The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-07 00:00:00

SUN OFFICE, HALF-PAST 4 O'CLOCK.

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

The Officiul .Tournal of Warsaw states that in
the districts of Zamosc and of Hrubleszow there are
no longer any considerable bands of insurgents to
be seen ; but small detachments make their appear-
ance from time to time marching towards the
fron tier.

The People's Theatre---alias the Britannia
Theatre, Hoxton,

findingthe por ti‘ail
sn B. cr ibe
Lane,d h‘ epxr-oepnrtireat
proprietor
ea,
n"
aw
me wereaa
(From the Queen )
notr.
e
Entering
long n
.Ikhintddl.ygivterneahteifml buyotticheisogreonutrleptc:npos7a
vaisfet,rmanedr
mana-
ger of bath theatre and Laver,, welting to receive us. Day-
iotchegceasbhle(o)ensn,:at able good-nature With which he received 118
made me very glad that I had done so. lie at once led the
way, through the handsome, well-appointed tavern, into
the theatre. As we passed the money-taker's place we
noticed that the prices were set at the moderate rate of 25,-
for a seat in the stage-boxes ; ls. for the boxes and stalls ;
bese
pit, 6d ; lower gallery, 4d. ; and upper gallery 3d. There
is half-price to the boxes, pit,, and gallery,
.i
.a beginning.
at eight and half-past eightoc
up thelock respectively,
stairs
and ]o
bb .l ll
bi and
g first, the
s
almost unadorned solidity of the building ; secondly, the
leading performances
overnrgm ainn teboeys theeleven.t e gil
house, A s
w e every
we
e'rening at ha
passed
could not help noticing
ample width and commodiousness of the passages, affording
the easiest means of rapid exit and entrance to the large
audience which this theatre is capable of containing ;thirdly,
the scrupulously cleanly state in which everything was
kept ; and, fourthly, the excellent ventilation. Those qua-
lities are, moreover, equally noticeable all through the
theatre. The auditorium (as Mr, Boucicault has it) was as
fresh and cool at the end of the evening—having been
it oc-
cupied all the time by a very numerous audience—aswas
at the beginning. The decorations of the lobbies and stair-
cases are very simple—the brickwork being left quite bare

of plaster, L;rd Palmerston's favourite stucco, or imitation
marble. A few sky-borders (as they are technically termed),
imitating umbrageous foliage, and lighted up with coloured
oil lamps, are the only decoration employed, and they have
a very fresh and tasty effect.
Mr. Lane ushered us into a very confortable stage-box,
whence a very good view of the audience could be obtained.
The reader who hears of the Britannia for the first time,
may be surprised at hearing that the salle is nearly as
large as Drury-lane, and; that it will hold 4,000 people,
exclusive of babies in arms. Nor must it be supposed
that these extra little—vocalists, not auditors—make un
insignificant addition to the sum of human souls who enjoy
ttihmeiers,evineannini:: under Mr. Lane's auspices. If their pre-
sence and numbers were not made everywhere, and at all
by the cries and demonstrations around
you, the playbill itself must call attention to the important
part which they play at the Britannia Theatre. " Persons
bringing children," enjoins that document, " must please
keep them quiet, or take them out of the theatre; the
public complaining of the obstruction to the acting." The
audience generally seemed to be composed of what poli-
tical writers call the lower middle classes, small shop-
keepers, and the better kinds of artificers, with their wives
and families. Comparing this with former experience at
other cheap theatres, we saw no ill-inanners, heard no chaf-
fing, saw no symptom even of a brawl or of a drunkard,
nor any blackguard smoking a pipe
with his coat off.
Indeed, if the truth must be spoken, we have seldom seen a.
West-end audience behave with such uniform good temper
and good taste as the audience al; the People's Theatre, Hoz-
ton. They laughed when they ought to do, and melted to
tears at the proper places. Not once in the evening did we
eevehnouceoems,moift
thhe
ea r
vt
uh
ac
Lryt ,y "s
oT uc ronmhmi mo n o
aut t
mon
roer
fdaisdh
itohneayb
cheering and "jollying" the footmen when they came on to
clear the stage, a witticism which a West-end audience sel-
dom omits. Indeed, a greater contrast than between this
large body of decent, orderly/people, and the ramping, roar-
ing, swearing, swilling, and odoriferous audience of the
New Cut, it would be difficult to imagine. The difference
between the people who occupied the various parts of the
house was not very perceptible to the unassisted vision; in-
deed I question whether it consisted of much beyond the
willingness of some to pay a shilling and others but six-
pence. The playbill informed us that "no person" could
be "admitted to boxes or stalls unless suitably attired,"
but I failed to discover any very remarkable standard of suit-
ability, seeing that cloth caps were as common wear in the
stalls as in the pit, and that babies in arms squalled, as if
aroused therato by the big drum, right under the shadow of
the footlights. In answer to a question put by myself, Mr.
Lane replied that the audiences by no means came exclu-
sively from the neighbourhoods immediately surrounding.
" Oh I they come from much farther than Charing-cross, I
can assure you vwe have families come five or six miles;
from Greenwich and Woolwich, -and from Hackney and
the East India Docks, and sometimes out of Essex."

