The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-09 00:00:00

Adelphi Theatre.

Last evening a farce, entitled " My Wife's Maid,"
which, if not very new as far as plot is concerned,
was highly comic, and produced universal merri-
ment. Lysimachus Tootles (Mr. Toole), a weak
young man with romantic tendencies, has acciden-
tally met in Battersea-park Barbara Perkins, a
sentimental maid-servant, with a firm faith in des-
tiny (Mrs, Mellon). Tootles having conceived a
passion for Barbara, introduces himself to her under
the romantic pseudonym of De Ravensbourne; while
the maid-servant, equally romantic in her tendon•
oies, parts with her new lover under the high.
sounding title of Mount Paddington. Meanwhile
Tootles is compelled by his respectable father,
Tootles, senior (Mr. Paul Bedford), to pay court to
Lucinda (Miss Seaman), and, reluctantly visiting
at her house, discovers in Barbara Perkins,
the maid-servant, no other than his adored Miss
Mount Paddington. The plot is further com-
plicated by the furious jealousy of Capt. Crack-
thorpe Cruncher (Mr R. Phillips), a blustering
military gentleman. Barbara Perkins, alias Mount
Paddington, at the time of her first interview with
Tootles, alias De Ravensbourne, had attired herself
without authority in her mistress's apparel, and a
very exact description of a dress with 16 flounces
and other articles belonging to Mrs Cruncher, brings
the insane jealousy of the captain down upon the
weak and vacillating Tootles. Al!, however, is
eventually cleared up, and both Tootles and Barbara
being cured of their romantic sentiments, the for-
mer is reconciled to the lady whom his father hes
chosen for him, while Barbara resolves to bestow
her affections on her original lover, a respectable
grocer.

Mr. Toole—" glorious Paul"—and Mrs. Mellon
did their best for the author, and the result was an
undoubted success. Everybody laughed heartily at
the mock heroics of the would-be romantic lovers,
and at the fall of the curtain the applause was
general and enthusiastic.

LORD DUNDREARY AT BADEN.—The following
story is told in a letter from Baden :—‘, It seems
that Mr Sothern passed through here a few days ago, but,
as I need not tell you, nobody but his intimate friends re-
cognised, in the quiet gentleman in mufti, the amusing
'fellow' of the Haymarket. So Mr Sothern went his way
unbored, for monstrari digito' is a bore when one is look-
ing for peace and quiet. When he had gone away it got
rumoured at the rooms that he had just arrived there, and
the very same evening, during the performance of the band,
there was a general exclamation of There he is I' as an
unlucky resemblance, not to the actor, but to the character,
lounged unconsciously up to the portico and sat down.
Yes, there he was, with glass and whiskers, dressed in a
Cochin China coat, and looking exactly like the ' Dun-
dreary' so familiar to all the English, and even to many of
the Continentalista here. One English family—father,
mother (both wearing spectacles), two daughters, and a son
from college—were in agonies of delight. The unfortunate
man dropped his hat, and they were in fits. Entering the
Conversation House, he stumbled over the step, and they
were in raptures. Now, Mrs 8.,' says 8., I did promise
I would not enter that nasty playroom, but I am dashed if
I must not go and see that chap lose his money. We have
reason to believe that the embargo was taken off for •that
night only. Tho victim of this unwilling plagiary has fled,
and it will ever remain a mystery if ho knew the great role
he has filled here."

COLONEL M'MURISO'S DISASTER,—A "London
Irish Volunteer," writing to a contemporary with
reference to the destruction of Colonel A.l'Murdo's mansion,
with its valuable contents, by fire, suggests that every
brother volunteer should at once come to the front, and give
a general salute, in some substantial shape, to their gallant
inspecting officer, Colonel fil'hlurdo, for the purpose of
presenting to him a testimonial that shall, in some de-
geee, console him for the terrible loss ho has sustained
by the destruction of everything that must be dear to an
English officer, viz , his well and dearly earned honours.'.
"We muster now," adds the writer, " nearly 200,000,
and surely wo can testify our respect for and admiration
of the gallant colonel to any desired extent.

A Young man, only 19 years of age, the son of a
physician, committed suicide yesterday in the Chauss6e-
des-Martyrs, by shooting himself with a pistol. Though
the ball severely fractured the skull, the unfortunate youth
survived three hours, and his only regret seemed to be the
grief which his desperate act would cause his parents. It
is said that his mind had become affected by exoebsive de-
votedness to the study of spiritualise,,,