THE BALLET. (Saint Paul's.)

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 172, 14 June 1873, Page 3

THE BALLET. (Saint Paul's.)

D KGB ADHD u is tlie modern ballet, wo must pot forget that the ballet, properly bo called, is the parent 'of all representa--tive art. Before mtu wrote and painted signs ho danced. Before music and singing and the plastic arts there were pantomimic dances ; amons almost all the earliest nations ■dancing of iome kind entered into the rites and ceremonies of religion, nay, entered largely into social and political life, for there were dances of war, and of triumph, and of pleasure. The Jewish records are full of allusions to the dance, David danoing before the ark, Jephtha's and Herodias* daughters dancing in joy and festivity, Mosei and Miriam dancing to congs of triumph ; and the Greek chorus itself in the oldest times was nothing but the assemblage in the public place of the whole population of the city for the purpose of singing «ongi and dancing dances of thanksgiving to the gods. But '&• to the Greeks we owe the origin of the drama (offspring of the pantomimic dance), so to thorn was due probably the highest conception and development of the art of dancing. In combination with the science of gymnastics or the culture of the body, they appear to hare raised the dance into a system of expression capable of rendering all the different pusigns. "*he famous dance of the Eumenidei or juries is flaid to hare communicated such tercor-to the spectators that the effect could scarcely have been greater had the Furies themselves taken possession of the stage. When we learn farther that the attitudes of the pubiic dancers inspired the greatest Greek'scalptors, who studied them for their perfect delineations of passion, and when we look at the work of Phidias, we begin to realize the extent of difference between those dances which the Greeks witnessed and those jneleganfc capers which we are accustomed, to applaud. The Spartans had a law compelling all parents to exercise their children in dancing from the age of five. The little creatures -were led by grown men into the public place, and there trained for the armed-dance. The Pyrrhic danre, expressive otV/ertaking and overcoming an enemy, performed by the young men in four parts, must have been a kind of exciting ballet or dramatic dance. Aristotle places dancing and poetry in the same rank, and says in his " Poetics" that there were dancers who, by rhythm applied to gesture, expressed' manners, passions and actions. The Greeks had fine poets, and therefore we cannot say, "So much the worse for poetry !" but we cannot help seeing how the art of dancing las fallen from its high estate and become a vulgar and tasteless exhibition of mere muscular dexterity, actually lower down in the scale of art than even tho war-dance of the Ojibbeways. Greek dancing was more than a mere feat of agility. The fire that communicated itself to the spectators came from those who were themselves touched with enthusiasm, unlike (the human marionette, the ballot-dolls-on-wires of to-day. But, for good or for evil, the passion for the dance can never die" : it is a real instinct, irrepressible and universal. We see in all children, and in animals, and among the rudest tribes, the impulse to express various emotions by rhythmic movement. Children often dnnco witli rage as well as with delight. A» we grow older, and the eye bocom.es cultivated, and the blood sluggish, we prefer looking on, to dancing j ourselves. Arid in the maturer periods of the world amongst civilized nations dancing, as a studied art, is chieUy left to professional and trained dancers. Yet how often when a rhythmic tuna it played do grown people beat the foot or I)Od the head in time with it. A little more and they would gestioulate— a little more and they would dance. The singular power which, rhythmic motion has over the human mind, and its contagious property, may be noticed in the curious dancing epidemics of the middle ages (which seemed to end in, a kind of possession), and again in the coame rites of one or two modern religious sects.

