without attracting much attention-Englishmen are accustomed hall nigger. I walked through the streets of Boolongsurmerikoff abroad to dress rather strangely-and was soon in the court-yard of the house in which the Doo was residing. A few Indians, in the costumes of British tourists, were lounging about. Upon seeing me, they immediately threw off their outer garments and boots, seized tom-toms, and began to dance and sing. The force of nature impelled them to welcome in me not only a man but a brother. "Golly, golly!-dat you, SAMBO?" said I, in the purest Hindustani. Is de poor iddle SING in de house?" The Indians, still beating their drums with their hands, and jumping about as they sang a sort of dirge, nodded their heads affirmatively, and, by their gestures, invited me to enter. Nothing loth, I acted upon their suggestion, and found their master on the first-floor. The swarthy and portly Doo was wearing grey stockings, buff breeches, a tail-coat, a red waistcoat, a hat with a pipe stuck in it, and a shillelagh. known as it should be in England, I venture to send you a few notes that may enable you to form some conception of its characteristics. It has an excellent harbour from which the luxurious steamboats of the South-Eastern Railway can depart or arrive at any hour. This harbour will soon be replaced by one even more commodious, permitting the use of larger boats driven at a greater speed, and thus still further reducing the time in travelling from England to Russia. Boolongsurmerikoff (as the subjects of the CZAR call Moscow) is very lively. It has an excellent Casino where capital concerts and theatrical representations are given twice a day, an unrivalled plage with admirable sea-bathing and any number of pretty country drives. The hotels are of the first quality, the Meuriceski in the Rue Victorhugokoff being unquestionably the best of them. For the rest Boolong surmerikoff is filled with the cheeriest of Englishmen and the most amiable of Muscovites. "Golly, golly!-dat you, SAMBO ?" I repeated. "Yah, yah!-dat is me, Sar!" replied the Doo, for a moment off his guard; then, recollecting his assumed character, he continued, "Bedad, what de ye mane? Is it myself that ye 're afther, Masther dear ?" As I drove through the Rue Victorhugokoff to the Hotel Meuriceski, I found the street almost blocked with enthusiastic parents who were marching after their sons garbed as athletes. It appeared that the athletes (lads of eighteen or thereabouts) were going to engage in many feats of strength, including the "boxe Anglaise," in an adjacent suburb, and consequently that it was necessary that they should parade the city to the music of a band of children before starting forth on their adventures. During the day I ran across the procession breaking out in various parts of the city. Pleased at this friendly reception, I explained to the Doo that I had come over expressly to see him, to ascertain if he really was in receipt of Russian gold. "Look at that, now!" he exclaimed, with indignation that I trust was not assumed. "Is it myself that would so demane myself as to take the dhirty gould of the Saxon ?-I mane the Muscovite!" Once established in comfortable quarters, I made inquiries, and learned that I was likely to find the Doo in the Haute Ville, or high town. Warned by the want of success of the Representative of the Times, that strategy would be necessary to obtain an interview, I assumed an appropriate disguise. I put on a long-tail coat, enormous collars, gigantic boots, and singularly-patterned trousers. I wore an unusually high hat, carried a banjo. and darkened my face and hands to the tint of a Hottentot. The Doo, I was told, was got up as a stage Irishman-I would visit him in the garb of a music VOL. XCII. "I am heartily glad to learn this, your Highness," I observed. "After all the kindness you received in England, it would be a sad return were you to number yourself amongst our enemies." "What are ye spaking about?" cried the Doo. "Why do ye call me out of my name? Shure I am PAT CASEY." Without a moment's hesitation I struck up a plantation song on my banjo, and began to walk round the apartment. The Doo tried hard to restrain himself, but nature once more was too many for him. After a struggle he got up, and joined me in my quaint promenade; and when I indulged in a wild, joyous break-down, he followed my example. As he did this the Acting Edition of the Colleen Bawn fell from his pocket, and I became aware of the source of his Irish inspiration. When we were both exhausted with our energetic capers, we sat down and rested. I told the Doo that disguise was no longer possible-that I had recognised him. "Yah! yah! De ole niggar am found dis niggar out! Yah! vah!" returned His Highness, smilingly, speaking his native Hindustani for the first time, in token of submission. I explained that a great many injurious reports were afloat, thanks chiefly to his own reticence in concealing his motives. He assured me that he would have been only too pleased to have seen the Representative of the Times, if he had only approached him in the right manner, as I had done. He then promised to give me the fullest information on the morrow, if I called before twelve o'clock. With this we parted, with a second national dance, indicative of mutual esteem and goodwill. I had scarcely returned to the street when I was seized by members of the Third Section of the Russian Police, gagged, bound hand and foot and sent back to England. Representative, his communication puzzles us. [It is necessary to say that, although we have every confidence in Our under a Russian name (which we now read for the first time) although not His description of Moscow altogether unfamiliar to us, does not convey a very distinct impression of the second city of the Czar's dominions. He appears to have found the Maharajah a specimen of the Ethiopian race rather than an Asiatic, which is contrary to fact, as DHULEEP SINGH is not at all like a negro. The abrupt conclusion is also confusing. It is right to add that until we received this letter, we were under the impression that Our Representative was spending the Whitsuntide holidays at Boulogne.