AMUSEMENTS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10185, 10 March 1911, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS

MA.CMAHON'S PICTURES

AN HOUR WITH BUFFALO BILL'S SHOW.

Referring to these highly sum>2>Ull pictures, which will be shown at the Town Hall, Master ton, to-morrow (Saturday) evening, the Dominion says: —The MacMahon Bros.' businpss is to specialise in kinematograpli specialties. This time they bring undsr notice a very good film, illustrating for upwards of an hour Colonel Cody's famous Wild West show and circus—one of the biggest organisations of the kind in the world. Its entourage is so .complete that the number of performers —human and animal —are so great- that it would almost require a special steamer to take the show round the world. That is, however, not likely to happen. Such a big enterprise must move where the people are thickest, and that is not on this side of the Equator. Colonel Cody is a picturesque figure, with his long white hair and French "goatee," and behind his somewhat romantic robustness there is the man, who as a soldier- j soout did excellent service in perilous times >in America. After the last Indian rising many years ago now, there was no particular call for such men as Colonel Wm. Cody, or Bill" as he is familiarly called, so lie took to the show business. What sort of a show his is may be discovered by a visit to the Opera House •which, by the way, was packed to the doors on Saturday evening. The great show opens with a kind of all-nations' pai--ade —cowboys and Indians on horseback, Hindus, Siamese, and Congo negroes on foot, Burmese warriors (mounted), a quintet of enormous elephants adorned with ballet girls, etc. The cowboys (and girls) are shown in a daring exhibition of rough-riding that takes away the breath of the audience though only a photographic representation of the real thing. The exhibition given by a "cowgirl" on a bucking broncho was splendidly exhilarating. A company of United States Artillery gave, an exhibition of riding and field-gun manipulation, and a team of Cossacks demonstrate their mastery, of the. art of horsemanship. One of the best novelties in the show is that provided by a company of Zouaves at drill. So even and precise is their work that one could readily be excused for believing them to be mechanical figures. Other new and fascinating subjects make for a' programme of exceptional merit. Seats may be reserved at Miss Rive's,

"THE LION AND THE MOUSE."

By far the most important dramatic event which has happened iii Masterton for many years will be the appearance at the Town Hall, on Thursday next, of the grejit American actress, Miss Katherine Grey, and the initial production here of Charles Kcein's world famous dramatic sensation, "The Lion and the Mouse.'' Miss Grey's first New Zealand appearance which took place in Christchurch recently will long be remembered by those present. As the plot of - the j play developed, so the nthusiasm in- 1 creased and at the close of the per-.j formance a scene of the wildest ex-, citement took place culminating in three hearty cheers from the audience. "Things seen are mighter than'things read." The. audience which listens to "The Lion and the Mouse" with ' an intelligent grasp of the plot and its ' evolution must necessarily have a much more vivid conception of the multi-millionaire to the community than the citizens who have merely', glanced through works or newspaper' articles on the subject. John Burket Ryder played by the new "Julius Knight" actor, Mr William Desmond, in an examplification of individualism in its worst and most dangerous form. His genius for money making and the absence from his character of any controlling influence of patriotism or to form a monster which threatens the existence of everything which makes for national purity and social well-being. Such a- creature Charles Klein lias, Ave understand, drawn with consomate art in "The Lion and the Mouse"—actually a prototype of the richest man on earth, John D. Rbckfellcr. In fact, the actor who originated the part in America made up as the modern Croesus. Miss Katherine Grey, the great American actress who will make her first and only appearance here as Shirley Hossmore stands as the direct opposite., Although the desperately tried heroin through four acts of a strenuous play,: she is said to be thoroughly brave, resourceful, and determined—firstly a , woman in sore tribulation, after an artist to bo met. with rarely. Positive-' ly only on© performance can be given by the company in Masterton, for winch the box plan will be opened at Miss Rive's on Tuesday morning next, at half-past eight o'clock. A queue will be formed from 8 a.m.