A young man in Indianapolis recently determined to abandon the use of tobacco. He was told that iced drink* •would diminish his hankering for the weed. So on the first day he drank three gallons of iced water, and still feeling a desire to smoke, ho added two quarts of cold buttermilk. He -went to bed with the cheerful conviction that he had conquered his craving, and so he had. The next day he did not desire to smoke at all, for the simple MMon that he was dead. The iced water, the iced butter milk, the abandonment of his cigar, and two doctors who ■were called in consultation, proved to be too much for the noble young man, " ' - The reason an urchia gave for beinj* late at school -waa, that the boy in the next house was going to h«.yeui a^epxing down with a bed-cord, and he waite 4 to £ear ,£ji», howl

Tns Peculiarities op Paganisi. — Physioal causes acted at times oddly and instantly upon his brain ; at others they found him liko stone, lie was not always open to impressions, which at certain moments would find him so receptive, that ho became the utter incarnation of them. He was full of contradictions, which he caved little to explain either to himself or to others. lie travelled with the utmost speed from place to place ; in the hottest weather ha would have all the carriage windows closed. Although latterly his lungs affected his voice, w Inch became thin and ieeble, lie delighted to talk loudly when milling over the roads ; the noise of the wheels seemed to excite him, ami sot his brain going. He .'never entered an inn on tl « road, but would sit in his carriage until the horses were ready, or walk up and down in his great cloak, and resont being spoken to. Arrived at his hotel, he would throw nil his doors and windows open, and take what he called an air bath ; but he never cea3ed to an »o the climate of Germany, and said that Italy was the only place fit to live in. Hl3 luggags wa3 extremely simple — a small napkin might have contained the whole of his wardrobe, -a coat, a little linen, and a hat-box, — a small carpe'bag, a shabby trunk, containing his Q-uarnerius violin, his jewels, a clean shirt, and his movey — that was all. lie carried papers of immense value in a red pocket-book, along with certain tickets, letters, and accounts. These last no one but himself could read, as he knew hardly any arithmetic, and calculated, but with great accuracy, on some ; method of his own. He cared little where he slept, and seldom noticed what he ate or drank. He never complained of the inns — every place seemed much alike to him — out of Italy ; he detested them, all equally. He seldom noticed scenery, or cared for the tights of foreign towns. A Nbolsoxbd Poet. — To look at Briggs, ono would rot thiuk what a soul for poetry bsat beneath that shirt-bosom. The time he fell in lovo with Julia Topsle, daughter of old Commodore Topsle, the Promethean spark was fanned into a perfect holocaust. In a Shakespearian mood he indicted a sonnet to her eyebrows. He went and read it to her. These are the firat few lines :— TO HER EYEBROWS. Fair a'chej, springing from her nose's bridge, They dangle on each superciliary ridge j And in tbo centre these two arches splice — Insatiate archer, could not one suffice ? They hang above such lovely cheek so dear, Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear j And every time — — Here Julia commenced chivying him round the roam with the butt end of her father's big telescope, and the commodore's artificial leg played upon his rear as he hastened down ths front steps. Briggs took it much to heart, and threatened to burst all links of habit, and emigrate to the South Sea Islands, where things are run on the Rose Mackinlay plan. Said he, in bitter tones, " I will take a savage woman, ihe shall rear my dusky race," which was the first intimation that he possessed a " dusky race." It looks strange of Briggs, — he always passed himself off for an innocent old bachelor. Wo suggested that he might find a savage woman in the city here to take care of his progeny. But no, ho will havo them learn to " dive and run, catch the wild goat by the tail, and hurl their lances at the sun." We answered that if the goats oat there were anything liko those that roam over our suburban sand-hills, his boys had better keep out of their way. They can butt a man through a brick-wall in no time. " Ah, Julia, Julia! " murmured he, " methinks I see my Julia ! " " Where ? " 9aid we, endevouring to follow his glaaces, but it was useless, for his poetic eye was in an awful fronzy rolling. " Alas, if things had been different, circumstances would lwve been otherwise! O, if my Julia lived beside the bay, I'd sing beneath her window night and day 5 Into my boat with beating heart I'd go,' And to ray lovely Juliet, Kow-rae-o." — San Francisco Newt-letter. > At the Western Brewery the drainage was at one time very offensive, but that was before Mr Bains had charge. Very quickly he took measures'for remedying the evil, and as the plan is at once cheap, involves very little trouble, and il quite effective, we will describe it:— A square wooden box or trough, about 2 feet by 4 feet, is let into the ground, and into that all the drainage of the establishment passes. The box is divided into two equal spaces by perforated iron. An Iron vessel, like an oil drum (a kerosene tin would answer), containing a solution of chloride of lime and alum, U placed with a little spigot so as to allow its contents to dribble into the upper compartment of the sewage trough. In the second compartment of tbe trough there is a perforated sheet of iron at the bottom, on which is a layer of sand, while a shovelful of charcoal or wood ashe» Jfloats on the top. The result is that the sewage which eaters the upper division of the trough tlows out of the lower division pure and odourless ; more thau that, being charged with a slight excess of chloride of lime and alum, it has the effect of deodorising offensive matters in the gutters into which it flow*. The expense is about 6d a week — one-twentieth of the cost of a man with a broom vainly trying to disperse offensive liquids.

