Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-05-15
He RIDICULED SOCIETY.

Effect of Famous Parlor Entertainers
Satires Upon England's "Upper Ten"
Almost romantically sad were the
deaths of, first, Mr.. Alfred German Reed,
then Corney Grain, then Mrs. German
Reed, who, with her husband, started
the famous entertainment so long ago,
and who so long before our fathers were
born was known as ''the lovely and ac-
complished Priscilla Horton. -
Only few weeks before he died
met Mr.. Corney Grain at dinner, the
entertainment being given only on alter
nate nights. He was complaining laugh
ingly of overwork when his brother Ga
balTister, as Mr.. Corney Grain used to
be) said across the table: "You
Oughtn't to complain, my dear fellow.
Work evidently doesn't hurt you You
look as though you wouldn't know how
tc die" I had little talk with him
after dinner. He told me that he nearly
always composed everything for himself,
and many of the things which had made
the greatest ''hits" had first been
thought out during railway journeys.
81 got in the habit of thinking that
what I wrote when I was travelling
would turn out well and used to think
it lucky to work then"
(Which do you prefer" asked him,
''giving your songs and piano illustra-
tions before an audience at the theater
OR during somebody's evening at
smart private house?"
"Oh, if there is anything dread and
hate in the world, it is singing and try
ing to entertain lot of smart people in
a drawing room. Charles Mathews once
said that the stalls represented a sort Of
icy river separating an actor from his
real audience. Now, smart people,
though individually they may be all
that is warm hearted, intelligent and
delightful, collectively they are ice
nothing but ice They are too self con-
scious i'll each others society tosdisplay
the faintest hint of enthusiasm, and SO
by their deadly impassivity they dull
the poor entertainers magnetism. He
has no vital spark to give out after the
first half hour or so. And the smart
people haven't got their moneys
worth!' p
Although Corney Grain called him
self ''poor entertainer" he was in re-
ality of good family and welcomed ev-
erywhere in the best houses, not as an
entertainer, for what he could do, but
for what he was, and i'll his private Ca
pacity. Strangers who knew nothing of
his family could hardly be induced to
believe that Corney Grain was not
nom de theatre, but was i'll reality his
own given name. So it was, however,
for he had been christened "Corney"
from the maiden name of his paternal
grandmother, who, I believe, brought
some money to the exchequer Of the
Grains.
eff you dislike singing in drawing
rooms" 1 said, sat least you have talk
en- revenge over and over again upon So
ciety in your illustrations.
eyes; chaff it little in it's strong
holds" he laughed, ''but it doesn't
matter to the people I'm satirizing to
their faces-I wouldn't do it only be-
hind their backs, you know. There I
sit, banging the piano and saying the
rudest things I know how by way of
amusing Or offending them. But they
are talking away at the time, asking
each other who's married and who's
dead and telling each other all about the
latest scandal. They don't know what
I've been saying or singing, not bit of
it, though when I've done they all smile
and applaud and remark that really
am very clever.
''Not only, though, do you chaff May
fair" I said, "but I've heard you at st.
Georges hall scoffing at middle class
affectations and Puritanism and all sorts
of things"
"Well, 1 dislike humbug in all
FORMS" he replied, ''and perhaps the
best way of showing it up is to make
people laugh at it. At any rate, that is
the only way can make step toward
reform, and fear, after all, am but
sham cynic, and my friends have found
me out. boston Transcript.
The astonishing and fnhuman poss1Dll-
ity of building up living animals from
parts of several animals has been dem
onstrated by Dr.. G. Born, German
physiologist. The experiments were
made with tadpoles and other larvae Of
amphibians. Each of these were cut in
two, and different parts were placed to-
gether i'll various ways, when some Of
them united, the hinder more readily
than the fore parts. Two hinder parts,
each with or without a heart, united
in "a hours, the monstrosity living and
growing for week or more. .-Newcastls
Chronicle.