C. I. B. Kitehin. Virginia. Woolf, Price, 1/6.
This story must be" numbered among the unusual tales, as, indeed, is to be anticipated upon learning who are the publishers. For Leonard and Virginia Woolf have 8 firmly established reputation not only for publishing unusual stories but for writing them, When one has finished the story in question, one is at first in doubt whether he been. reading a legitimate satire or a leg-pull, One hesitates to employ the latter term, yet finds it difficult to discover an adequate synonym. Upon mature, con favour of 5: id, after letting the story sink in, concludes that. here, in a measure, is an unusual tale, quaintly conceived and certainly well written, The main subject for speculation, of course, is why the name "Balcony"? At first appearing to have been chosen as a mere whim, 'a literary pose, one ultimately grasps that the author was guilty of no such caprice, 'There i excuse for the momentary suspicion, as practically all the rest of' the chai are as commonplace, in their major aspects, as those con.
ved by Mr. Arnold Bennett in Riceyman Steps." Indeed, ther: are times when one fears that the ultra-sordid, which marked Mr. Bennett's tale,-ig to be introduced jin to "Mr. Balcony." No such ill luck as that, however.
One ultimately gleans that Mr. Balcony is thus named by virtue of his ability to look out on life un-' until such time as it pleased them to die ere he might indulge in a it of warmth. This, for London in December, is assuredly a test of endurance. But then it -must be remembered that Mr. Balcony is not of common clay. We discover him in that unheated library gazing over certain personal and private manuscripts, recalling the unconventional qualities he was to acquire by virtue of a most unusual line of conduct set out for him, The manuscript which he scrutinizes is replete with strange yet sound philosophy. Vhus:— hea used. to auch a personal habits ina fixed environ refer to an At this juncture, the author informs us, "Mr, Balcony yawned, rose from his chair, and threw as much of the manuscript as he had read into the saper, without troubling to tear it up. Ini due course, it was. cast with other rubbish into the dustbin, and no one ever saw it Fancy that, after all the Gffort it must have originally cost. Mr. Balcony to reduce it to writing! But then this gives you some inkling of Mr. Balcony.
Lithe Street is commonplace: enough, as is Gloria Swing, who tries to run the Maison Swing. Mr. Lace is as ordinary and suspicious and as the author Journalists, we wonder? Mrs. O'Dowd and Major O'Hoon, Lady Hoobrake and her son, Aubrey, the waster; Mr. Slicer, the share broker: and reputed Dickens character, all these one meets every day. Mrs. Lloyd-Muce, with the hopelessly' invalid husband, is somewhat differ ent, but in no' sence the stuff of which Mr. Balcony is made, Now fancy all these people, taking advantage of Gloria's two by four balcony from which, thanks to certain building operations, a temporary view of a stretch of the is obtainable— pears and invites the entire company to be guests on an extende: trip on his yacht. He has a yacht Yes, indeed; hired for the occasion.
None of them, least of all Gloria Swing who is to marry him in an out-of-the-way place, suspects that has carefull planned never to return. He hag disposed of representi of course turn toa All accept, and off they go, inclading the embittered Mr. Lace who decides to join the company at the last foment and who succeeds i making an unqualified nuisance of himself throughout the voyage.
What more natural than that the yacht should turn out to be named the "Perey," or that Mr. Balcony should have a mysterious black-skinned servant? Nor is it at all is head to cast Mr. Lloyd-Muce overboard one dark night, thus accelerating Birs. Lloyd-Muce's widowhood, to her great relief and everyone's intense satis-ask no questions.
Gloria and Mr. Balcony marry, spend a remarkable honeymoon, at the end of which her husband yields himself to some weird tribe and is the victim of some even weirder rite. The entire company return to London, Gloria resumes her maiden name end her millinery shop, and after a while her son is: torn, "Something of the "Garden of Allah touch about this, only Gloria's cub is quite legitimate.
Thus ends a strange tale. which fs worth not only the reading but Fexeading many times. Te is a book that really finds ies sche the permanent skelf, to be pondo over at intervals and doublies new meaning read into it each time. of the place held by the Chinese act-ess in the theatre-going world of China, past and present, is given by an author well known locally, Mr. George Kin Leung, in the December fgsue of "Asia." Mr. Leung's reflections are presented with—the fluency of his race, combined with considerable stady of the drama, popularized to meet the requirements of those less well versed than himself in this most fascinating of Chinese atta, The comparatively short sketch contains in part a contrast between the Chinese actress and the tan or female impersonator who has long been a distinguished element Chinese drama, To Mr. Leung's liberal point of view there appear Chinese actresses of the present, time who rival the tons in their traditional stronghold. In this connection the author cites an amusing incident witnessed by himself in a Chinese theatre. Mai Lan-fang, the greatest of China's female imper-senators, is described in the role of Yueh-hua, which is the equivient of saying, in Chinese histrionics, the eh'ing-i or conventional good ' woman type who besides her other attributes must possess an exceptional vocal technique. So marvellous is the impersonation of a grief-stricken woman by Mel Lan-fang, says Mr. Leung, that the audience moved to tears of pity, never, however, forgetting to marvel that it is a man who is portraying this womanly grief. Not so, in the case of Miss Pi Yun-hsia's portrayal of another ching-i type, that of Wuniang in "The Story of the Guitar.
"Misa Pi" says Mr. Leung, "stood dere, chef omatiate, while her ried her by "a 90 fee Invan® ates 'Shal 1" recrea her?' The audience held its brea aspects of entertainment Mr. Leung says, that 4s wu who in the course of' violent, dances, acted as mediums for messages to and from the gods. Female entertainers continued down through the Sung Dyasty (960-1280), he says further, but it was not'until the Yuan Period, (1280-1968) that Women attained what is now known as the professional status of an actress. After the founding of th Republic in 1911, theatres for all-female companies were established in Peking, Shanghai, Tientsin and Canton. [in the latter place actress ses are more favourably received than in the conservative north where boy-actors are still favoured for the feminine roles, The two most famous Southern actresses are Li Heueh-fang and Soochow Mei, and Pi Yun-hsia is described as one of the most captivating women of the modern stage. Two others, Chin Heveh-fen and Chin Haine-mei form a trio with Miss Pi, and there are several others who are mentioned by Mr. Leung by reason of their brilliant acting which has made them popular in big theatre-going centres.
In conclusion the writer declares that an American producer would do well to import a brilliant Chinese actress to dazzle the crowds of Broadway who would worship before shrine of beauty entirely unfamiliar to them, but fascinating nevertheless—1.8.17.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.