respected by all w h o have the pleasure of bis acquaintance.[1] T h e theatre yvas to undergo a general overhaul, the stage and pit were to be lowered three feet, and the pit and box entrances yvere to be separated and distinct, promises considerably curtailed by realization. The prices were to be 7s. 6d. boxes, 5s. pit, 3s. gallery, and no half-price. T h e performances as resumed upon the neyv system yvere tolerably well attended, and the newspapers wrote approvingly of the management.
ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION.
" Catching an Heiress " most of us have seen acted at some time, but forcibly abducting an actress remains to be written. A dramatic burlesque of this kind yvas improvised on the evening of Saturday, 3rd September, during the rehearsal of the not inappropriate piece the " W o o d Demon." Miss Sinclair, a lady attache of the theatre, yvas possessed of some personal attractions, of yvhich a Mr. Montague Charles Greaves was terribly smitten. T h e fair one gave the cold shoulder to his addresses, and he determined to have her vi et armis, if necessary, or perish in the attempt. Taking counsel yvith a Mr. William Raymond, a Justice of the Peace, they got together a small but " select party of roughs," and proceeded to besiege the theatre at a time yvhen they yvere assured the lady was there. Getting round to the rear of the building they burst in a door, invaded the sanctity of the green room, and peremptorily demanded that Miss Sinclair should be surrendered to them. Buckingham indignantly refused to be guilty of such unmanliness, and mustering his forces, called upon each
" T o set the teeth, and stretch the nostrils wide, Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit T o his full height ;"
And forthwith a brisk hand-to-hand encounter commenced. The theatrical people were in full force, and fought yvell, Davies showing himself a prodigy of valour; and after some smart pummelling the attacking party yvas ejected, and the lady so far preserved. T h e Greavesites then retreated to the Prince Albert Hotel, close by in Swanston Street, where an extensive "liquoring up " ensued, and several recruits yvere obtained ; so the stormers, re-animated by " nobblers," and increased numbers, returned to the field of battle, re-entered, and the hammering re-commenced. T h e garrison had also secured reinforcements, stood bravely to its guns, and bouquets in the shape of black eyes and sanguinary noses were pretty equally distributed. Again the fortune of war favoured the theatricals, and the others were again repulsed, but so roughly that Greaves and Raymond, w h o were the last to turn tail, had to run for it; but in their exit, both coming together upon an old trap door, the fastenings gave way, and the tyvo heroes disappeared into an infernal region, yvhere they were trapped like a pair of rats, when the police appeared and marched them off to the lock-up. Next morning they were charged before the Police Court, but, through some unaccountable leniency, Raymond, the brother magistrate, got off with half-a-crownfine,and a penalty of only 40s. yvas inflicted upon Greaves, who paid rather dearly for his whistle in another yvay, as he was dismissed from a clerkship he held in the Bank of Australasia. Sometime after, Miss Sinclair gave up the
- ↑ In referring to Mr. Richard Capper, one of our earliest players (since dead in 1884), I pronounced him in 1883 to be the living "Father" of the Victorian stage. I was then unaware that there was a "second (and the rightful) Richard in the field; and the following professional record of this individual will not be uninteresttng:— "In 1830 Mr. Richard Winter commenced his professional career by joining a suburban London Company, to play low comedy for sixteen shillings per week. This he regarded as a step in life, which would ultimately land him on the boards of Covent Garden or Drury Lane. But his castle-building mania was considerably cooled by the fact that after six weeks' work, certain treasury complications intervened, through which, instead of pocketing £4 16s, he fingered only 1s. In other minor engagements he had more success, and in 1883 wound up a six months' spell at the Pavilion Theatre, London as Carlitz in 'Love in Humble Life.' He then signed a more important compact—a hymeneal contract,—emigrated and arrived in Sydney, anno 1834, where he made his colonial debut at the Theatre Royal, George Street, in the part of John Lump in the 'Review.' He saw the close of this place of amusement, and passing over to the Victoria, performed for the first season there, and then, joining a partial rush that set in for Port Phillip, arrived at Melbourne in January, 1841. He formed one of the first Company of the first Theatre opened westward of the Bull and Mouth Hotel, Bourke Street, his first appearance being as Wormwood in the 'Lottery Ticket.' Remaining there until the establishment shut up he accepted an engagement from the then well-known Mrs. Clarke, of Hobart Town, whose theatre he continued until business got very quiet, when he returned to Melbourne, and was employed at Smith's Queen Street Theatre, after Coppin had severed his first connection with it. The gold discoveries of 1851-2 induced him to think that he could do much better in other pursuits, and he acted accordingly, his only appearance since being in 1858, for the benefit of the Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows, when he closed as he opened in Melbourne, by representing the character of Wormwood. In June, 1883, he figured as one of the two principal personages in that rarely enacted trifle of domestic Comedy known as the "Celebration of a Golden Wedding." I met him just prior to his death in 1885, and his reply to a friendly inquiry was, 'Quite well, thank you. Right as a trivet; but at my age one must sometimes think of the time when the prompter's bell will ring, the curtain will fall, and then—the secret.
