The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-09-14
THE above cut represents The Lilli-
putians, who will play at the Ha-

THE above cut represents The Lilli-
putians, who will play at the Ha-
waiian Opera house. beginning
on the 18th with The Geisha" for two
nights. On the Goth and 21st, THE
Belle of New York will be produced
On the 21st there will be two PERFORM
ances including matinee
The following from one of the leading
papers of India will testify to the wide
acceptance of the Lilliputians
How many people are there in Calcutta
who know that we have in our city today
one of the most unique educational in
situations that the world has even seen
a peripatetic school of over thirty pupils
that holds it's classes one week in Ran
COON, the next in Calcutta, that wanders
from Ceylon to New Zealand, and from
Tasmania to Australia. The way in
which came to know it was as follows:
l had gone to see Pollards Lilliputians
perform in the Lady Slavey," and had
gone with feeling that in all probable
lty what one would meet with would be
.lll and tedious evening, spent in COM
pairing the show to the impromptu ex-
hibitions of want Of Juvenile dramatic ca
pacity that one remembers to have wit
messed or taken part in the breaking up
meeting and school treats of ones youth.
Perhaps it might be frightened by spas
modtc bursts of cleverness, but the sug-
gestton would occur that the like may
be seen in performing animals tortured
into cieverness" as the phrase goes. At
the best, one expected to have to con-
tinually suppress the ever-recurring idea
or white mice in their wheel or the
shivering monkey collecting coppers for
his corpulent Italian. But instead we
We're presented with an example of quite
sumptuous staging and dressing. of stage
managing smart and without hitch. of
voices contralto and soprano that filled
the Opera House, of tiny mites acting
their parts as well as speaking them.
of dancing that in ,lightness, quickness,
spontaneity and grace aye and even in
finish, could not be approached by more
mature performers, and in short with an
exhibition of such brightness, cleverness,
ana naturalness that one asked in won
der how is it done. So 1 hied me to my
friend the editor and departed rejoicing
with a letter to Mr.. Pollard.
NO" said Mr. Pollard, in answer to
my question, the idea is far from new.
for it was originally started by my
father, Mr.. ]. J. Pollard as long ago as
1873, in Launceston, Tasmania when we
began 1t as family concern, for we
numbered eighteen Of ourselves. Every
cloud mas silver lining, and you see
even culver full to the teens. Our
first visit to Calcutta was paid in $50,
and in SO We were back in the Corin-
THAN and for three years subsequently,"
Where do we get our raw material !"
you ask. We'll curiously enough, from a
most limited recruiting ground Every
one of our children halls from Mel
bourne, and most of them from the five
mile radius there that includes Colling-
wood, Fitzroy and Carlton. They come
from all classes, some from respectable
parents, some from the street with no
parents"
But this locality must surely be very
exceptional one; nature must have been
particularly kind to it's little ones in the
matter of limbs and memories, and abil-
ity to use them, or is it that you exer-
else great deal of selection, and pass
many through your hands on trial for
every one that you finally present to
the public as the finished article?'
Selection, together with training, is
the secret of the high standard of clev-
erness and quickness that strikes you as
so notable. The thirty you have seen rep
resent probably some 300 that has pass
ed through my hands on trial. some for
night, some for week, some for long
er. Naturally, ours is short-service
system. for they viii keep growing, but
we never have any lack of recruits We
nave system of education of our own
carried out by the certified Government
lady teacher, Miss Forde, who accom-
panies os US all wanderings. No school
DOCKS are used at least for the younger
ones, but all their reading, writing,
parsing. spelling, Analysing and dictation
are done from the parts which they are
learning Geography, and the like, are
taught incidentally as names of towns