-ED.] BB ESOP IN PARLIAMENT. No. II.-THE WOODMAN AND THE AXE. A POLITICAL Woodman went to his party-leaders to axe them to give him a handle to his name. It seemed so modest a request, that the Principal leaders at once agreed to it, and it was settled among them that the House of Peers was likely to be much elevated in tone by such a recruit. No sooner had the Woodman fitted himself with a title, than he began laying about him on all sides, aiming particularly nasty blows at his former friends. The G.O. M.. now seeing the whole matter rather too late, exclaimed "The first concession has lost all. If we had not yielded to his original axing so readily, he would not have turned out such an ungrateful feller." Moral.-Morals don't apply to politics. Hardwicke. NewS takes. Woke-king-ham-handy cap. Hunt Cup. NAVAL MANŒUVRES. Ir would be difficult to find a gloomier play, and one less worthy of the genius LYCEUN LONDON of its author, than Werner, and it is therefore a great tribute to the dramatic as There is nothing in it for Miss ELLEN TERRY, who strengthened the cast by taking the part of Josephine, "the wife of Werner, "" "GIRLS AND BOYS, COME OUT TO-PLAY!" explained in the bills, "for this occasion only." [Mr. Irving opens his Theatre for a Jubilee performance Miss to the London Children.] EMERY played Ida. Mr. ALEXANDER deserved the enthusiastic approbation of the audience by his powerful performance of Ulric, a difficult and ungracious part. It is interesting to note the influence of the master mind on the imitative faculty, as over and over again we see Mr. ALEXANDER unconsciously reproducing the gait, tone, and manner of Mr. IRVING, and Miss EMERY reflecting Miss TERRY-"as in a looking-glass,"with a difference. No better man than Mr. WENMAN could be found for Gabor, the rough, honest, but unlucky soldier of fortune, who spends a considerable portion of his brief hour on the stage in wandering about dark subterranean passages, as if he were on a sanitary expedition examining the London sewers, and had taken a wrong turning by mistake. As the "Aughty Baron," who is described in the playbill as Usurping Werner's rights," Mr. GLENNY took Ir having been reported that, spite the profession of care to remind us that this was not a modern melodrama, but one of the good the Intelligence Department that they will have com-old sort, of which The Castle Spectre may be taken as a type. plements equal to all demands, there will be great Mr. IRVING'S Weird Werner was wonderful. It is a figure that will haunt pressure on the occasion of the forthcoming Naval Re-us whenever we venture on a hearty supper of lobster, Welsh-rabbit and Bisview, and that the crews of the Indian troopships will MARCK's mixture of Champagne and stout "in a moog." As we do not often be depleted, that Marine Artillery will be largely em- indulge in this, the weird figure, will not haunt us much. But his performance ployed as blue-jackets, and that the officers and men of was a memorable one, and what was weary reading became absorbing beyond the gunnery and torpedo schools, which will be temall anticipation in action. porarily closed, will be distributed among the Fleet, it is now announced that still further efforts will be made by the Authorities to grapple with the necessities of the occasion. It is rumoured that three of Her Majesty's ironclads, for which no crews can be found, will be manned entirely by members of the Metropolitan Police Force, who, for the purpose of putting them thoroughly on their sea-legs, will meantime be taken several passages to Boulogne and back by the long sea-route. Arrangements have also been entered into by the Admiralty Authorities with Messrs. GATTI for the loan of the principal naval characters out of Harbour Lights, to whom, on their joining, important posts will be at once assigned. It is contemplated, also, to supply the deficiency of hands experienced in the torpedo fleet by calling out all the half-pay Admirals on the Retired List, which it is calculated will supply a reserved force of veterans who, if a little new to the work, will still be found of considerable use in the contemplated emergency. Leading commands have been offered to, and accepted by, several Captains of the London Penny Steamboat Company, and it is understood that the Stewards of the Channel Services have volunteered in large numbers to fill the higher officers' grades that would otherwise have had, of necessity, to have been left vacant. Altogether, strenuous efforts are being made at head-quarters, and it is confidently hoped that, though the crews of the respective ships may prove to be of rather a cosmopolitan character, yet the Fleet as a whole will, if matters progress favourably, be found to be nearly fully half manned by the date fixed for the holding of the Review. THE QUESTION OF THE DAY.