The Express.
London, England, 1862-07-21 00:00:00

SHE DRAMATIC COLLEGE FETE AT THE

CRYSTAL PALACE.

It is always refreshing to see how actors work in
the cause of charity. They do nothing by halves. Their
energies are always at the disposal of the feeble and needy—
not may of their own body, bat of any class needing help
and sympathy. Far from being the artificial, unfeeling
mesteres which many people take them for, they are if
anything • little too impulsively generous. Whenever an
almshouse has to be built, a starving province to be fed, •
km by fire or flood to be repaired, the actor is the earliest
worker appealed to, and the last to resist the appeal. His
voice, his talents, and his popularity are at once placed in
the hands of charitable committees ; he sings, sets, dances,
end gambols with a will for the benefit of thousands he
sever saw, and gives away his time and strength—his
Wing ciapital—se freely, that hundreds come to regard it as
of little value. Let no injustice be done to the actor in
this respect. A performance differs from no other com-
modity of an Nail market value ; what it brings to the
gating lap of the poor I. entitled to stand by the side of
eaah-donations, bricks and mortar, coals and potatoes.
The playa's song or mummery, worth a hundred pounds,
is as good as the hundred pounds of the capitalist for
which it exchanges, and it would be well if the managers
of general charities would hear this in mind when they
apply for services which they seldom regard as money.
It is not mewling to find the man sod women who do
a 3 much for others uniting with praiseworthy harmony to
leap themselves. The more determination they show is
this direction the more will they be respected and helped
by the public ; and they are, therefore, quite right to add
another to their excellent existing institutions, by raising
and supporting the Royal Dramatic College. For the last
two seances, through the medium of a bazaar and fancy
fair at the Crystal Palace (to say nothing of other profitable
exertions). they have done all in their power to enlist
public sympathy for this charitable enterprise. The ex-
periments in 1860 and 1861 were so successful that they
have cow settled down into something like an annual en-
tertainment, and Saturday saw the inauguration of a third
fair, which is to last two days, for the benefit of the
College.

The Crystal Palace is a place of such vast and bur •
hanstible resources that old Bartholomew Fair might be
Revived under its glittering roof without interfering with
the out-door or Fine Art &Wartime. The Centre Transept,
as this acessiou, has been given up to thirty or forty
popular actresses for fancy stall'. The concert room has
been turned • iato a booth theatre, Banked by a smaller
booth for a burlesque pose pla4tique entertainment ; and on
the other side of the transept a photographic tent and an
Aunt Sally alley have been erected.
The fair was opened by proclamation about half-put
twelve, by Mr. Robert Romer, in the character of a herald
of the time of Edward 1L His v, ice was unctuous, as
emal, but his dress wax hardly satisfactory to the strict
aretueological observer. When these diverting formalities
were disposed of the admiring crowd were let into the
enclosed square of the central tranaept, and for hours the
shopkeeping and delightfully extortionate damsels at the
dulls were allowed to tax the most willing of taxpayers. No
as could complain of the prices exacted, nor of that fancy -fair
determination to give no change, when crowds bad to wait
patiently for-their turn to get near the counters. The most
active members of this charming joint stock company
(limited) were Mrs. Stirling, Mrs. Henry Ruddall, Mrs.
Prank Matthews, Mrs. Conquest, Miss Fanny Josephs, Was
H. Simms, Mims Laidlaw, Miss Kate Kelly, Miss E. John-
stone, Mira Kate Carson, Mrs. Alfred Mellon, Mn. Billing.
tee, Miss Fanny Hunt, Miss Amy fiedgwick, Mrs. E. Fitz-
waliam, Miss Katherine Hickson, 'Ali, C. Willard, Miss
N. A. Atkinson, Mira Latimer, Min Helen Howard, Miss
Elaworthy, Mrs. Howard Paul, Kim Denvil, Mire Herbert,
Min Conquest, Mies C. Saunders, Miss Lydia Thompson,
Ma. St. Henry, Min Catherine Lucette, Mies Marriott,
Hiss Carry Nelson, Miss Sara Nelson, Mies E. Romer, and
Hies Agues Burdett. Other popular favourites, such as
Mira M. Oliver and Miss Marie Wilton, unattached to stalls,
were not idle amongst the crowd, bringing many willing
purchasers forward to swell the funds of the charity.
For three who were not able to get near the dells, or who
were inclined for more solid amusement, our leading come.
diens toiled in the Richardsonian Theatre, the Photo-
graphic booth, the Punch and Judy show, and the
miniature circus. Mr. J. L. Toole, who does the most
trifling work with rare earnestness and vigour, worked
her famous peep-show which was so successful at the
last fancy fair, took portraits by a process which we
shall not divulge, sad in which he was unirted by those
old operators Mr. Paul Bedford and Mr. C. J. Smith,
while Mr. Hue:stone, Mr. Vi'iddicombe, Mr. Worboys, and
others, sold throe sticks a shilling at the Aunt Sally game
with most amusing energy.
Outside the ltichardsonian Theatre a " parade" of charac-
ters was kept up with unfiagiing spirit by Mews. Paul
Herring, Morelli, Boleno, and other well-tried panto-
mimist'. Inside the theatre a couple of brief pieces were
performed alternately to enraptured houses ; one called
Alfonso and Cloudier, the Faithful Spouse or the
Bated !leer; the other (written by Mr. H. J.
Byron), The Rosebud of Stingingsettle Farm, or the
Vi.f:anuto. Squire and the Virtuous Villager. Both are
broad parodies of the Bartlemy Fair and domestic drama ;
the first showing Mown. Addison and Toole in the charac-
ters of a mock Shakespearian king and a melodramatic
ruffian ; the latter giving Megan. Clarke, Garden, and Shore
an opportunity for some really funny burlesque acting.
The Payne and Lauri families did their best in the circus,
assisted by Mr. Harry Croueete. Two of the Christy Min-
strels entertained a large circle in the building; while Mr.
James Rogers, dressed as the Widow Melnotte in reduced
circumstances, drew crowd" into his booth by his plaintive
appeals, and them drily described the attitudes of three poi-
Were on a revolving table. The delighted visitors strolled
from one entertainment to another, recognised their fa-
vourites under various disguises, looked upon every close-
shaven companion as an actor, and scattered their money
freely under the intoxication of a little long looked-for
sunshine.

