n, cut
a round hole in your scene, cover it with some translucent material,
and hold a lamp behind it_; the blue-glass shade must be up before the
footlights. A similar hole, or, if low on the horizon, a
half-moon-shaped one, with a crimson transparency, will do for a
setting sun--then the rose-coloured glass will be required before the
footlights.

I have no further space just now, my dear Rouge Pot; but you may
expect another letter from me on Scenery Screens, Properties and
Costumes.

Yours, &c.,

BURNT CORK.

HINTS FOR PRIVATE THEATRICALS.--III.

MY DEAR ROUGE POT,--I promised to say something about _scenery
screens_.

If the house happens to boast a modern pseudo-Japanese screen of a
large size (say six feet high), it will make a very pretty background
for a drawing-room scene, and admit of entrances as I suggested. But
_screens with light grounds are also very valuable as reflectors_,
carrying the light into the back of the stage. There is generally a
want of light on the amateur stage, and all means to remedy this
defect and brighten up matters are worth considering.

_Folding screens_ may be covered on both sides _with strips of lining
wall-paper of delicate tints, pinned on with drawing-pins_. The paper
can be left plain, or it may serve as the background on which to affix
"Shakespeare Scenery." Or again, your amateur painter will find an
easier and more effective reward for such labour as he will not
grudge to bestow in the holidays, if, instead of attempting the
ambitious task of scene-painting on canvas, he adorns these scenery
screens with Japanese designs in water-colours. Bold and not too
crowded combinations of butterflies and flamingoes, tortoises,
dragons, water-reeds, flowers and ferns. He need not hesitate to
employ Bessemer's gold and silver paints, with discretion, and the two
sides of the screen can be done in different ways. The Japanesque side
would make a good drawing-room background, and some other scene (such
as a wood) might be indicated on the other with a nearer approach to
real scene-painting. _These screens light up beautifully, and are well
adapted for drawing-room theatricals._

In the common event of your requiring a bit of a cottage with a
practicable door to be visible, it will be seen that two folds of a
screen, painted with bricks and windows, may be made to do duty in no
ill fashion as the two sides of a house, and with a movable porch (a
valuable stage property) t