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and enterprising manageress, but I am afraid she is rapidly losing her money. She has several new plays in hand, but she has not appeared upon her own stage. The day, or rather the night, however, will come.

"Joseph's Sweetheart" has been heartlessly jilted by Tom Thorne at the Vaudeville, and, a week ago, the rejected damsel's place was taken by Robert Buchanan's new and very clever comedy, "That Dr. Cupid." The author appears to have got his main idea from a forty year old piece called "The Devil on Two Sticks," with a wrinkle or two from The Bottle Imp." Thorne makes Dr. Cupid a red and glowing Mephistopheles of the approved Irving pattern, and he has succeeded in making the part a very strong one Indeed, the entire piece is smart and effective, and supported, as it is, by a company of rare excellence, "That Dr. Cupid" may be expected to be in professional attendance at the Vaudeville until another summer has come and gone. Rutland Barrington's brief management of the St. James's had a calamitous ending, and the unlucky manager, after losing all his money, had to put up the shutters. It was W. S. Gilbert's hopelessly bad drama of "Buntinghame Hall" which gave the theatre its quietus and emptied it of its patrons. And Gilbert's fair protegee, Miss Julia Neilson, the coming great actress, proved such a dire failure that her premature retirement from the stage is not improbable. Gilbert's star went up like a rocket and came down like a stick.

Like Henry Irving, Richard Mansfield has had to" cave in" to the London fogs, and Sir Morell Mackenzie has shelved him for a fortnight. When he is able to resume work Dick will boldly tackle the divine William and show us how he can play Garrick's great part of Richard the Third. London play goers are in a flutter of expectation, not unmingled with dread, and Irving is naturally in a terrible hurry to get out of his doctor's hands. Meantime, as a stop gap, Mansfield has hurriedly got up the old comedy of the "Rivals" at the Globe, with charming Kate Vaughan as Lydia Languish, and Lal Brough as Bob Acres. Business is only so so. The Shaftsbury, one of our newest theatres. has collapsed for the second time within five weeks, and the doors were abruptly closed a

Wilson Barrett has again taken the Princess's, Grace Hawthorne's illness having necessitated her temporary retirement from the management. Barrett will reopen his old house on Monday night with his own and Caine Hall's new drama entitled "Good Old Times." There will be some matinees of Barrett's new drama of "Nowa-days," which will subsequently be taken on the road by John Cobbe and a strong London company. I hear that Barrett has written an article for an American magazine in opposition to the silly proposal to boycott English artistes. Dion Boucicault and Lawrence Barrett may look out for squalls.

Taking into consideration the fact that in this capital alone, we have between forty and fifty theatres open and in full swing, it is simply impossible to enumerate them in a single article. I may, however, briefly mention that the Gaiety is doing splendidly with its new burlesque, "Faust up to Date," and that Florence St. John has had her part strengthened with several new and very taking songs. Atalanta" is played out at the Strand. and "Nadjy" has been written up and further vulgarised for the Avenue. Charles Wyndham has revived Tom Taylor's somewhat effete" Still Waters Run Deep" at the Criterion, and in this he plays his old part of John Mildmay very effectively. Mrs. Bernard Beere was specially engaged to play Mrs. Sternhold, but I fail to see why she should make herself a walking pattern for Worth in such a fourth rate part.

Little Lord Fauntleroy," at the Opera Comique, and "Alice in Wonderland," at the Globe, are diverting school children who are home for the holidays. Toole is back again with the "Don," and Mr. and Mrs. Merivale are writing his next new piece. Most of the transpon tine "blood and murder" houses have pantomimes, such as they are.

audience and language was pointed enough to permit many of the actors to "get laughs" which made up for the lack of material which the roles gave them to sketch true characters. Mr. Jessop has taken conventional farcical situations and arranged anew, but the slight local coloring he has introduced into the play in way of an American hotel keeper and bell boy and a theatrical advance agent and a Wall Street broker, these touches, we say, of local coloring do not make up for the lack of real characters in the personæ. A play cannot be said to be successful because the situations evolved from mistaken identity of two persons are laughable, if the characters involved in the evolution of the plot are not real blood and bone characters, speech and deed, heart and soul, mind and body, expression and dress characters. You cannot write a play and say on your programme A, a wise man; B, driveling idiot; C, an actor; D, a business man, and then have A do inane things and B propound philosophy, while C is a modest unassuming individual and D a poetic sentimentalist!

Mr. Jessop's Barney Binney the bell boy and Rates the advance agent were characters, and the audience recognized it. Polly was not bad and of course Miss Flora Featherstone was dis

tinctive, but aside from these the parts were not fat ones by any means.

