he young singer was helped out by a bit of mirror from
which she threw a flash of light into the faces of successive boys
whom she selected from the audience as she sang the refrain, "You are
my Affinity." Many popular songs relate the vulgar experiences of a
city man wandering from amusement park to bathing beach in search of
flirtations. It may be that these "stunts" and recitals of city
adventure contain the nucleus of coming poesy and romance, as the
songs and recitals of the early minstrels sprang directly from the
life of the people, but all the more does the effort need help and
direction, both in the development of its technique and the material
of its themes.

The few attempts which have been made in this direction are
astonishingly rewarding to those who regard the power of
self-expression as one of the most precious boons of education. The
Children's Theater in New York is the most successful example, but
every settlement in which dramatics have been systematically fostered
can also testify to a surprisingly quick response to this form of art
on the part of young people. The Hull-House Theater is constantly
besieged by children clamoring to "take part" in the plays of
Schiller, Shakespeare, and Moliere, although they know it means weeks
of rehearsal and the complete memorizing of "stiff" lines. The
audiences sit enthralled by the final rendition and other children
whose tastes have supposedly been debased by constant vaudeville, are
pathetically eager to come again and again. Even when still more is
required from the young actors, research into the special historic
period, copying costumes from old plates, hours of labor that the "th"
may be restored to its proper place in English speech, their
enthusiasm is unquenched. But quite aside from its educational
possibilities one never ceases to marvel at the power of even a mimic
stage to afford to the young a magic space in which life may be lived
in efflorescence, where manners may be courtly and elaborate without
exciting ridicule, where the sequence of events is impressive and
comprehensible. Order and beauty of life is what the adolescent youth
craves above all else as the younger child indefatigably demands his
story. "Is this where the most beautiful princess in the world lives?"
asks a little girl peering into the door of the Hull-House Theater, or
"Does Alice in Wonderland always stay here?" It is much easier for her
to put her feeling into words than it