The last performance for the season by the Amateur Dramatic Club, and presumably, though bino means certainly, the last they will be indebted to the courtesy of their contemporaries of the Club Concordiaforthe opportunity of bringing before the public, was given on Tuesday night, to a crowded and gratified house. And as it is the closing of their short season, we may remark that, during it, the Club has to be credited with a greater average of success in its dramatic representations than we had the pleasure of noticing for some time previous. This has been largely due to the determination of the Amateurs to overcome the disadvantages of situation in which they were placed, by the loss of their own theatre and the destruction of valuable accessories and properties, and perhaj still more to the recruitment of their raul by an unusual number of members endowed with the histrionic talent and with a faculty for taking trouble which is more than #Feading the bill of fare with the lighter ulus.
viands, and reserving the. piece till afterwards, the management produced first the farce "A Thumping Legacy." The scene was laid in Corsica, whither Jerry Ominous (Mr. Drinkwater) has been be~ guiled from London on the misrepresenta-
(Mr, Caudle), an uncle whom he has never tion that, by the death of Filippo Gerouimo finds on arrival that the bait hes been seen, a ing legacy awaits him, but
held out with the view of getting him there to take up a hereditary blood feud which has been kept alive between the families of Geronimo and Leoni by repu sive assassinations through several gencrations. Jerry's perplexity and fear form the fun of the farce, while a spice of romance is given by the introduction of Geroimo' daughter Rosetta (Miss Julia Brisaf) a stalwart brunette, who has a thorough! Corsican relish for blood fends. Her rival Corsican admirers Leoni (Mr. Prince) and Bambogetti (Mr. Sirbaf) and a Brigadier of Carbineers, (Afr. Rewerb), with a yuffianly company of two,—incapable of "for ing fours" although it could wheel by subdivisions,—complete the dramatic persona.
The centro of the system, Mr. Drinkwater, did not show his usual animation readiness, but succeeded in keeping interest alive till it was apparent that the piece was one of those unsatisfactory ones which are feeble throughout—no head, very slight waist, and extremities which end in stumps. The other actors were equal to their pairs, and displayed pretty even excellency, and the scenery was appropriate.
After an interval during which ices were handed round for the Ladies and the Orchestra gave a selection from Ross Guillaume ell, the curtain again rose, on the domestic drama by H.'T. Craven, of The Chiumey Corner." Mr. Peter Pro-pity (Mr. Grifin), chandler, and sole executor on the estate of Grace Kmery's (Miss Castor) father, receives a large sam of money on her account which he deposits desk in his own house. His father Solomon Probity (Mfr, Smallweed) an ancient of 91, in his dotage, but who displays occasional glimpses of sense and shrewdness through his imbecility, coupled with erratic feats of memory, gets it into his head that the money is not safe there, and in the absence of the family from the room contrives to reach and, with instinct for concealment, place the cashbox in an aperture in' the chimney corner. Peter Probity's son John, (Mr. Hazard) who loves Grace, is so cut up at the prospect of losing her through a clause in her father's will which deprives her of her property unless she marries Mr. Charles Chetty (Mr. Nautilus) the son of John's master, a lawyer, that he resolves to leave home. The clause has been put in because of suspicion, carefully concealed from his Parents, that Johm was guilty of. forging cheque in Mr. Chetty's office. John entrusts the note for his relatives to his grandfather, and takes from the desk a
saved for this contingency, leaving on the tile private slare of money which he has mind of the senile occupant of the old arn-chair the leading impression that he has "taken the money." Honest Peter discovers the loss of the cashbox, misunderstands his son's note and the old iman's maunderings, and learning of the forgery also, believes the young man both forger and thief and capable of anything. A fort is follows, aggravated by visi Chetty, whose charitable intention of getting Peter transported, as well as his son now in the hands of the Police, is only frustrated by the self-sacrificing devotedness of Grace. But in the second act John, released, returns, and after some stubbornness on the father's part has his innocence believed—(his mother "always said 90"); and old Solomon is judiciously worked up to an excitement about the possibility of thieves breaking in and the necessity for concealing money, in which he betrays how he led tothe mischief, The cashbox is withdrawn from its concealment in the Chimuey Corner, the forgery has "meanwhile been traced to a fellow-clerk, and Mr. Chetty and his private detective Sifter (Mr. Caudle) retire rather crestfallen from the reunite; circle in which the hereditary probity of the Probitys has been triumphantly vindicated. A' sudden rise in copper-mine shares, which Mrs. P. "always said" were 4 fine spec, makes her good husband comparatively wealthy; and it is arranged to forfeit the money which, by the clause in the will, is the only bar to the general wish expressed by the old man, as he thinks aloud, that 'Our John' should marry Grace Emery."
Wore lures in'waiting for the success: ful, Mr. Griffin would have been embowered in them, for it is not too much to say that his audience was enraptured with mn of the honest chandler. hearty humour, his path tic gentleness, his conscious rectitude, his indignation with his son and sorrow for the bankrupt good name of Probity—em: tion's every string was touched with a master hand. There was in every mood and manner a surpassing adherence to truthfulness in the representation, and 20 thoroughly had he imbued the house with the feeling of the piece, that no one could leave till they had seen it out, have but one fault to find with Mr. Griffin—he ives us too much trouble to find words to jo him justice, but we need only record how, when the curtain descended, the worthy chandler's customers before it called for hin in a way not to be disregarded, however deaf he might render himself to calls from the "'shop,"—an institution which, by the way, played an important although negative part in the performance. People wereproneto contrast Mr. Grifin's amateurism with anybody's professionalism you liked to mention, very much to the disadvantage of the latter. Mr. Smallweed was marvelously cacoful in a decidedly difficult secondary part, that of the childish old man, whose peculiar dullness of aumd and frailty of feame he adopted with equal fidelity, dropping in with Indicrous appositeness the disconnected fancies of the enfeebled brain, In get-up and appearance, he was admirable. The ladies deserve to come next, and we, shall give Mss Kefalee ws Mev, Eredcing hor Sea Mita dna tall some: ratty Probity the right of seniority by in-
what severe looking and florid woman of—but her age is not in the programme, though most of the others are; and her womanly qualities and motherly nature were treated in Miss Keffalee's happiest manner. There was perhaps a little hesitation in dialogue, but no lack of coufidence in acting. Miss Castor was charming, with her blonde complexion and mourning dress, In every particular she fulfilled her role so as to entitle her to the warmest praise; nothing could exceed the coy grace, the winning archness, and the lady-like ese of her acting. Mr. Hazard was somewhat conscious and constrained, but knew his part, the admittedly difficult one of stage love-making; and with more opportunity will, we have no doubt, get over the diffidence of manner which characterised him, Mr, Nautilus' most recent impersonal tion is, we think his best, and we are the more ready to accord him afullshare of praise that his role was the ungracious one of a cold. selfish fop, whose flaxen curls and faultless continuations it would have been a pleasure to have anointed from the nearest reservoir of animalcule, Weave already remarked on Mr. Caudle's versatility, and he discharged cleverly the duties of a detective, keen as a ferret andsly as a fox, Altogether the piece was exceptionally well done, and the curtain fell amid a storm of applause, and a special call for Miss Castor, Mr. Griffin andj Mr, Small-weed.
The orchestra of! Amateurs, under the conduct of M, Remusat, between the facts played some moreeaux' from Lo Domine oir—viz. the Allegro Maestoso and Andante Religioso,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.