It is a difficult task for a single artiste to keep an audience amused and interested by his or her art whatever it may be, for two hours and a half, at a stretch; and though there are several male entertainers who lave successfully done this, there is not, we believe, another lady professional ton' the road" who has the pluck and confidence fu her own abilities to attempt such a task. Madame Cora, who made ker frst appearance before a Shanghai audience on Tuesday night at the Lyceum Theatre, may be fairly congratulated upon the success which she achieved in this direction, with a ré- pertoire of tricks with which many of her audience were already more or less familiar. 'There was a good, but not by any means a full house." Her manipulation is exceedingly neat, if her magic ig not of the startling' order, and to aid lier deft fingers, she brings the invaluable assistance of a pretty wit and a very ready tongue which enable her to distract, when she will, the attention of the audience while making her passes, as it raus in magical parlance. Her programme included the old trick of the rings with invisible joinings, which she presented in a new and novel dress; the egy and tumbler trick; the separation and transposition of wine and water; a mesmnerised love; the enchanted casket; the protean sheet, very neatly presented; breaking and restoring a ti k, very well done a rather tran: if and loosening feat; x Davenport mid a short thought= reading seance, before a committee from the audience, which was successful in one case and failed in another, and fell a Jong way behind its patentee and inventor, W. Irving Bishop. The second part of the programme in which a young Indy was supposed to be thrown into hypnotic state and suspended in the air, her only visible support being a pole under her n elbow, was not new to a Shanghai and but it'ovoked loud applause especially the "National Tableaux" portion, Altogether the entertainment. was a very able one, and one which should be by every one in Shanghai, Mr. Villard played several operatic selections during the performance.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.