For the plot of _The Passport_, recently produced with a fair amount
of success at Terry's Theatre, the authors admit their indebtedness
to Colonel SAVAGE'S novel, _My Official Wife_. Oddly enough, this plot
bears a considerable resemblance to that of _The Orient Express_, a
piece "made in Germany," of which the English adaptation was produced
here, at Daly's, during his season. In this piece, _i.e._, _The Orient
Express_, a gentleman has tourist tickets for himself and wife; but
his wife, after disposing of her ticket to a professional _cicérone_,
returns to England alone, while her husband, travelling on business,
continues his journey. The _cicérone_ has sold the ticket cheap to a
lady, who is therefore compelled to travel under the name inscribed on
the ticket, and finds herself in the same carriage with the gentleman
who has the corresponding ticket, and the ticket-collector, seeing
the same names, hands back both tickets to the gentleman, and tries
to keep the carriage strictly reserved for them all the way, in
which attempt he fails, and hence arise, on their return to England,
complications analogous to those of _The Passport_. Was the novel of
_My Official Wife_ written before the German farcical play, or is it
only a family likeness?
* * * * *
"IL IRA LOIN."--Dr. FARRAR, now Chaplain to the SPEAKER, has been made
Dean of Canterbury. From the Deanery to a Bishopric is but a step.
He has gone Far, will go FARRAR and fare better ... and then ...
FARRAR-well to all his greatness!
* * * * *