THE EXPERT IN EXCELSIS.
The invitation to Mr. Arthur Brock, the well-known pyrotechnist, to express his opinion of Stravinsky's orchestral fantasia, "Fireworks," on the occasion of its second performance at Queen's Hall on the 28th inst., has, we are delighted to learn, been fruitful of a series of similar invitations, not only in the sphere of music but also in the domain of art and letters.
Thus we understand that the place of the ordinary musical critic of The Times will be taken at the next performance of Parsifal by Mr. Waterer, the great floricultural expert, and Mr. Devant, the eminent conjurer, with a view to their contributing their impressions of the flower maidens and the methods of the magician Klingsor respectively.
Similarly, on the occasion of the next representation of Wagner's Flying Dutchman at Covent Garden, a signed criticism by the Chief Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Western Railway will appear in the pages of our contemporary.
The practice, which it is hoped will lend additional brightness to the vivacious criticisms of The Times, is not to be confined to Opera. The Astronomer-Royal will be asked to record his impressions of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", and the officials of our leading lightships will be asked to report upon Parry's "Blest Pair of Sirens."
The application of the new method to literature promises to be equally interesting. It is an open secret that Messrs. Gunter have been permanently retained by The Pastry-cook's Gazette to review all books dealing with the Glacial Epoch, Ice-action and Arctic Exploration.
A CHARACTER.
Dear Mr. Punch,—Under the title of "A Bygone" you recently published the tale of a certain estimable butler and his one lapse, during many years' service, into alcoholism. This reminds me of the shorter and sharper history of our own James, who came to our Northern home on a Monday afternoon and left upon the following morning.