MR.

** *

R. WILLIAM MCGLORY has come out again in all his glory since the retirement of Mayor Hewitt. He gave a ball at his resort last Tuesday night, and previous to the event spoke as follows to a Press reporter:

"Let me give you a tip," said William, "this divertisment is goin' to cost me some cold koplunks-bright simoleums-and it won't be healthy for the coon who will try to give me the razoo. I'm gettin' up a lol-lah."

Max O'Rell ought to have heard this.

71

Miss Minnie thus talks a great deal of rubbish and shows a startling lack of tact.

* **

OUISVILLE, which gave us Mary Anderson,

LOUI

now offers to the world another in the person of Mr. Walter S. Mathews. He played a round of Shakespearean characters there last week, before large audiences I am told. From the Courier Journal I cut this lavish praise : ** Mr. Mathews' impersonation of Shylock being almost as far above his Richard in merit as his Richard was above the Othello of the preceding night. The physical realization could not have been better. The make-up has not been surpassed by any actor, old or young, who has presented Shylock here in many years, and it is difficult to imagine a more complete sinking of personal identity in a character than was represented by Mr. Mathews in his performance yesterday. There was, too, a stateliness and dignity of bearing not to be expected in so young an actor. and remarkable for a first performance. The gray hair, beard and heavy eyebrows, the figure, soberly, but richly clad, the crafty smile cunning glance, completed the illusion, and presented a singularly impressive realization of the outward seeming of the Jew In the quieter scenes in the opening of the play, Mr. Mathews was smooth and easy in his action, and his lines, though lacking in force at times, as in the speeches to Bassanio and Antonio, when they come to him in quest of money, were always intelligently delivered. In at least two of the scenes he came very near a full and complete exposition of the two dominant passions of the Jew, his love of gold and his hatred of his Christian tormentors. One of these was the fiery scene with Tubal, in which he plots revenge upon Antonio; the other was that at the close of the last act, where the fierce rebelliouspirit, bowed and broken at last by accumulated miss fortune and humiliation, creeps, half bent, from the judgment hall, amid the jeers of Gratiano and the laughter of the crowd Both these scenes were realized in a manner that shows Mr. Mathews has grasped the highest conception of the character, which promises to be the best protraiture of his present repertory when time and experience have enabled him to express his conception fully. In the performance, considered as a whole, there is a lack of sustained intensity. His hatred and his avarice come out in flashes, but when he is not engaged in the dialogue that is going on upon the stage, he does not take advantage of the opportunity for the play of

Jno. Carver, 8. Wm. Bradford, 2. Ed Winslow, 5. Wm. Brewster, 6, Isaac Allerton, 6. Capt. Miles Standish, 2. Jno. Alden, 1. Sam. Fuller, 2, Chr. Martin, 4. Wm. Mullins, 5. Wm. White, 5. Rd. Warren, I Jno. Howland, * Stephen Hopkins, 8. Ed. Tilly, 4. J. Tilley, 3. Frs. Cook, 2. Thos. Rogers, 2. Thos. Tinker, 3. Jno. Rigdale, 2. E. Fuller, 3. *Howland

Jno. Turner. 3.
Frs. Eaton, 3.
Jas. Chilton, 3
Jno. Crackston, 2.
Jno. Billington, 4.
Moses Fletcher, 1.
Jno. Goodman, 1.
Degory Priest, I.
Thos. Williams, 1.
Gilbert Winslow, 1.
Ed. Margeson, I.
Peter Brown. I.
R. Britteridge, 1.
Geo. Soule,*
Rd. Clarke, 1.
Rd. Gardner, 1.
Jno. Allerton, 1.

Thos. English. 1.
Ed. Dotey, t
Ed. Leister, *

was of Governor Carver's family; Soule of Governor Winslow's. Dotey and Leister were Mr Hop

kins's servants.

**

WHILE we are having a decidedly good at

mosphere of Cleopatra on the New York stage, Sarah Bernhardt is visiting the land of Cleopatra and is having, so I am told, “a perfectly grand time." She is described as standing for half an hour in front of the Sphinx, and then turning to her companion said: "Tenez, if her nose were not broken she would resemble me. My friend, if you could see me a hundred years from now I would look exactly like that." Then she gave a shudder and said she was devilish hungry." I am also told she allows her son,

73

*

* *

MY curiosity is gratified by the discovery of the authorship of that famous poem "Mary had a litttle Lamb." It is declared to be a Mrs. Tyler who is still living, and the account of the authorship is her own and cannot be disputed. The incident occured in one of the schools in the town of Sterling. Mary Sawyer, now Mrs. Tyler, was a pupil of this school and was the owner of the lamb. This is know to be a fact. The lamb followed her to school; this also is well known to be true. A youth of sixteen or seventeen years by chance happened in that afternoon and was witness to the whole thing; this, too, cannot be called in question. The next day, this youth John Roulstone, who was a student fitting for college and boarding with the clergyman of the town, to whom he was related, left the lines in his own handwriting at the door of Miss Sawyer's residence. This was in 1816 or 1817.

