MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 622, 18 June 1891, Page 2

MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

[By BTAKDABD SFBOUt CoBBSSFONDENJ—- “ Boccaccio.”] Juno 2. Sarah Bernhardt's appearance is the talk of the town. It has been what Mr Lilywiok in Nicholas Nickleby called “ an absorbing, profound and tumultuous success.” The house was filled within five minutes of the opening of the doors, but there was neither crowding nor confusion, All the reserved seats had been sold ten days before, and the management refused to permit any tickets for unreserved places to he sold until the evening of the performance, Consequently the specutora werd disappointed and the public lighted. The cheering was loud and long

and renewed again and again when Sarah Bernhardt stepped upon the stage. Sbn was evidently impressed by the warmih of her welcome, and the situation was growing rather trying when a lad in the gallery called out “we are glad to see you Sarah.” Thon the great artist broke into a laugh, and the house tittered and everybody settled down to see what was admitted to be the finest dramatic performance ever witnessed in tbe city. There were many hundreds present who could not believe they would really enjoy a performance in “a foreign language,” as they phrased it, and apparently understood Sarah Bernhardt so well that they felt like accomplished French scholars before the play was over. Indeed the perfect naturalne.-s of her acting, the grace of het manner, the depth of he- grief, and the charm of her joy, and the pathos of her death could not have appealed more possibly to the hearts of the audience if she had spoken in their mother tongue. She speaks the language of the heart and all there understood that.

In person Madame Sarah Bernhardt is bet little above tbe middle height. She is much plumper than of yore, her slenderness was phenomenal, but she is only just gracefully rounded now and is quite girlish in figure. She wears elegant, costumes, but they ere not by any means the most noticeable thing in her get up, and indeed it is a question if they attract much attention from anybody except ing from the extraordinary woman who do paragraphs, or gush about millinery in the society papers. Her ball drees in the fourth act is the only exception. This in its quiet magnificence was worthy of a princess. Ii was composed of thick pink gauze, exquisitely embroidered in gold, with a long train of rich black satin lined with pink satin and trimmed inside with pink ostrich feathers, and outside with a full border of ostrich feathers. The corsage blazed with diamonds, and a diamond arrow fastened the black satin ties which crossed it. Otherwise she wore few ornaments, one clasp in her hair lasting the evening through. It may interest the public to know that the receipts of the house were £Bl4.

It looks very much as if Sir Henry Parkes was going to be unseated over the Federation business. He had, it is true, abandoned all idea of pressing the bill through during the present session before his recent defeat gave him one of the smartest checks he has had during his political career. But that only makes his defeat more significant. It. is a real vote of a want of confidence carried in bis teeth after be had deferred to the wishes of the House concerning his Federation policy. Thus his favorite project of female suffrage is relegated to the limbo of impracticable crazes, and the whole of his policy is traversed. That he will gain a seat in the Assembly is likely enough, although by no means certain, but that he will head a Government Is by no means probable. Tbe fact is that he has a'ways been a tyrant to his colleagues, and that men like McMillan and Bruce Smith are not to be bullied without taking the opportunity to retaliate. It is just on the cards he may succeed iu exciting the Country against the Town, but that is about hie last chance. Neither of his opponents in the Cabinet are popular, in fact the only man in the Ministry who is really respected, is Mr Brunker, and he is understood to be about as much opposed to the proposed Federation as a theory, but everybody objected to the Bill whereby it is proposed to accomplish it. So far as New South Wales is concerned nothing will be done for a year at the very latest.

Mr Munro’s position is decidedly shaky and a general election is by no means an unlikely contingency. Had the New South Wales Parliament supported Federation, the old familiar argument against swapping horses while crossing a stream would have been effectually trotted out, but tbe Ministerial crisis in New South Wales has cut the ground from under his feet. The support promised by Messrs Gillies, Daakin, and Wrizon to the Government, only extends to the Federa tion question. On all other issues they are of course quite free to oppose him, and they have many old scores to wipe out. It he try to keep Federation in the foreground, he will be met with the palpable stop that federation without New South Wales would be a sham. If he drop it he loses thq. last barrier between himself and a vote of censure.

Another grave blunder has been made by the Board of Works, which declines topurebase the only available dredge in Australasia, for the purpose of clearing the fourth channel, on the plea that the work is only worth £20,000, while the New Zealand Otago Harbor Board counts £27,000 for the dredge. There is nothing in the argument, which is as silly as it would be for a baker to refuse to build an oven because the cost nf it would be more than the price of all the bread it would hold. Meanwhile trade is impeded, and what is s’ill worse is diverted by the difficulty large ships experience in coming to their berths. Sydney has a far larger shipping trade than Melbourne already, and if her Railway Managers were astute, might at this juncture contrive to get most of the trade of Riverine into their hands. A very small concession of this kind could add fifty per cent to her imports and exports if not to the project thereon.

At last the Government has taken in hand the neede of the unemployed ; five large contracts for draining portions of the Koomerup swamp have been given out, which will, between them, employ three hundred men at least, and the railway department are going to have a hundred men employed at stone breaking for a couple of months. These atepa were only taken just in time, and they will have to bo followed up promptly if distress is not to become chronic.

All the theatres were crammed on Saturday night, and the Town Hall had an enormous audience, headed by the Governor, to -welcome Ernest Hutchinson, who bids fair to become a second Charles Ha'le. He is really an admirable pianist, with a clear, steady even touch, great facility of fingering, and a firm fine tone, which enables him to bring out the beauties of the pieces be essays exquisitely. Eis performance of Beethoven s moonlight sonata was wonderfully good.