The house itself has a handsome ornate appearance, as
well decorated, in every respect, as need be. The lighting

comes from a number of small gaseliers, suspended from
the ceiling. Mr. Lane recommended us, before addressing

_
ourselves to a careful consideration of the performances, to
take a tour of inspection, through which he very kindly
conducted us. " Behind the scenes" (that region so fairy.
like and so desirable to the imaginative younggentlemantg
who has never penetrated it, and so commonplace
limits)
ce to al
who have ever wandered within its sacred
we found everything as like the same kind of thing
West-end theatre as it was possible to be.
Thekind of car-
mp
aiawntslaeendi o ni a-
flats and flies and slots and grooves ; the same
in the wings
same miannethofe
penters (vulgarly called scene-shifters) lurkingaar
fierce looking
and down in the mezzonine floor;
tarlatans, flit.
their breeches; similar fairies in t
heroes, mustachioed, feathered, red-legged and
tigthat the latter displayed
ting and sparkling about. It is true
at dand slashed as to
sight of strangers
the
than the nonchalant
young ladies
have done but this was, in
a little more emotion and surpdrita'ssein
the employment of Mr.
Gye and Mr. Mapleson wouast,
so we thought—to tho pre-
our case, attributable—
Girls are so fond of in,.
fants you know.
roperty rooms, we found active pre-
In the paintingand
sense of our juvenile
Pon for the Christmas pantomime.
profusion with gorgeous
parations already goingappearance and Dutch-metal glories,
ofgrotesque '
intended
3. : n
s n e
ato
shs
oublredea:dvuoe
mur
Masks tify the Bower of Bliss, or the Region of
£l,OOO upon his
Calm Delight, triumphal cars of wondrous splendour.
Pantomime, and I have no doubt of it. Nor do
sky-borders
s that he was spending
hconling pan
even at the small prices charged, a .that he will be well repaid ; for the house, when
fort
hun-
dred pounds.
But the most interesting part of the Whole establishment
to us all was certainly the large refreshment room on the
ground floor. As exemplifying some of the best features of
a refectory, intended for hungry people to refresh them-
selves with good and simple food, and at reasonable charges,
I Leg respectfully to recommend this to the notice of the
filled, will
doubtvlill ,
lessees of some of our more fashionable theatres. It is true
that the shelves were not laden with so many gilt bottles,
inscribed with the unpronounceable names of impossible

liqueurs, as one is accustomed to see; and Imu admit
that I missed the attenuated but indurated sandwiches,
placed under bell-glasses, as if to make them grow bigger;
and the quarters of pork-pie, and the fossil sponge-cakes
and sausage rolls, and the acidulated drops, and the other
iimdesirable and indigestible condiments to which the West-
ti.ld theatre-goer is compelled to habituate himself. But,
as some compensation, there were vast dishes full of hand-
some substantial sandwiches of beef and ham, neatly made,
of capital meat and bread of unexceptionable whiteness.
The price of these sandwiches (one of which would be ample
supper for a man of moderate appetite, whilst two would
gorge an ogre) is twopence each. These were flanked with
freshly made pies of veal and ham ; huge wedges of bread,
supporting large slices of rich golden Cheshire or double
Gloucester; heaps of savoury polonies, and bushels of
apples, oranges, and nuts. I saw no spirits vended in the
refectory, and believe that those who want them must go
outside the theatre, to the tavern, to obtain them ; but the
.
beer engine was in active work, pouring forth potent fleocaub:
of capital foaming porter and beer, and, for the
stemious, there was quite an army of ginger bee
I with their corks carefully tied down. rboorttleg

TURIN, Dec. 4.—Tile president oftbe Council
has presented to the Chamber a bill oproviug o
Foncier
the convention relative to the Credit
en-
tered into with M. Fremy. The bill was referred.

to the bureaux.
ose of a man not
FATHER AND SON.—Tlieun
til he was 50 years
The story is told by
Leo Motions of West," the pain-
Leslie in his agreeable “rra
osledttiisupgroebyaeblayowniti.lhiosu°t WnB°lniel.
ling to America he left his
ter's father. On hiso died shortly after giving birth to a
son, whom his fatlarde. The painter was one of the
wife in England, :1
first saw ou his return to his nativo
land 50 years af:ily, horn in America.—Notes and Queries.
second wife's fondly,
o nt heotl, 2t
itiiel
STEAMER BURNT.—The steamer
AN Ag6it
Nov., brought ,
burning of the
to Olir° 'do about 5 o'clock in the morning of the
er SailnY'l
steam •
Glevegow
t Island No. 16, 26 miles below New Madrid.
yoshe
13th oPr ;lifer °pinta ul‘fluelml)his intelligence
Shehad a large ptissenger list and a heavy freight on board.
•
Anionl, •
, the latter were 1,383 bales cotton, which, with the
boat, were totally destroyed, The boat caught fire front
sparks from the chimney, whieh igniLd the cotton. She
was rim ashore, and her eliginc=r, were kept working to hold
her to the bank. The exit from the boat being insufficient,
many of her passengers were obliged to jump overboard.
several of whom were drowned. The scene is described as •
most terrible. Of 13 female passengers, only four escaped,
and of eight children six were lost. About 30 pas,engers in
all were drowned or burnt. The boat's book and the money
on board were lost. The Glasgow brought the survivors
here, most of whom lost everything they possessed,--ileio
York Herald.