[Illustration: Ulysses on Tour.]
Ulysses has been travelling again, and the record of his journeyings
is set forth in _The Modern Odyssey_, which CASSELL & Co. publish in
one volume, with some charming illustrations in callotype.
My Baronite notes a quaint disposition on the part of the old
gentleman to begin at the very beginning. Thus, when he lands in New
York, he furnishes a brief account of COLUMBUS, and how he came to
discover America. The early history of Australia, and eke of China,
are dealt with in the same instructive manner. This is all very well
for ULYSSES, who comes fresh on the scene, and learns for the first
time all about the Genoese, about Captain COOK, and how "a little more
than a century ago eleven ships sailed from England," anchored in
the Bay where now Sydney stands, and--strange to say!--did not find
a populous city, but only green fields and a river running into the
sea. _Pour nous autres_, age has somewhat withered the bloom of this
story, and it might have been left peacefully slumbering in the
Encyclopædias. But it can be skipped, and, for the rest, there will
be found a swift succession of pictures of life and scenery in the
Greater Britain that girdles the world. ULYSSES must have been much
struck with the change since he first went a gipsying. But of that he
discreetly says nothing.
BARON DE BOOK-WORMS & Co.
* * * * *
WE'VE GOT OUR LYNX EYE ON HIM!--In the _Times'_ legal reports for
Tuesday, July 26, 1892, Queen's Bench Division, Colonel FITZGEORGE
sued a Mr. ROLLS CALVERT LINK. Mr. CANNOT defended LINK. But CANNOT
Could Not do much for his client LINK, who did not appear. Evidently,
"The Missing Link."
* * * * *
"COURT ON!"
[Illustration: Stephensonius, B.C. (_date uncertain_), qui Jacobum
Fidelem scripsit. (From an old Bronze Medal.)]
The "Triple Bill" still going strong at the Court. The _New Sub_, a
smartly-written little One-Act Play, by SEYMOUR HICKS, notable for
good performance all round, but especially for the rendering of
_Mrs. Darlington_, by Miss GERTRUDE KINGSTON, of _Major Ensor_,
by BRANDON THOMAS, and of _Second-Lieutenant Darlington_, by Mr.
ERNEST BERTRAM--uncommonly Earnest BERTRAM. The Scene is in a Hut at
Shorncliffe. Hutcætera. If _Lieutenant Crookendon's_ catch--phrase
about "a funny world" were repeated just about five times less
frequently than it is, the piece, the part, and the public would be
distinctly gainers.
[Illustration: Faithful James, as originally seen on the walls of
Winchester College.]
At 9:10, appears _Faithful James_, represented by Mr. WEEDON
GROSSMITH. It is a finished and quietly droll performance. The author,
Mr. B.C. STEPHENSON ("B.C." makes him quite a classic--date uncertain,
so his plot may have been done in collaboration, with PLAUTUS or
TERENCE) has reproduced from the French a neatly-constructed One-Act
piece, in which are all the possibilities of a Three-Act Criterion
or Palais Royal Farcical Comedy. So rapid is the action, all over in
about forty-five minutes, and so much to the point of the plot is the
dialogue, that an inattentive auditor would soon lose the thread of
the argument, never to pick it up again anywhere. Miss ELLALINE TERRIS
is just that very _Mrs. Duncan_. BRANDON THOMAS is a breezy, brusque,
and Admirable Admiral; and Mr. DRAYCOTT a hearty husband, very much
in love with his pretty little wife. Mr. LITTLE makes much, perhaps
almost a Little too much, of his small but essentially important
part,--they are all important parts,--and of Miss SYBIL GREY can be
said "_Nous savons Gré à Mlle. Sybil_." Mr. SIDNEY WARDEN's Character
Sketch of the young and rather raw German Waiter, is excellent; the
Waiter being "raw," is not overdone. Not a dull second in the farce.
Will our B.C. Author give us some of his adaptations from PLAUTUS,
TERENCE (some good old Irish plots of course, in the writings of
this author), and a few other ancients with whom he was, it is most
probable, personally and intimately acquainted. To think that the
_Wandering Jew_, who can only sign himself "A.D.", is "not in it" in
point of time with our STEPHENSON "B.C."!
After this comes the _Pantomime Rehearsal_, which everybody should
see, and which nearly everybody must have seen by this time. Success
to the Triple Bill, which, in the political world, might mean Sir
WILLIAM HARCOURT and WILLIAM GLADSTONE, the latter WILLIAM "counting
two on a division."
* * * * *
EXACT.--"He is something in the Church," said Mrs. R., trying to
describe the social position of a clerical friend of hers. "I forget
what it is, but it's a something like 'Dromedary;' only, you needn't
smile, of course I know it couldn't be that, as a Dromedary has two
humps on his back. Or, stop!" she exclaimed, suddenly, "am I confusing
him with a Minor Camel?"
* * * * *
[Illustration: WELL MEANT, BUT AWKWARDLY PUT.
"SO GLAD YOU HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN ME, DEAR LORD VARICOSE; I WAS AFRAID
YOU WOULD, AFTER SO MANY YEARS!"
"OH, NO, MISS EVERGREEN; I NEVER FORGET OLD FACES!"'
* * * * *