Finks sob Drunkenness i» the Abmt. — The fund formed by fining soldiers for drunkenness lias mounted up to £45,852 since the introduction of the penalty in July, 1869, and a wise policy has been adopted which seeks to utilise the money in the way beat calculated to encourage sobriety. ' This is to be effected by granting gratuities to well-conducted soldiers when they receive their discbarge — ten shillings for each good-conduct badge, if the man retires at the close of the first period of service, and £1 per badge if the second term of years ha 9 been completed, with an additional sovereign if no charge of drunkenness has been recorded against him throughout the preceding ten yean. This scale may be augmented should the fund increase, a» we hope it will not, in future years. These rewards for sobriety and good conduct, vouched for as they will be in certificates issued by the commanding officer, will be of great use to those who may wish to give some trustworthy old soldier employment. We shall see, too, in a few years time, whether Englishmen, Irishmen, or Scotchmen carry off the lion's share of the rewards. Could not a somewhat •imilar system bo applied to manufactories, &c, where large bodies of men are employed? asks Land and Water. Trade unions, if they have the real interests of the working man at heart, could not increase their funds in a more justifiable manner than by taxing their drunken members.

Sydicey Smith's Wit. — Sydney Smith's reply to the beautiful girl vrho complained, " Oh, Mr Sydney, this pea -rill never came to perfection." — " Then permit me to lead perfection to the pea " — is in its style perfect. His reply to the Archbi9hop of York — " I hear, Mr Smith, you do not approve of much riding for the clergy "—"" — " Why, my lord, perhaps there is not much objection, provided they do not ride too well, and stick out their toes professionally" — was very keen ; for Sydney Smith could never sit a horse, and his diocesan was one of the finest horsemen in a province where every boy rides by instinct. There was a touch of the courtier as well as of the wit in his reply to the lady who, arguing in a large party that it was always high tide at London-bridge at 12 o'clock, appealed to him, with, "Now, Mr Smith, is it not so ? " "It used not to be so, I believe, formerly, but perhaps the Lord Mayor and aldermen have altered it lately." He traced out the analogies of things with marvellous quickness. A. man at his side reckons the amount of hi» ground-rent at £5 a foot. " Ah, the price of a London footman six foot high, thirty pounds a year." Upon a couple of talkers — " There is the tame difference between their tongues as between tha h6ur and tho minute hand : one goes ten times as fast, and the other signifies ten times as much." "If you mast-head a Bailor for not doing his duty, why should you not weathercock a parishioner for refusing to pay his tithes ?"

Cubtailing PJUYBKB.^The Presbyterian ministers in London have, according to the London correspondent of the Dundee Advertiser, very much curtailed, and are further curtailing the length of their pray en -which follow the sermon. One popular divine has done away with the afternoon sermon prayer altogether, and apparently with most extraordinary success, for it is stated that since he has done so the number of bis hearers has increased by something like twenty par cent. Perhaps if we (Pall Mall QatetU) may|venture to say so, a slight abreviation of £heir sermons by many clergymen would produce like satisfactory results in our Established Church. Clergymen are apt to deplore from the pulpit the strange disinclination shown by vast numbers of the sinful portion of the population to take advantage of their ministrations, but they have little notion how many persons are deterre I from coming to church owing to the extreme length of the ■ermon. It requires an iron constitution to rem.iin through a long service in a crowded and ill-ventilated building, and it is only well-aensoned' church-goers who can with anything like safety or comfort " sit under " a longwinded minister

