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70 THE LEADER. [Satprpay ^ v ' ' ' —^^*^...
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A XA HOPE EltANCAisx:.—Ralph was), in tr...
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GOLD ! If the Murchisons and Hargreaves ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Vivian Among The Floods. Howdiiforent Fr...
—ye gods ! how we did talk ! ( At least they did ; I am taciturn to a fault !) We laughed , we " made music , " we probed deep questions , and ploughed up the old landmarks of tradition , as if Life itself were only matter for jest , though , in serious truth , we were serious men , to whom Life was very far from being a jest —( I am serious , and sad too , though you wouldn't think it to see my whiskers !)—but the sombre mood without raised a defiant spirit of mirth within ; and Ajax defying the Thunder was but a pose plastique of our moral attitude . There were moments , indeed , when left alone , and the loud echos of mirth had vanished into silence , I felt something akin to what was going on without . Tears , idle tears , I know not what they mean .
( Alas ! I knew too well what they meant . ) Tears from the depths of some divine despair Rise in the heart , and gather to the eyes , In looking on the happy Autumn fields , And thinking of the days that are no more . The days that are no more !—that never more can be ! What can he sadder than the Irrevocable P The poet says , and truly says , that these gone days are Dear as remembered kisses after death .
Dear they are , but the awful Shadow rests upon them ! There is a pleasure in the pain , but the pain is inevitable . O death in life the days that are no more ! The wind which hurried these clouds across my soul ' s heaven , was a swift wind , and hurried them over * it , so that , among the floods , I felt but moments of seriousness ; the Hours were all of mirth . I left this to return to damp and dirty London , and , arrived here , found a pretty squabble going on respecting
THE PRESS AND THE STAGE , with reference to a certain absurd " privilege" which has grown into a huge abuse . Of course you know that newspapers , besides sending in their critics gratis to theatres , have also the privilege of writing " orders "" nightly , which orders , ostensibly admitting critics and reporters , do really admit friends and advertisers . Charles Mathews computes that if every person admitted by a press order to the Lyceum during his management had paid money for that admission , the theatre would have received no less a sum than five-and-twenty thousand pounds . It will be answered that so many persons would not perhaps have paid their money—a man
will go to the theatre for nothing who will not pay to go . True ; but the computation is nevertheless under the mark , for this reason : a man who has the chance of getting an order is extremely reluctant to pay at all : ho waits till he gets one . Therefore , by giving orders , a theatre not only admits nonpaying visitors , but creates a disinclination in . playgoers to pay . It is an old observation , that we do not prize what is easily obtained ; price is the standard of prizing . If therefore every week several thousands are admitted gratis to various places of amusement—and the actual figures would astound you—it requires little foresight to perceive that the amusement-loving public will be largely adulterated with indifference . No wonder the drama declines !
Yet patent as the abuses of the order system are , they need some " press agitation " to abolish them . No one manager could afford to break through the system ; only a great journal like the Times could afford to do so . I will render this intelligible by a reference to the Leader . Or the first establishment of this paper ( a " most desirable medium for advertisements " you will bo pleased to observe !) I refused every species of " privilege , " because , as I intended to be perfectly independent , I thought the privilege was a " favour . " For several months the paper had to
con-^ fS ^ Son has come to be discussed , it behoves . the Press for its own dignity , to forego the use of such a « privilege , ^^^ Pa ' s ° Befides ' the above " agitation , " my absence has prevented me from seeing the new five act drama at Drury-lane . But another will tcfll you all about it . ^ :
» sfi = ? sF £ SSH 3 SM ! r-gE Sw ^ SSSS & TsS ^ ESs a TaSed « orders , " therefore . 'Whether it has affected my independence m £ ysafely I left to your decision Friend or foe , no ^ man can say that this pen has written of him what this brain did not think , lm
70 The Leader. [Satprpay ^ V ' ' ' —^^*^...
70 THE LEADER . [ Satprpay ^ v ' ' ' —^^*^**""' ^^ ' ^ ' ^^^ ' .. *
A Xa Hope Eltancaisx:.—Ralph Was), In Tr...