The same entertainments will be repeated to-day for the
benefit of the College, when a large number of visitors will
doubtless combine pleasure with charity.

EDI:, • ATION OP PA a PER CHILDREN. —On Saturday
a new act of parliament wee printed to provide for the edu-
cation and maintenance of pauper children. The object of
the statute is to give facilitie: to guardians of the poor to
provide educataen and maintenance for poor children.
Guardians may Dow send poor children to certified schools
and pay the expenses of the same, so that the sum does not
exceed the mooed which would be interred if the children
were in the workhouse. The Poor-law Board are to certify
the schools where the children may be sent, which schools
are to be open to inspection. The children may be removed,
and no child who hes a parent is to be sent without con-
sent, nor is the continuance at school to be compulsory. No
child is to be sent to any school which is conducted on the
principle of a religions denomination to which the child does
art belong.
liammrsan proposed enclosure or
a portion of Hampstead Heath is exciting some interest in
the parishes of Marylebone and St. Pancras, and for the
last week or two the subject has been under the considera-
tion of the respective weekly boards. At the council of
the former oe Saturday a resolution was carried in favour of
petitioning parliament "in opposition to another bill fur
the amendment of the Lessee and Sales of Settled Estates
Act, which would have the effect of giving the lord of the
manor, Sir T. M. Wilson, the power to *grime and build
over Hampstead Heath." A communication was read from
Mr. Harvey Lewis upon ,the subject, stating that Lord Fir-
may and himself would give in the House of Commons the
most determined opposition to this measure, and assuring
them that the metropolitan members were fully alive to the
subject.

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THE INTERNATIONAL FiLHIBMON.

