A LINGARD SQUABBLE.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4614, 18 October 1883, Page 2

A LINGARD SQUABBLE.

An amusing; scene between two stage celebrities is thus described by the London correspordent of the Auckland Star :— Those who remember how devotedly attached Wb. Horace Lingard and Luscombe Searelle used to be to each other in New Zealand will, I am sure, be shocked to hear that these two greatsouled creatures are now at daggers driwn. The coolness arose through a difference of opinion about the " Wreck of-the Pinafore." Searelle attribute d the failure of that immortal work tD what he describes as the •' sickening inarity " of Lingard's libretto, wher c:s Horace boldly avers that but for the " olla } of stale old tunes " which Luscombe associated with his words, the " Wreck " wor!d have been " aaimmencesucces:." For Some time past Searelle and Lingard have spoken of each other in language altogether " unrepeatable." Searelle, however, behaved the worst, for, not content with " slanging " Horace only, he circulated a number of scandalously untrue stories about " Miss" Lingard. Now, Lingard, with all his little faults, is de7o; d to Alice Dunning, and on his airival in London some weeks ago he set to work to chastke his erstwhile bocbJi chum. TTnf munately Searelle had disappeared rriher mysterrously, and sundry iraLj creditors were afraid that he might be about to make himself scarce. They were, however, too hard on the little man, for he turned up a^ain, and one of the first percons he ran against wr.s William Horcce L^ngard. The collision, which was attended with considerable sound, not to say Hvtj, tcok place at the American Exchange and Her.ding Rooms, Charing Cross. Lingard commenc I operat'ons by callingupon"thatredl.a?Ted chimpanzee'(as he aSeotionatelystyl dSeare.'le) to explain the storien he had promulgated about "a certain lady." Lusrombe tremulously moved that this meeting do now. f djoura. L;ngard, with teri'ible determination, exclaim :d, "No, sir! We will settle now. Come upstairs." The two litttle men went upstairs. Words proving insufficient for CL*e occasion, they fell i> punching and scratching each other. Mr G'ilhg, the maiage? of the Excl ange, inte»fer~d in the interentof the furniture, by introducing a policeman, who gent'y but firmly shook up the two little combatant- and removed them from the premises. The affair Wfii very absurd, aud muck to be regrett.d co far is Miss Lingrrd is concerned. Scrndal about a burie que ac /,nc3s doei noi matter much.; indeed^ it soaceiimes im.ji'ov. i he. 1 si: .^e reputation, bu. foi* a laiiy claiming the position of a " sb.r," the ca^Squencos of talk cannot fail to be disr.stroas.