ut it's all I've
got with me."

The audience fairly screamed; but poor and stranded as that company was,
the comedian was an artist, for he accepted the fried cakes, ate them
ravenously to the last crumb, and so kept well within the character he
was playing, without hurting the feelings of the kind-hearted, little
old woman.

It's pleasant to know that that clever bit of acting attracted the
attention and gained the interest of a well-to-do gentleman, who was
present, and who next day helped the actors on their way to the city.

A certain foreign actor once smilingly told me "I was a crank about my
American public." I took his little gibe in good part; for while he knew
foreign audiences, he certainly did _not_ know American ones as well as
I, who have faced them from ocean to ocean, from British Columbia to
Florida. Two characteristics they all share in common,--intelligence and
fairness,--otherwise they vary as widely, have as many marked
peculiarities, as would so many individuals. New York and Boston are
_the_ authorities this side of "the Great Divide," while San Francisco
sits in judgment by the blue Pacific.

One never-to-be-forgotten night I went to a fashionable theatre in New
York City to see a certain English actress make her debut before an
American audience, which at that time was considered quite an
interesting event, since there were but one or two of her countrywomen
over here then. The house was very full; the people were of the
brightest and the "smartest." I sat in a stage box and noted their
eagerness, their smiling interest.

The curtain was up, there was a little dialogue, and then the stage door
opened. I dimly saw the actress spreading out her train ready to "come
on," the cue was given, a figure in pale blue and white appeared in the
doorway, stood for one single, flashing instant, then lurched forward,
and with a crash she measured her full length upon the floor.

The shocked "O-h-h" that escaped the audience might have come from one
pair of lips, so perfect was its spontaneity, and then dead and perfect
silence fell.

The actress lay near but one single piece of furniture (she was alone in
the scene, unfortunately), and that was one of those frail, useless,
gilded trifles known as reception chairs. She reached out her hand, and
lifting herself by that, had almost reached her knee, when the chair
tipped under her weight, and they both fell together.

It was awful. A deep groan burst f