A XA HOPE EltANCAisx :. —Ralph was ) , in truth , becoming- positively illustrious in foreign society . He lmd fought a duel ; he had imported a new dance from Hungary ; he had contrived to get the smallest groom that ever was seen behind a cabriolet ; ho had carried oft" the reigning beauty among the opera dancers of the day from all competitors ; a great French cook had composed a great French dish , and christened it by his name ; he was understood to be the " unknown friend , " to whom a literary Poli & h countess had dedicated her " Letters against the restraint of the Marriage Tie ; " u female German metaphysician , sixty years old , had fallen ( Platonically ) in lovo with him , and had taken to writing erotic romances in her old age . Such were some of the rumours that reached my father ' s curs on the subject of his son ami heir ! After a long absence , he enmo home on n visit . Jlow well 1 remember the astonishment lm produced in the whole household ! He had become 11 foreigner in manners and appearance . His mustachios were magnificent ; miniature toys in gold and jewellery hung in clusters from his watchchain ; his shirt-front wuh a perfect filigree of laco and cambric . He brought with him his own boxes of choice liqueurs and perfumes ; his own smart , impudent , - French valet ; his own travelling bookcase of French novels , which ho opened with his own golden key . Ho drank nothing but chocolate in the morning ; he hiul long interview !) with the cook , and revolutionized our dinner-tablo . All the French newspapers wero sent to him by a London agent . Ho altered tho arrangomentn of Inn bed-room ; no servant but his own valet was permitted to ontor it . Family portraits that hung there , wero turned to the walls , and portraits of French actroasoH and Italian uingorn wero Ituck to tho backs of
the canvasses . Then , lie displaced a beautiful little ebony cabinet which lmd been in the family three hundred years ; and sot up in its stead a Cyprian temple of his own , in miniature , with crystal doors , behind which hung locks of hair , rings , notes written on blushcoloured paper , and other love-tokens kept as sentimental relics . His influence became Jill-pervading among ns . He seemed to communicate to the house the change that had taken place in himself , from the reckless , racketty young Englishman to the superexquisite foreign dandy . It was as if the fiery , effervescent atmosphere of the JJonlovards of Paris had insolently penetrated into tho old English mansion , and milled and infected its pyre , quiet , native air , to the remotest corners of the place . —CoivnrNB ' fl Basil . A Faikv Tamo . — Tin ; ttibuyows never eat the puttin , on account of an old tradition in their tribe . " One day a Dyak was fishing , and caught only a single puttin , which be gave to a Mulny : it whose house he landed to procure a light for his pipe . On his coming buck to get the fish , the fish wuh no longer there , but crouched in the bottom of his cunoe was a pretty little girl . Tho good ' Dyak was greatly astonished at this transformation , but carried the little girl home , when * she was brought up with the family , and grew to be a woman , and in duo course married her finder's son . No peculiarity was observed in lier conduct ; she was like any other Dyak woman , and made a good wife ; she pounded tho rice , drew the water , made mats , and conducted tho affairs of the household with proprioty ' iind neatness . After a time , she bore her attached husband a son , and suckled tho boy till ho could run about , when one day , being at the edge of tho water with the boy and her huubund , sho Buddonly uuid to him , ' Hero , take tho
child ; be kind to him , for he is my child ; I have been a good wife , but I must now rejoin my own tribe ; ' and thus . saying , she plunged into the river , and became once more a puttin . "—ICeitel ' s Visit to the Indian A rch i / p elayo . 1532 and 1852 . —The suppression of the monasteries , though less popular at the moment , yet wia also felt by most serious persons , of whatever creed , to bo imperatively ca ^ cd for . Tho grosser moral disorders have been probably over-estimated by Protestant controversialists , and the rare exceptions too lightly assumed to be the rule . Hut tho evidence which came out on the visitation of them in 15 : 52 , singularly resembling , as it does , that lately given in reply to the circulars of tho Oxford Commissioners , revealed a systematic breach of vows , non-observance of statutes , and misapplication of funds , which , after exposure , could bo neither defended nor tolerated . — Westminster ' Remew for January . Tirio Fiuht ICihs . —Mr . Sherwin had gone out of the room ; Mrs . . Sherwin was at the other end of it , watering some plants at the window ; Margaret , by her father ' s desire , was showing me some rare prints . She handed me a magnifying glass , through which 1 was to look at a particular pint of one of tho engravings , that was considered a master-piece of delicate workmanship . Instead of applying tho magnifying test to the print , for which I cared nothing , I laughingly applied it to Margaret ' s face . Her lovely , lustrous black eye seemed to Hash into mine through tho glass ; her warm , quick breathing played on my check—it was but for an instant , and in that instant I kissed her for tho first time . What sensations the kiss guvo mo then!—what romombrancott it has loft mo now!—OoLLiiia ' a Basil .
Gold ! If The Murchisons And Hargreaves ...
GOLD ! If the Murchisons and Hargreaves of O'Keefe's time 'had ^ mf « nuggets , " to be turned up by tons from all sorts of place « ^ ^™ colonies Gold would have been a stock piece at those theatres wnere » Snume Englilh comedy" is still " triumphant . Yes , it is quite true t ^ Zl ^^ dr ^ Jvon ^ t out on Monday at Drury Lane , is ^ qua in merit as near as may be , with the Farmer , the Hovers , or any ottne S'San plays which are sometimes galvanized , for « £ ^\ £ 3 * the month of November . Veterans ch oose such plays for their benent n ^ hTs at the enTof the season , when we are called on tc , rally rounour old favourites , and support the legitimate drama . Yet Gold owes its SSceM toWelty of interest , and was hissed only at certain passages Xre the " useSl information , " clothed in melodramatic garb , exceeded moderate limits ; and at the end , by a few , P ersons whom " °£ ™^ 7 conceive to have been misled by the announcement that the piece was m five acts ; and perhaps also by the familiar sound of certain names among ^ Thrrene ^ aTfirTis in Berkshire , afterwards on the banks of the Macquarrie . There is a young farmer , who is in love 7 % } " ? <" " * - and there is a villainous cornfactor , his landlord and rival . There is , besides , a scientific Israelite , named Isaac Levi , whom George S andford , the young farmer , saves from the violence of John Meadows the machinating landlord . Thus the hero of the piece makes a friend and an enemy at a single coup ; and in the counterplotting of these two persons lies the main interest of the play . Mr ort never layed better than as thehbnest , impulsive young
. Davenp p farmer ; and a minor part , that of William Sandford , a younger brother , was filled by Mr Moorhouse with carefulness and ease , wnicn seem to promise superiority . Miss Fanny Vining is the rural heroine , a somewhat didactic and , withal vacillating , young lady . Mr . II . Lee has an uphill part as the cornfactor , but he does the best with it ; and Mr . Julward Stirling sustains the chief " character" part of Isaac Levi . A London thief who turns out quite a pattern of wisdom and justice , when elevated to authority at the "diggings , " is vigorously embodied by Mr . 11 .
Wallack . . . . , , A great improvement in the number of visitors is noticeable , and the applause was loud and general when the curtain fell on the happiness of the deserving characters , and the confusion of villany . The piece deserves , and no doubt ( if only a key to the Diggings for "intending emigrants" ) will nave a run . The attention to scenic detail is a gratifying advance on the promise held out by Uncle Tom . Q-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 15, 1853, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15011853/page/22/
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