we arrived after four o'clock
we should be obliged to pay two dollars and a half extra by way of
fine. We saved that; and it may be remarked here that this is the only
opportunity that Europe offers of saving money. There was a big crowd
in the grounds about the building, and the ladies' dresses took the sun
with fine effect. I do not mean to intimate that the ladies were in full
dress, for that was not so. The dresses were pretty, but neither sex was
in evening dress.

The interior of the building is simple--severely so; but there is no
occasion for color and decoration, since the people sit in the dark.
The auditorium has the shape of a keystone, with the stage at the narrow
end. There is an aisle on each side, but no aisle in the body of the
house. Each row of seats extends in an unbroken curve from one side of
the house to the other. There are seven entrance doors on each side of
the theater and four at the butt, eighteen doors to admit and emit 1,650
persons. The number of the particular door by which you are to enter the
house or leave it is printed on your ticket, and you can use no door but
that one. Thus, crowding and confusion are impossible. Not so many as
a hundred people use any one door. This is better than having the usual
(and useless) elaborate fireproof arrangements. It is the model theater
of the world. It can be emptied while the second hand of a watch makes
its circuit. It would be entirely safe, even if it were built of lucifer
matches.

If your seat is near the center of a row and you enter late you must
work your way along a rank of about twenty-five ladies and gentlemen to
get to it. Yet this causes no trouble, for everybody stands up until
all the seats are full, and the filling is accomplished in a very few
minutes. Then all sit down, and you have a solid mass of fifteen hundred
heads, making a steep cellar-door slant from the rear of the house down
to the stage.

All the lights were turned low, so low that the congregation sat in a
deep and solemn gloom. The funereal rustling of dresses and the low buzz
of conversation began to die swiftly down, and presently not the ghost
of a sound was left. This profound and increasingly impressive stillness
endured for some time--the best preparation for music, spectacle, or
speech conceivable. I should think our show people would have invented
or imported that simple and impressive device for securing and
solidifying the attention of an audience long