The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-06-26

he was greatly interested profusion
OF notes lay before him where he sat In
the House of Lords. He caught the Lord
Chancellor's eye, solemnly rose up. ar
ranged his notes, cleared his throat, and
sat down without even uttering a sylla-
bic. He never tried again.
A curious story is printed regarding the
Duke Of York. 1t AYERS in January a
beVy of four beautiful Oriental maidens
arrived at York House and announced
themselves as a present from certain
dusky potentate. The Prince of Wales
son dd not desire to offend the giver, yet
he could scarcely accept, SO. in some way
or another, the ma:dens were returned
ard there was no offense
Not ocly theatrical circles. but the
Whole of London, is amused and inter-
ested by the exciting controversy between
the celebrated dramat.st, w S. trlbert.
and Jennette Steer, the American act
ress. Just before the latter produced two
of his plays at the Comedy Theater last
week, Mr.. Gilbert retired from the stage
management and in a Gilbertan letter
repudiated all responsibility for the forth
coming production. The plays, however,
were produced June Nth and proved most
successful, but Gilbert does not feel dis
posed to let the matter rest and wrote
| Miss Steer as follows:
Madame: / further understand that
mess as arranged by me, and as it was
played under my direction by Mrs. Ken
dali, M SIS Anderson, Mss Rose Leclerk
and indeed. by every other lady who has
played Galatea under my stage manage
ment during the last twenty-eight years.
| must ask you to advance and kneel in
| front Of Cynisca from her left, not from
her right; to throw yourself on your
knees in front of her without any excla.
nation; to fan at Cynisca's feet and not
on any account to cross Pygmalion, or,
| indeed do any business not arranged at
rehearsal. If you do not comply with my
wishes in these respects, l will apply for
an injunction to prevent your playing the
piece, or otherwise, as | may be advised"
The next day Gilbert wrote again:
Il understand you interpolated several
exclamatiops last night while Miss Rep
| ton was delivering her important speech
| at the end of the second act Of 'Pygma-
| lion and Gaiatea, thereby greatly i'm
! pairing the effect Of that speech and
| causing it TO be indistnct and confused
| AS this was not done at rehearsal. had
no clue to your intention. or l should
| have cautioned you before this. AS it is,
! must direct your attent on to the ne
| cessty of keeping silence during the de-
! livery of the important speech in ques-
! ton. As, unfortunately, experience has
| taught me that a mere request of mine
| is not likely to receive much considera-
! ticn at your hands. l have instructed
| Miss Repton how to deal with the diff
| Guilty should it arise again. My instruc-
| tons to her are to stop short at the
| first interruption, remain silent until the
Interruption ceases, and then begin again.
! Should the interruption be repeated she
| is again 10 stop until the annoyance
| ceases altogether
i Miss Steer writes that the real differ
ence of op Mon resultir in MIR. Gilberts
ebullition arose from quite another mat
| ter. When arranging W tn Mr.. Gilbert for
the production of the two plays. ques-
| tion which he made an imperative con-
| dition at that time was not to engage
Miss Repton, who, apparently, is a pro-
tege, for the part of Gym sea.
| "On Wednesday evenir g I requested
her to wear the wig provided for the
| part aud she curtly refused, whereupon
Mr.. Gilbert interIered and vehemently
stated he would not allow her to disfig-
| ure herself by wearing a wig. After
some emphatic expressions of opinion,
| Mr.. Gilbert left the theator."
Aside from this, theatrical matters
| have been dull and the managers are al
| ready talking of closing.
| 9 The Princess of Wales who is a regl,-
| lar attendant at Covent Garden, sum-
moned Mr.. Maurice Grau Tuesday and
/ congratulated him on the success of the
| opera season.