We are introduced to Mr. and Mrs. John Ellis, living at the Jinkerson House in conjugal felicity. From Mrs. Ellis' father we learn that his wife left him many years before to return to the stage, taking with her the twin sister of Mrs. Ellis. At the end of the act an English actress. Miss Flora Featherstone, arrives at the hotel just from the steamer. From her we learn that she had a twin sister, but has not seen her since childhood. Miss Pixley plays the dual parts, The whole Jinkerson House, Mr. Ellis included, mistake Miss Featherstone for rs. Ellis, and for the next two acts the laughable situations of the play depend upon this mistaken identity. Miss Pixley showed much ingenuity in her quick changes of character. She kept the parts well separated--Mrs. Ellis, a fond mother (with a real live baby, whose introduction on the stage we think was quite unnecessary), with a hatred for the theatre; Miss Featherstone, a lively song and dance actress quite willing to enjoy a lark,

not over scrupulous as to social decorum, and the possessor of a lap dog. In the second act she sang a couple of songs and danced in a pretty costume well suited for the purpose.

Miss Mollie Ravel played the nurse maid, Polly in a lively way, and Mr. M. C. Daly made as much of the role of a broker, Amphitryon H. Smith, as was possible with the slight foundation given him in the lines.

The part of Mr. John Ellis is so far out of the range of common sense that it is hard to say whether Mr. John T. Burke did well or ill in it. It is quite legitimate to have characters improbable in a farce or farcical comedy, but let us have them improbable to a purpose. Let us enjoy the caricatures, laugh at their eccentricities. But there was nothing to laugh at in Mr. Ellis.

As we said, Rates (Mr. Frederic Sackett) and Barney Binney) Mr. B. F. Grinnell) came near being characters. The actors assigned to the parts did their best to make them so. Miss Elsie Gerome was ladylike as Mrs. Wynkoop, Joseph Brennan conventional as Jeremiah Jinkerson. Alfred Grimm.

PHILADELPHIA NOTES.

Mr.

FEB. 5, Mr. Sol. Smith Russell presented "A

Poor Relation," by E. E. Kidder, for the first time in this city last night at the Arch Street Theatre.

Mr. Russell has never been seen here in a play better suited to his style of comedy. The leading character, Noah Vale, a simple inventor, sad and cheerful by turns, is quaintly drawn by the author, but it requires something of the actor's personality to fully develop the picture of the poor inventor, at whose quips one is almost ashamed to smile. The plot of the play is conventional, but, although the main interest is of course directed toward the central character, it contains enough secondary incident to hold the attention. There was a very large audience present, and Mr. Russell was repeatedly called before the curtain, and responding to the demand for a speech, he expressed his gratification at the favorable opinion evinced by the audience regarding his treatment of his part.

"Said Pasha" has been doing an extraordinary business at the Grand Opera House. The accession of Mr. Hubert Wilke to the company has

strengthened the performance, while the extra music which Mr. Stahl has written for the part adds a fresh charm to the charming opera. The excellent comedy work of Mr. Edwin Stevens, meets with even greater approval as the audiences become better acquainted with his style. The long and prosperous engagement in this city will close Feb. 9, after which the opera will be taken on the road for three weeks and then to the New York Star Theatre.

If the Walnut Street Theatre were twice as large as it is, it could not comfortably accommodate the swarm of besiegers at the box office. The London Gaiety Comparty opened fire in this theatre last night, and the performance proved a revelation in burlesque. The chorus girls can have the town or any portion of it they may desire.

There is a faint rumor that Julia Marlowe will shortly play a return engagement here, but the name of the lucky manager who has secured the prize is as yet a matter of conjecture. I should not be surprised, however, to see her bills outside the Grand Opera House; this also is mere guess work, but that she could fill that house is a certainty.

Manager Anderson claims that I was mistaken in saying that "The Royal Tramp" is a revamped version of "4 The Pyramid." Perhaps he is right, although my information came from a reliable dramatic authority, but as the opera scored a hopeless failure in this city, there is no necessity of arguing the question. The collapse of the opera closed the Broad Street Theatre during the present week, but it will open Feb. 9, with Lewis Morrison in a spectacular performance of "Faust."

Manager Fleishman has already started to book attractions for the new Park Theatre. The theatre will be opened by Annie Pixley, followed by Richard Stahl's new romantic opera, The Sea King."

EUG

NOTES.

Jefferies.

UGENE TOMPKINS has obtained the American rights to Sims and Pettitt's melodrama, "The Silver Falls," which is now running at the Adelphi Theatre, London. It will be first given in this country at the Boston Theatre. "Man

kind and" The Exiles," two of the Boston Theatre's play will be put on the road next season.