Impbovbb Fly-Trap. — This ingenious little device is the invention of Mr Perry A. Burgess, of Butler, Mb., and is an improvement on the simple and well-known method of fly-catching, by covering ft tumbler with a piece pf bread covered with molasses on its under side, and pierced with a hole in tho middle. The present contrivance is a flanged disc ol tin, wood, or other suitable material, with a central hole and an interior rectss underneath filled with soft leather, felt, or other absorbent eubsfcanca. It ii placed on a tumbler, the vessel being previously filled with soap-suds. The ab•orbent is smeared with molasses. Attracted by the latter, the unsuspecting fly enters the central hole, but on reaching the object of his desire meets with destruction by tumbling off into the soap-suds below. The device is manifestly simple »nd consequently cheap, and is undoubtedly efficient. Patented through the Scientific American Patent Agency.

"Wbttik<j Coal pob Hbating BoiiißßS. — M. Seidler, in the Fractische Masshinen Qowitructeur, rolates the opinion, %a generally prevailing, that wet coals burn better or produce more heat than dry ones. If the blacksmiths sprinkle their coal dust near the blast pipe with water, they merely do it to keep the top layer in shape. Wet coal burns as slowly as green wood, evidently from the faot that thejvater. { must evnporate boforo the fuel will burst out in flames, fflie author always obtained more steam by employing dry coal, and in a comparative trial, extending over » weak, bo saved fourteen ton* of coal by not wetting it. |

Mb Chaiiles Reade's Plagiarisms. — AYe lately quoted •from the letter in the Athenueuai in whioli Sir Charles Jleado wa3 accused of having in a recent work plagiarised largely from Dean Swift's "Journal of a Modern Lady." In a second letter the same correspondent, in the following quiet and effective way, replies to a furious letter from Mr Keade: — "My letter to you of Jauuary 4, on Mr Eeade's plagiarism of Dean Swift, has drawn from Mr Reade some rather curious language ; and to show hovr inappropriate that language is, I must give some description of myself. I ana quiet woman living in a country village, which I scarcely oror leave. I hare never written for the presn, nor dons any literary work whatsoever, therefore, I need hardly add, I bare never received money, for anything written. lam quite unknown to the world, , I seldojn look at a newspaper, or read modern literatu-e. I did not, even know, until yesterday, of the present existence of'^fiat periodical in whicli Mr Reade reviles me. • Mr Re&de calls me 'a trickster, scuiviloii3 skunk, a psendonymuncule T i and, moreover, says he wiviH mt a^mit me to his kitchen, and that I have told ' a lie whicli is a libel ;.' and that lam in the pay of the Athenxtw, also that what I wrote cone jrniug his plagiarism was snobbish, whereas he says his own crime is that he has ' written too well.' I, as a woman, entirely unknown, find myself becoming famous wlieH a great (?) novelist takes the trouble to answer my letter, and calls me a scurrilous skunk. As to the hybrid word ' paendonymuncnle/ I suppose it means a little writer under a false name j I can only say that I am not a writer, as the Vr6rd is understood, and that C.F. are really the initial letters^of "rAy name. You are at liberty to give Mtvßendo my name itlid address, if he requires it, and if you think that his great anger \% ill not bring him down to our quiet -Village to frighten a poor lady. Mr ft?ade» styles himself, 'an old gentleman, honourably connected with letters.' I am a young woman not connected with letters, beyond the enjoyment and entertainment afforded me by books ; but I thuak I may modestly say to Mr Reado, in the words of the title of one of his novels, '"it's never too late'to mend.'— o. JT. 1 "' Seasonable Con.— What flower -would you name it you wanted a bird to use bad language ? — Cro-cus. ' ■ Chubch Belms. — Eectors' daughters. Wanted.— A. slipper for the foot of a hill.