done
over on our side. But my mother did not want me to stick to the boards.
She thought I wasn't adapted to make a success of it, and when I had had
my bit of schooling she put me in a solicitor's office, or 'lawyer's,' as
you call 'em over here.

"Well"--and he laughed at the recollection called up--"I lasted there just
a week. You see, when I was sent out with writs to deliver, I used to
serve the originals and keep the copies. You can believe there was some
lively goings-on in that office when the boss found this out.

"He didn't enter any objections at all to my taking up a stage career--oh,
no, not in the least! But my mother did, so I just went out and hunted up
a job--any old thing, as a starter, so long as I once got my foot inside
the stage door again.

"Where I landed finally was in a melodrama of 'The Glazier's Bride' type.
I believe I was a luggage carrier, or some such modest adjunct to the
proceedings. You see, it's easier to get your start in melodrama, because
there are more people in a play like that, and there are sure to be parts
for 'freshies' such as I was then. In comedy, the line I wanted, the least
you can be is a butler or footman, and you know in some farces the butler
comes pretty near being as important as the leading man.

"So while I was learning the ropes I stayed in the _'penny dreadful'_ kind
of play, gradually working my way up. This lasted for about five years
[Mr. Welford has been on the stage seventeen, being in the neighborhood of
thirty], when finally I got my chance in comedy in a play from your side,
'My Friend the Prince,' done over here--some of the time by Willie
Collier--as 'My Friend from India.' Yes, I was the chap disguised as the
East Indian who does the trick with the mirror. I have stayed in comedy
ever since."

In London, James Welch, the creator of _Mr. Hopkinson_, has been in quite
hard luck since the long run ceased, two new ventures having turned out
failures.

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related
that it is difficult to class them separately. One step
above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above
the ridiculous makes the sublime again.--=Thomas Paine=.

LORD BYRON'S RIDDLE.

A Curious Poetic Creation That Has Puzzled Many Readers, and a
Solution of the Mystery.

In the earlier history of man the riddle was an important intellectual
test. To be able to guess hard riddles was supposed to indica