We are told that " Nature abhors a vacuum fP
must it be an equally received truism that the
International Exhibition dislikes a fine day? We
had lovely weather on Saturday, perhaps the first
unadulterated summer's day of the season, and yet
the attendance at South Kensington was below the
average. To a person doing any of the overland
jouruies thither early in the afternoon, the street
panorama was the most brilliant and the liveliest
thatcould possibly be imagined. The throng of the
Strand, the crash of Piccadilly, and the brilliant
crowd of gßromptou and Rotten-row, never were
more conspicuous or exciting ; the sight was of
itself enough to reward a foreigner for his visit to
Loudon, and yet the attractive interior to which all
these busy avenues tended was less thronged than
in days when the rain came down in torrents, the
raw wind whistled through the trees, and cabmen
inexorably drew the line at parties of five for a
Hansom. These fluctuations in the attendance are
a puzzle which perplexes everybody, and nobody
more than Mr. Mayo, the able financial officer of
the Exhibition, who throws his whole energies,
bodily and mental, into the question of ways and
means. Mr. Mayo begins now to ponder a little;
to cast up the sum which is still necessary to make
a fair balance-sheet at the end, and to consider
how it is to he met. It is a question which, we
must confess, presents some difficulty ; but diffi-
culties, Lord Lyndhurst saya, are " things to be
overcome," and we do not see anything absolutely
insurmountable in the difficulties of the present
financial crisis. What is wanted is the hearty co-
operation of the leaders of the public ; and
the public interest demands that co-opera-
tion from its leaders. The interests of the
Exhibition are the interests of the public, and
for this reason, that there is now collected at Ken-
sington the greatest body of practical instruction
for the working man that was ever gathered in one
place ; and if the Exhibition should not answer to
the infallible English test, " Does it pay ?' two
evils will result : there will not have been a suffi-
cient number of working men visiting the present Ex-
hibition • and the possibility of our having another
and similar one, marking the progress of a whole
decade, will be almost extinguished. It is a disa-
greeable fact that, notwithstanding the cry
which is raised everywhere to educate the
people, the individuals who lead and com-
mand the people in whole battalions, and who
amass princely fortunes out of their organised labour,
have, as yet, taken no decided or general action
towards giving the labourer, who is so worthy of
his hire, an opportunity of learning something of
his speciality by means of a visit to the Exhibi-
tion. The Commissioners have done their part
they have issued ten shilling season tickets, which,
by the way, have produced' more money in the
first fortnight than the whole of a similar issue in
1851 • and, by the adoptionof Mr. Mayo's plan of
the shilling packages have offered every facility for
liberal purchases all over the country. But
although watching such purchases with the
greatest care, and an anxiety to give them every
publicity, very few comparatively are we enabled to
record. A few banks, led by the Bank of England,
and two or three City firms have alone as yet shown
any sign of a wish to "educate" their people. There
are at least twenty large factories in London,
employing over a thousand bands each ; there are
all the great breweries ; the great railway establish-
ments ; and the great City warehouses. There is the
railwayclearing house, which employs several hun-
dred clerks ; and we some time since read in an
article in the Quarterly Review, that the London and
North Western Company alone had an army of
10,000 men in its employment. From the sta-
tistics of a recent charitable meeting we find that
there areso,ooo porters employed in London, and
then there are the great builders—have the men,
as ai body, who built the Exhibition, been yet
treated to an Exhibition holiday ?
There has been some show made by the military
authorities of a wish to let the soldiers at the dif-
ferent camps have a day at the Exhibition, but,
when the individual "private" asks his command-
ing officer for a pass, he is called upon to show that
ho has at least 255. of bin own, and is told that he
must submit to the stoppage of his pay whilst away
from the regiment. So much has the hardship and
unreasonableness of this rule been felt,
that more than one officer baa franked
the men out of his own private re-
sources. But perhaps the most surprising fact
of all is that of the thousands of omnibus and cab
conductors and drivers who ply daily to the Ex-
hibition not one has hitherto seen its inside, and
vet what a world of good might be done
by the humanizing influence of the triumphs of art
and industry over the most intractable of the
human race ! The above are facts ; they are not cre-
ditable facts, but there is yet time to repair them.
The Exhibition has still eighty or ninety days to
run,, and, within that time, every great employer
should buy his packages of shilling tickets, and give
his people a holiday. Among the thousands who
would be thus favoured, one humble working man
might make a discovery, or have an improvement
suggested to his mind, which would in its results
on our manufactures produce a profit more
than equivalent to the whole cost of the
Exhibition. Let us hope that the few ob-
servations which we have ventured to make
will have the effect of turning the attention of the
great to the duty of helping the little and the
humble, to what will be most beneficial to the
latter, but which we fear they cannot have without
some help. The price of admission, the cost of
conveyance, and, above all, the loos of a day's hire,
are serious obstacles in the way of the working man
seeing the greatest school of works in the world ;
and it is to his employers, the men whom his labour
enables to live in a splendour which was unknown
to the patricians of old Rome, that he must look to
help him out of his difficulty.
. . . .

A season ticket, which had been improperly
transferred by a female, was on Saturday detected,
and successfully stopped and cancelled.
The highest temperature during the day, as
shown by Negretti and Zambra'a patent thermo-
meters, was at 130 p.m., when it was—in the nave,
61.6 ; in the galleries, 62.3. There was a consider-
able diminution in the temperature of the building.
The following are the total numbers admitted on
Saturday, compared with the corresponding day in
1851 :

188 t
estarday, July 19 (Hatta-Crown s Neilson ticket'
Dar 1 Payment 15,097

Tc4sl .
1861.