Public Amusements.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS .

COYENT GARDEN THEATRE . The Eoyal English Opera Company has made a decided hit with its brilliant spectacle-extravaganza-« M » -Pantomime of " Aladdin , " and often as the story has been presented ou the stage , it lias never been

realised in such a p icturesque and magnificent manner ., S 3 Eachel Sanger as Aladdin , Mr . Charles Steyne as the Mother , and the famous Mr . "W . H . Payne and his son , the scarcely less popular Mr . E . Payne , maintained the liveliness of the opening with unflagging vigour . The novel and highly characteristic ballet of

the second scene will be long remembered as a triumph of the choregraphic art , and the exquisite scenery with which the veteran artist , Mr . T . Grieve , has enriched this costly production , will clearly prove that this eminent master is in the zenith of his powers . The Harlequinade , supported by Mdlle . Esta , as

Golwmhine ; Mr . E . Payne , Harlequin ; Mr . Harry Payne , Clown ; and Mr . Paul Herring , Pantaloon , is so brisk and funny that it ought not to be left unseen by any of the laughter-enjoying throng nightly filling this elegant and spacious theatre .

DEUEY LANE . This theatre , of late years so renowned for its Pantomimes , has secured a success in " Little King Pippin" which will be evidently found to excel even that attained by the most prosperous of its predecessors . Much of this is unquestionably due to the

remarkably clever acting of that wonderful boy , Master Percy Eoselle , who , as the Little King , exhibits a grasp of character which has rarely been attained even by actors of maturity . In the scene where he has to depict the growing passion of avarice there are some strong touches of expression , which

will vividly recall to old playgoers the masterly power of the elder Kean . The performance is not so much a display of talent as of absolute genius . The Lillipution Court—the best ever produced on the

Drury Lane stage—would be alone sufficient to make the Pantomime a marked triumph . The stagemanager , Mr . Robert Eoxby , is entitled to the warmest acknowledgments for the completeness with which he has carried out this idea , and devised the general arrangements . Mr . Henri Drayton , Mr . Gr .

-Belmore , Miss Augusta Thomson , and Mr . E . Barsby are excellent in their respective impersonations , and with Mr . "William Beverley's tasteful and highly artistic scenery , a combination of attractions ia produced that will not exhaust the admiration of the whole metropolis for many weeks to come . The

comic scenes , so admirably supported by Mr . Harry Boleno , a Clown of the true Griinaldi kind ; Mr . 0 . Lauri , wonderfully active and diverting ; Messrs .

Public Amusements.

Barnes and Morris , capital Pantaloons ; Messrs . Cormack and Saville , most agile of Harlequins ; and Madame Boleno ancl Miss L . Morgan most graceful of Columbines , are important additions to the entertainment . Mr . Cormack ' s ballet , called " A

Pantomimic Piece of Patchwork , " is to be warmly praised for the ingenuity of its design and the novelty and neatness of its execution .

HAYMAEKET . The extravaganza of " Orpheus" has the advantage of Mr . Blanche ' s elegantly and wittily written libretto , which shows the veteran author , to whom the stage has been so long indebted , has lost nothing

of his fine poetic feeling and sparkling fancy . The music of " Orphee aux Enters" the town has been tolerabl y familiar with during the last twelvemonth , but wedded to the lines of this accomplished writer it becomespossessed of a new charm . Miss Helen Howard looks and acts with excellent effect as PiMic O pinion ,

supplying in the action the place of the old Greek Chorus ; and Mr . David Eisher , Bliss Louise Keeley , Miss Nelly Bloore , Mr . "W . Farren , Mr . Bartleman , and the bevy of pretty actresses who represent the feminine inhabitants of Olympus , complete a cast with which the Haymarket audience is evidently hig hly satisfied .

Literary Extracts.

LITERARY EXTRACTS .

SCIENTIFIC TASTES OP THE AKABS . — Some authors , travelled or otherwise , have represented the Arabs of the interior as a race absolately incapable of any real attainment or progress in practical and material science , and have supposed that branch of knowledge to be the exclusive portion of Ja ] 3 het , to borrow for an instant the

typical but convenient classification used by many ; while Shem and his descendants , amongst whom the Arabs hold a distinguished place , are to be allowed neither part nor lot in this matter . My own experience , if indeed it may bear the name of experience , would lead me to a very different conclusion ; and I am rather inclined to

regard the Arabs , taken in themselves , and individually , as endowed with a remarkable aptitude for these very pursuits , and hardly less adapted " to the railroad , to the steamship , " or any other nineteenth century invention or natural research than the natives of Sheffield or Bir - mingham , themselves . But lack of communication with

other countries , and especially with those which were in former times , and yet are , the fountain-heads of that special activity ; and , in addition , the Mahometan drug , which paralyses whatever it does not kill outright , have kept them back in the intellectual race , to be outrun by others more favoured by circumstancesthough not

, perhaps by nature . When the Koran and Mecca shall have disappeared from Arabia , then , and then only , can we seriously expect to see the Arab assume that place in the ranks of civilisation from which Mahomet and his book have , more than any other individual cause , long held him back . —Palgrave ' s Central ancl Eastern Arabia .