This is all subscribed to by a gentleman whose father was the minister of Sterling at the time. It will be a surprise to many to know that Mrs. Tyler is still alive. Her emotions must be conflicting.

Not yet! For what if Oriana choose
The crown of all your rapture to refuse ?
Through many a maze of frolic, yet of pain,
Her faithful heart has felt your gay disdain!
Shall she not triumph-now the strife is o'er-
And punish him who vexed her so before?

No! Take her hand. Her heart has long been yours.
True love in trouble all the more endures !
She'll cling the closer for the risk she braved
And cherish all the more the life she saved.
There's nought a loving woman will not do
When once she feels her lover's heart is true.

ESSRS. ABBEY & SCHOEFFEL will build a new theatre in Boston. Their lease of the old Park Theatre expires at the close of the present season, and Lotta, who owns it, will run it next season, or put her brother in to manage it for her. The new theatre will be at Tremont and Mason streets., with a main entrance in Tremont street, and side and rear entrances in Mason and Avery streets and Haymarket Place. This was the site of the old Haymarket Theatre. The lot contains 21,000 square feet. The main entrance, a vestibule twenty-seven feet wide, one of the largest, if not the largest, in the country, will be near the corner of Tremont and Mason streets, running back for 100 feet. They will endeavor to make the theatre as nearly fireproof as possible. The dressing rooms, property rooms and scenery rooms are to occupy an entirely distinct structure from the auditorium, built away, in fact, from the theatre, with fireproof walls between. The auditorium will be built in the shape of a saucer, with particular attention to giving every occupant of a seat a clear view of the stage. The seats will be so placed that one can see between the shoulders of the persons in front, and thus get a better view of the stage. The stage curtain will slide from side to side, instead of being rolled up and down. It is proposed to make an art gallery of one side of the main entrance, hanging there works of the best artists in Boston, displaying both paintings and sculpture. On the other side it is proposed to construct little alcoves for the sale of bon bons, flowers, etc.

prominent than their assumed signatures would disclose. Next week's issue will contain a splendid picture of Mrs. Bloodgood.

*

**

MME. ALBANI, the eminent soprano, arrived

here Wednesday morning on the steamship Servia of the Cunard line. She is accompanied by Mr. Gye, her husband; Sig. Bevignani, conductor of the Albani troupe; Miss Grace Damain, a young English contralto; Mr. Barrington Foote, a well-known baritone; Sig. Masimi, the Italian tenor, and Mr. W. Barrett, the flute artist. Mme. Albani has gone to Montreal, where she will give a series of concerts at the Queen's Hall. She will also visit Toronto, Quebec, Ottawa, Hamilton, London and other large Canadian cities. It is very likely that Mme. Albani will appear in the Metropolitan Opera House during March next as Elsa in Wagner's" Lohengrin" and as Senta in the "Flying Dutchman." She will return to England again in time to be at the opening of the London Italian opera season next May.

*

**

AS I was about to close this digressive chroni

cle of notes and news of the week I am saddened by the intelligence of the death of poor Selina Dolaro, singer, actress, author, and most

Bijou Theatre as the prima donna of the Acme Opera company. In the summer she visited London and also saw Audran, the composer of

Olivette," who wrote a comic opera for her under the title of "The Snake Charmer." The piece proved moderately successful. Three years ago she appeared in the same cast as Minnie Madden in an adaptation of Sardou's "Agnes." Mme. Dolaro was a woman of great energy, and during her illness did much literary work. She wrote " Justine," which was produced at the New Park Theatre several years ago, and she wrote "Fashion," which was produced at Wallack's theatre. She published Mes Amours" which reached reputation, and a novel called "Bela Demonia," will be published in Lippincott's Magazine in March. She was married to a Spanish Jew when she was fourteen years old, but had not lived with him for many years. She leaves two sons and two daughters. One of her

daughters is playing in Mrs. Langtry's company.

It is perhaps worth recording that young Mackaye played in "Agnes" with Mme. Dolaro. It was his first appearance and her last.

FINIS.

