s on life, and mould their conduct on that of the characters.
Even the daughter in _Alice Sit-by-the-Fire_, with her views based on
melodrama concerning her mother, was not wholly extravagant. Of course
this puts a rather heavy responsibility upon dramatists. The _Jack
Sheppard_ and _Dick Turpin_ plays are said to have fired many youths
with a desire to become romantic criminals, and even caused them to make
efforts to carry out their desires. Nowadays--at least in the theatres
within our province--such pieces are not presented; nor would one
quarrel with the Censor if he were to prohibit one of them. There is
little peril in a work like _Raffles_; for though it would not be
difficult to exhibit skill in crime as great as that of the hero, a
capacity for being a first-class cricketer and an education at Eton seem
to be essential elements of the character, and these serve as
insurmountable stumbling-blocks to many. Yet a Raffles may set a fashion
and have humble imitators, so far as personal style is concerned, among
the professors of the fine art of crib-cracking.

The Professor Moriarty of _Sherlock Holmes_ really employed too much
machinery to be copied by the crowd.

That the stage sometimes takes the lead in the matter of costume cannot
be disputed--possibly the day will arrive when the emancipation of man
from the thrall of the "topper," the frock-coat and stiff collar is
brought about through the energies of the theatre--though it will
require a London actor of the Le Bargy type to achieve such a triumph,
and he is not yet in sight, and may not appear until after the motorist
has accomplished the miracle. At present, even in the matter of ladies'
frocks, the London stage has less influence than one might have
expected.

At the moment one seeks vainly for any stage type likely to create a
character which afterwards it will seem to reflect. Perhaps Mr G.P.
Huntley has had some success in this respect; certainly it is imaginable
that if he were to represent a well-written part in comedy as a kind of
twentieth-century Dundreary we should meet imitators of him in shoals;
but this has yet to come, and if it does a good many people will fail to
rejoice--a phrase without prejudice to admiration for a player
concerning the limits of whose power as a comedian one may well have
real curiosity.

Turning back for a moment to the dialogue, one can hardly feel surprised
that playwrights are easily satisfied with ready-made p