roductions would not have pleased people any the more
by having money lavished upon scenery. In one or two cases, for a moment
or two some of us smiled a little unkindly at the black cloth and wings,
and yet after a minute or two we ceased to notice them, with the result
that the management has been able to save its money in the individual
works and to produce a large number of pieces in a short time. Putting
aside plays merely intended for spectacular effect, after a few hundred
pounds have been spent managers do not get the benefit to the extent of
more than a shilling in the pound or so of the really enormous sums
expended upon plays.

Stage Costumes

There is a story concerning an enthusiastic collector who devoted almost
a fortune and nearly a lifetime to decorating and furnishing his
drawing-room so that it should resemble perfectly a Louis XV. _salon_.
He invited an expert to visit it and express his opinion. The critic
came, inspected, left the room, and locked the door; then he said, "It
is perfect," and promptly threw the key into the moat. "Why did you do
that?" asked the collector. "For fear," replied the expert, "lest
anybody should spoil the effect of your _salon_ by entering it in modern
costume inharmonious with it." There is another tale about a hostess who
wept sorely because the effect of her dinner-table decoration was marred
by the appearance of a lady in a costume of pillar-box vermilion. These
stories are entirely untrue, and were invented by "G.F.S.":
nevertheless, they have a moral when applied to the stage.

Of course it is very rash for a male, unless he happens to be a man
milliner, to write about the costumes of actresses; and we leave
untouched the clothes of the actor, lest our own and their lack of style
should be put forward as a ground for disqualification. Still it is
impossible to avoid noticing the dresses of the ladies upon the stage;
it would even be bad manners not to do so, seeing how much trouble the
dear creatures take to please our eyes, for we are too gallant or vain
to believe the cynical idea that they only dress to crush one another.

After noticing them, it is amusing and amazing to read the newspaper
articles generally called "Dresses at the * * * Theatre" which appear
after a _premiere_. Of course exception is made of the articles written
for a paper necessarily nameless. Even with good opera-glasses one can
yet never detect a tenth of the details described in thes