lustered by his moustache
having fallen under the washstand well out of sight is apt to forget
his part when he has found the moustache.

Remember that _Right and Left in stage directions mean the right and
left hand of the actor as he faces the audience_.

I will not burden you with any further advice for yourself, and I will
reserve a few hints as to rough and ready scenery, properties, &c.,
for another letter.

Meanwhile--whatever else you omit--get your parts well by rote; and if
you cannot find or spare a stage-manager, you must find good-humour
and common agreement in proportion; prompt by turns, and each look
strictly after his own "properties."

Yours, &c.,

BURNT CORK.

HINTS FOR PRIVATE THEATRICALS.--II.

MY DEAR ROUGE POT,--I promised to say a few words about _rough and
ready properties_.

The most indispensable of all is _the curtain_, which can be made (at
small expense) to roll up and come down in orthodox fashion. Even
better are two curtains, with the rings and strings so arranged that
the curtains can be pulled apart or together by some one in the wings.
Any upholsterer will do this. A double drawing-room with folding doors
is of course "made for theatricals." The difficulty of having only one
exit from the stage--the door of the room--may be met by having a
screen on the other side. But then _the actors who go out behind the
screen, must be those who will not have to come in again till the
curtain has been drawn_.

If, however, the room, or part of a room, devoted to the stage is
large enough for an amateur proscenium, with "wings" at the sides, and
space behind the "scenes" to conceal the actors, and enable them to
go round, of course there can be as many exits as are needed.

A proscenium is quite a possibility. _The framework in which the
curtain falls need not be an expensive or complicated concern._ Two
wooden uprights, firmly fastened to the floor by bolt and socket, each
upright being four or five feet from the wall on either side; a
cross-bar resting on the top, but the whole width of the room, to
which (if it draws up) the curtain is to be nailed; a curtain, with a
wooden pole in the hem at the bottom to steady it (like a
window-blind); long, narrow, fixed curtains to fall from the cross-bar
at each end where it projects beyond the uprights, so as to fill the
space between each upright and the wall of the room, and hide the
wings; some bright wall-paper border to fasten on to t