-" Where shall I see the Procession from ?" and perfectly audible voice, made one of the most graceful touching and unAfter the play Dr. WESTLAND MARSTON came before the curtain and in a clear affected speeches we ever heard from the stage on any similar occasion. It is a sad thing to have to send round the hat, but it is lucky to have a hat to send round, and still more so to possess so generous and thorough-going a friend to urge the appeal as Mr. HENRY IRVING. The result must have been most gratifying. LIGHTING UP. SIR,-Excellent, in a measure, from an economical point of view, as is the Duke of WESTMINSTER'S suggestion of a house-to-house "candle-in-window" illumination, it seems to me that the effect of a general rejoicing could be just as readily conceived at an infinitely reduced outlay. Surely the display of a nightlight over the hall-door, say, of every sixth house, would answer all the purpose, and be, moreover, a worthy and appropriate commemoration of those royal domestic savings for which the fifty years of HER MAJESTY'S glorious reign have been so justly celebrated. The effect, perhaps, would not be very great, but the expense would be confined within reasonable limits, which, even at the zenith of a Royal Jubilee, is a matter for the consideration of Your obedient Servant, A HALFPENNY SAVED. SIR,-What is wanted in London on the night of the 21st is a universal blaze everywhere; and this can only be insured by the permanent installation of the electric light. Gigantic search-lights should be at once planted in all directions, dynamos set up in every street, and squares, thoroughfares, and parks flooded simultaneously with the brightness of day. To give the display its full moral effect, the whole gas supply of the Metropolis should be entirely cut off. Thus the Illumination would be symbolical of the material progress effected during the fifty eventful years of HER MAJESTY'S glorious reign-a circumstance that would much gratify Yours, obediently, A SHAREHOLDER IN FIVE "ELECTRIC" COMPANIES. legitimate way of illuminating the Metropolis, and And this should be done regardless of cost. Every with jets, and every monument and public building SIR,-There is only one that is obviously by gas. street should be festooned out-lined. Colossal reflecting lamps might also be set up in the Parks. The outlay could be charged to the rates. No electric lighting should be for a moment allowed to interfere with the effect, and this would be in harmony with the traditions of the Royal Jubilee Year crowning the glorious fifty during which the Great Gas Companies have so luxuriantly flourished to their own benefit and that of the public. At least, Sir, that is the opinion of Yours faithfully, A DIRECTOR OF THREE. SIR, Here is an imperial idea. Why should not the entire male population of the Metropolis turn out on the night of the 21st inst, in illuminated hats. These could be obtained cheaply wholesale, and might be embellished on one side with the Royal Arms, and on the reverse with the programme of the six weeks Italian Opera Season now about to commence at Drury Lane. Take my word for it, the effect of such a crowd would be enormous. It would make a real big thing of the Jubilee festivities. Yours confidently, AUGUSTUS HARRIS. SIR,-I have been thinking that no more effective, and, I should say, popular, method of illumination could be devised for the celebration of HER MAJESTY's Jubilee, than the erection of a series of colossal transparencies, portraying in historical picture the progress of those great Liberal principles the triumphant development of which are universally accepted as its most distinguishing feature. The subject matter for these might be drawn freely from the public career of a prominent statesman, whom I feel I need not further indicate. I might add that the incidents of a recent journey to Wales would be alone sufficient to line one side of Piccadilly, and, indeed, the material I could supply to the artists engaged on the work would in effect prove inexhaustible. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, W. E. GLADSTONE. SIR,-A few tons of dynamite judiciously distributed between Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, the various Government Offices, and Public Buildings, and fired simultaneously by electricity from College Green, would probably recommend itself as the most popular way of celebrating the Jubilee to those who take any interest in the movement on this side of the Irish Channel. However, I don't suppose the idea will be adopted; but I merely throw it out for what it is worth. Yours nationally, A DUBLIN Boy. SIR,-Any proposal to illuminate London will be incomplete without the ascent of a fireballoon. Why should not several ascend from the Royal Exchange at midnight, and take up, in turns, the LORD MAYOR and several of the leading Aldermen ? The effect, as an apotheosis, would be striking, and it would not matter where they came down. Such, I am sure, would be the judgment of those who, like your Correspondent, are able to subscribe themselves as members of THE MUNICIPAL REFORM LEAGUE. SIR,-Bonfires will be wanted on the Twenty-First, and what more appropriate sites could be found than those occupied by the London Statues? Let these then be tarred and feathered forthwith, surrounded by pitch and fagots, and kindled on the evening in question at a given signal. I can conceive no blaze more symbolic of the progress of HER MAJESTY's reign than that which would hand over to destruction the hideous effigies that have so long defaced it. I am, Sir, yours, &c., ARS LONGA. SIR,-Do you want a general illumination? On the evening of the 21st, after dark, give every house-front, cab, omnibus, policeman, and pedestrian in the Metropolis a thorough good coat of luminous paint. Then turn out the gas-and there you are. Yours thoughtfully, COLNEY HATCH. TO PHOEBUS APOLLO. AN EXPOSTULATION, JUNE 3RD, 1887. "I WILL remember and express the praise Of Heaven's far-darter, the fair King of days.". So sings great Homer of the great Apollo. But in this current Eighteen Eighty Seven, His panegyric on the light of Heaven," Seems hard to follow. Where is the bright far-darter? That's light ? Great Scott! rushlight, Brush" The flaring of a farthing Takes the shine out of it. 'Tis June, and in the year of Jubilee, Our Sun's a taper. |