ady is asked to take off her hat and does not, she
is uncomfortable during the afternoon, because she knows the people are
hating her, not quite unjustly, and also because they sometimes whisper
at her offensively. If she does take it off she is worried lest she has
made a guy of herself; she is often upset because her hat has been
crushed, and her mind is distracted by wonder if she will get it on
right at the end. The result is that she is in a bad mood for the play
and judges it unfairly.

"I think something could be done. The seats might be so arranged as to
have an open box underneath each stall for the hat and muff of the lady
immediately behind. I do not say it would be easy to get at them; but
even in the case of the narrowest stalls--and many are an outrage--it
would be possible. Something of the sort indeed exists at one or two
theatres, such as the Haymarket. Of course the cartwheel hats would not
go into them, but ladies don't wear such things, only women who want to
advertize themselves. Next," she continued, "comes the question of the
looking-glass. I have made efforts to use a small _miroir de poche_, but
it is far from adequate. In cases where the backs of the stalls are of a
good height, a fair-sized mirror might be fixed high up on the back,
with some little contrivance in the way of a curtain which could be
drawn over it; and aided by these we might be able to grapple with our
difficulties."

A penny-in-the-slot mirror might pay.

A Justification of certain Deadheads

In efforts, certainly justifiable, to discover the reason for the
failure of the theatrical season, some people have made quite a
ferocious attack upon the "deadhead," who really has nothing to do with
the case. He has been spoken of as an incubus. Some people regard the
free entry of the _caput mortuum_ with a hostility like that shown by
our ancestors (and to some extent ourselves) to the mortmain of the
Church.

Let us consider the deadhead for a while. First, it is necessary to
point out that there are several species. The genus includes all members
of the audience who do not pay for their seats. Of course the species of
deadhead critic is not attacked on this particular point; yet indirectly
some members of it affect the situation, for it is said that there are
critics who demand a good deal of "paper" for their friends from
managers, even when the tickets are really saleable.

London critics are not treated like their bret