MANY people have been agreeably surprised to

learn that Tony Hart has so far convalesced as to warrant his moving from the asylum at Worcester, Mass., in which he has been confined for the past seven months, to the home of his father and mother at that place,

"WHY NOT AN AMERICAN OPERA?"

CONFESS I was surprised to see an editorial, with the above caption, in the Herald of last Sunday, (Feb. 3.)

The editorial goes on to ask, "Why does not some one write an American opera ?" and by that they mean an opera built upon an American subject. Then they go on to quote "Uncle Tom's Cabin," as a particularly promising one. Is it possible that the Herald does not know that an excellent opera upon "Uncle Tom's Cabin" has been written by Messrs. Dexter Smith and George Sewell Tracy? Tracy is the composer who did some work upon Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado." "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was produced by the Gilbert Opera Company at Lynn, Mass., Oct. 5, 1886.

I did not see the opera but I am told by one of the members of the cast that the music was exquisite in melody and composition, while Mr. Smith's libretto was exceeding clever.

Mr. Calixa Leavallee, the well known composer, has two operas awaiting production, entirely and exclusively upon American subjects," TIQ" and Moromi."

The trouble with many musical pieces that have been produced in this country, whether successful or unsucessful, has been that they have not been comic operas in the correct acceptation of the term. They have been more in the nature of burlesques and extravaganzas.

The demand for comic opera did not arise in this country until Gilbert and Sullivan's “Pinafore" made a hit. But now the demand is in advance of the supply, although the "middle man," (the manager,) as rule, fails to see it, but in spite of all obstacles, comic opera and comic opera companies have thriven and increased.

THE CLERGY AND THE STAGE. "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, aud considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" Matthew, VII. 6.

The antagonistic bearing of the clergy toward the stage, and the many discussions provoked by the existing relations of the Church and the Drama, furnish matter for much reflection.

The undeniable injustice and unfairness shown in the ministerial tirades against the stage, is much to be deplored.

Stubbornly holding to the belief that the stage and all connected with it are wholly and necessarily evil, they descant upon the unholy influence of "stage-plays," and the terrible depravity of the members of the histrionic profession.

The members of the dramatic calling are, of course, not without faults and vices; such has been the common lot of mankind since the fall of our grandmother, Eve. But that evil is so much more extreme among players, than among any other group of people thrown together by chance, on the necessities of life, can and will be refuted when the gentlemen of the pulpit will stop reviling and listen to the calm voice of reason.

The advanced thinkers of the present era of intellectual progession are beginning to apprehend the possibilities of the drama with respect to the mental and moral enlightenment of the human race.

The clergy in making this obstinate stand against the drama, seem to utterly ignore its fundamental principles. For the ultimate aim of the drama is both pure and lofty. It is, rightly considered, the fostering parent of good influences, and the expositor of great and universal truths.

Now, in this controversy, let more fairness be shown by both parties. Let the clergy cast out that spirit of intolerance which will brook no contradiction; and let us, for our part, in all candor admit that the present status of the stage is by no means

the ideal one of which we have spoken. And yet the stage, at this day, contains much that is true, good and beautiful-that bears the stamp of genuine art, and contains the germ of the ideal drama of the future. Progression is the order of nature; and who of us can say that this advanced and perfected form of the drama will not rule the sermon of its office, and assume its functions? But, indeed, the pulpit and stage are not by any means antagonistic in aim; for we can conceive that a purified and elevated drama, and a broader and more liberal religion, would be in perfect harmony, each, in its separate way, tending to lead us along the paths of thought and reason, and through the portions of feeling, to final conviction of the boundless love and mercy of God.

And, in conclusion, the sooner these disputants devote equal consideration to the others' claims as to their own the sooner will it be discovered that they are arguing converging lines, which must ultimately meet, and leave them no alternative but to grasp each others hands, and join with a will in the good work of elevating the mind of man to a just appreciation of the grand beauties and truths of the universe, and the great love of the Being who is its Lord, and reigns within us.

Low-necked dresses are much worn by American women, not only at balls and dinners, but at their afternoon receptions. It seems very odd to us Europeans to see a lady in a very low-necked ball dress at four in the afternoon, receiving her friends, who are babited in ordinary visiting toilets or tailormade gowns. I should not have said "ordinary,' because there is nothing ordinary in America, especially in the way of women's dress. In France a hostess seeks to make show of simplicity in her reception toilets, so as to be likely to eclipse no one in her own house.

Décolleté toilets are universal in America, old ladies vying with young in the display of neck and shoulders. It is true the Americans are not peculiar in this. Many times, in a European ball room, have I longed to exclaim: