me plays that have been run for a hundred
nights in town at a heavy loss, and yet have proved gold-mines; and I
have visited them at the call of duty and seen with my trained eyes so
few of the paying public that a mere sense of decency would have
compelled the managers to close the doors if we had not been present.

Our assistance on these occasions is an odious part of our duty. It goes
sadly against my conscience to be one of a kind of stage-army audience,
playing a part in order to deceive country or colonial managers into the
belief that some piece of rubbish has had a genuinely successful London
run. Is not service of this character to be counted? Surely, at the
least, if we are to be abolished it should be recognized that the old
hands amongst us are entitled to some compensation. Why, sir, seeing
that serious politicians do not propose to suppress licences for the
sale of poisons without giving compensations, surely we, who have done
much and suffered much, ought not to be put into limbo without some
recognition of our services. I remain, yours sincerely,

CAPUT MORTUUM

Just a line. On careful consideration of this letter, it seems only
right to make a suggestion that some doubts exist whether it is entirely
genuine, but it certainly appears to contain some grains of truth.

Theatrical Advertisements

It may be doubted whether the historian will call our period "the age of
advertisement," though some have thought so. For there are such rapid
and prodigious growths in the base craft of beating the big drum that
our most audacious and colossal efforts may, to our grandchildren, seem
like a Brown Bess to a modern repeater in comparison with their means of
man-allurement. Of all the arts the one relying most upon advertisement
is the drama; yet the phrase is half-unjust to real drama.

Perhaps it is fairer to say that there is more advertisement in
connexion with the theatrical art than any other, or, indeed, all the
others put together. The position is surprising; a large mass of the
reading matter of the London papers is filled with copy concerning the
theatres and players, though only a small percentage is criticism. More
people would recognize each of thirty popular performers than could
identify even one of the great in other branches of art or in science. A
recent squabble about a couple of actresses has been the subject of
greater fuss than would be caused by the discovery of the lost books of
Livy