Justice Page was renowned for his harshness and ferocity on the bench. While going the circuit a facetious lawyer, named Crowle, was asked " if the judge was not just behind?" "I don't know" said Crowle "but I am sure he never was fust before." Curran one day at dinner' sat opposite to Toler who was called ".the hanging judge 1." '"Curran" said Toler "is that' hung beef before you? " t '," Do you try it, my Lord," said Curran;'" and then it is sure to be." • ' ' ' '