Yes, a trip by steamer on the Thames can be confidently recommended to delicate persons in search of health. Wrap the whole face in cotton-wool, which has previously been soaked in some powerful disinfectant. Get the man at the wheel to sprinkle your clothing every ten minutes with the anti-cholera mixture. When passing "Barking Outfall," be particularly careful to go below, and keep your head completely buried in a basin containing a mixture of smelling salts in solution and Eau de Cologne. Beyond a sore throat for a week or two, you will probably—thanks to these precautions—experience no evil results.
SUBJECT FOR A GRAND HISTORICAL CARTOON.
THE SULTAN IMPLORING MR. PUNCH NOT "TO TAKE HIM OFF." (See Daily papers.)
ALL IN PLAY.
My Dear Mr. Punch,
I think, however pleased you may look in your stall while listening to the charming music of Mr. Cellier in The Sultan of Mocha, you will agree with me that that gifted gentleman has been most unfortunate in the selection of his librettos. Dorothy was certainly feeble, but the revived opera at the Strand is feebler still. I admit that the work is well staged, equally as to scenery, dresses, and mise-en-scène, but the plot and the dialogue are unworthy of serious criticism. When the curtain rose upon a capital "set" of the Thames near Greenwich Hospital, when there were a lively chorus and a pretty dance, I imagined I was "in" for what other occupants of the stalls would have called "a real good thing." But the characters had only to talk to cause a sense of depression to envelope me, that nearly moved me to tears. Ponderous allusions to such recent "topics" as Lord Charles Beresford's signal from the Royal Yacht at the Naval Review, the Endacott matter and Turkish impecuniosity now and again attracted my attention, and I felt that I would give worlds to slumber as does the hero in the Third Act who appropriately sings himself to sleep. But Mr. Cellier's music made a success of Dorothy, and it is not impossible that "the movement may be continued" in the Sultan of Mocha. Of those who take part in the performance I may single out Mr. Charles Danby as fairly amusing. I do not remember to have seen him before, and it is to be trusted that the applause of a London audience will not cause him to favour a policy of exaggeration. So far he is good—not too good (as Mr. Brough was wont to amusingly observe), but just good enough. The voice of Miss Violet Cameron is as strong as ever, but at times I traced a tremolo that might wisely be abandoned. Mr. C. H. Kenney has good intentions, and no doubt some day will be seen and heard to greater advantage. I was not surprised to learn from the playbill that as the Sultan Mr. Ernest Birch was making "his first appearance." Of the remainder of the cast, Mr. Bracy sang well and acted fairly as "a heart of oak," and the sailors, villagers, and slaves were sufficiently comely to satisfy the requirements of a Strand audience met together to enjoy an opéra bouffe.