Trophonius.

has by indomitable pluck kept alive and her bright winsome face as seen at" first nights" would not indicate bodily suffering and mental worry. Her death, the immediate result a hemorrage, occurred on Tuesday last and her end came quietly and peacefully at her home No. 365 W. 23rd street next door to Mrs. Langtry's residence. Mme, Dolaro was an English Jewess, and her first appearance was made in the London concert halls. Afterward she made a success in several of Offenbach's operas. She was the first to sing "Carmen" in English, and she was for a time manager of Haymarket Theatre. There she was the first to produce Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury." In 1877 she visited this country as a member of the Mapleson Grand Opera troupe, and appeared at the Academy of Music in "Carmen." Her voice, was not sufficient to fill the Academy, and her career as a singer in grand opera came to an end. In 1881 she was singing the title role in the opera of "Olivette" at the

mystery. Her disappearance makes a few tiny ripples. But to those of us who still linger on the shore, the little waves break silvery with recollections at our feet, and in the hurly-burly of life's winds and waters we may, if we listen, catch in some faint way a tiny reverberation of The Magic Flute," and some flunctant and liquid reminder of the shadow song.

If there is any elysium reserved for Di Murska she will come to it with her harp in her hand for it was given to her by God before her probation, and the rush of remorse and the fire of disappointment could not quite eat or burn away all the golden strings

In these caskets of song there may not, after all, be any adamantine jewels, but to the sense of love, as it opens them, there issue a faint fragrance, as of wild roses, plucked long ago and forgotten. On those ineffable currents we go musingly back to days and nights of melody, when the morning was full of wings and the night was big with pleasant dreams.

Nym Crinkle in the World.

THE CHURCH OR THE THEATRE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE THEATRE:

IN an article in your issue of January 12th, by Mr. Otto Peltzer of Chicago, occurs some startling statements, especially as they are made by a man whose knowledge of the stage and the church seems to be much greater than that of most liberal-minded men of to-day. Let us see how far Mr. Peltzer is correct in this reasoning.

He makes the bold assertion that "the Christian churches of this country are only attended by a most insignificant portion of the male population, a portion so insignificant that it almost counts for naught." His authority for this is the daily press. In the first place, most men will take what the daily press says upon this subject with a "grain of salt." The statistics of the membership of the churches in the various denominations show an increase, and the attendance of refuters on a given Sunday at a church is no criterion of the average attendance of church members. Besides, the theatre has not yet begun to supplant the church in its efforts to teach men to live better lives, as witness the burlesques of morality, and pictures of all kinds. of vice and iniquity given on the stage of to-day. The delineators of these characters have in many cases been little better than the wickedness they portrayed. It will require a purifying "as by fire" of the personnel of the stage before it can be held up as a better teacher than the church. The meeting of "The Free-Thinking Society" in Chicago, to which Mr. Peltzer refers, is not half so alarming in its character as he seems to believe. No body of men like the Anarchists can ever be expected to embrace the doctrines of the "lowly Nazarene." The character of the Mosts, Parsons, Linggs and all that crew, are not fit for inspection, their beer-guzzling, immoral tendencies are too well known for sane men to consider their opinions as worthy of much consideration. They will fail because of their lack of recognition of the very doctrines and precepts of the Bible they so unceremoniously refuse. They are throwing away their source of salvation from misery and poverty when they build their system upon history, science and anarchy." The greatest socialist was Jesus Christ, and his teachings have been best exemplified-however im

perfectly and slowly the methods-by the church and its members. The stage has contributed little towards that end.

The clergy have good cause to condemn the theatre, and the stage will have little sympathy from the church until such time as it takes a step toward cleaner dramas than we are treated to at present. The purification must take place from within.

The Sunday papers have not yet reached the acme of perfection, either as educators or moralists, but their efforts have almost invariably been thrown on the side of "the world, the flesh and the devil." The publication of a sermon and the text of the Sunday School lesson have often been used as a bait to catch those who have been weak in the faith, and to give a color of morality to the newspaper, the greater portion of the space being devoted to a pot-pourri of murders, suicides, seductions, prize fights, burglaries, thefts, and other sensational items, besides making it "the day of all the week the best" for special advertising. To say that the Sunday newspaper is supplanting the pulpit is to say what is not true. Churches will always exist where men have learned to recognize and feel their responsibility to reverence and worship a Supreme Being, and the Sunday newspaper has arrogated to itself an impudent assumption of authority and power when it undertakes to become the arbiter of the morals and religion for the people. The Sunday newspaper may be a necessity to make larger dividends for greedy stockholders; it is a question whether a man is morally benefited by the reading of the contents of the Sunday newspaper. He certainly can not be injured by attendance at church service. The Sunday newspaper may have come to stay and it may have a majority of the people to patronize it,-it does not follow therefor that its power for good in the community is to be compared with the minority of the preachers and church members who condemn its circulation and refuse to be dictated and guided by its opinions.

The Catholic Church, which Mr. Peltzer next compliments for its pomp and show in its service, has had great success in this line, in making converts to its peculiar doctrines, but it is a question whether the Roman Catholic Church is the church where one would go to find the great