be a success." The author and the interpreters of
his thoughts are in complete communion. The first night comes. The
piece is a failure! Drop into the greenroom then and you will find an
astonishing change has taken place. The Star will take you into a corner
and assert that, she "always knew the thing could not go, it was too
imbecile, with such a company, it was folly to expect anything else." The
author will abuse the Star and the management. The whole troupe is
frankly disconcerted, like people aroused out of a hypnotic sleep,
wondering what they had seen in the play to admire.

In the social world we are even more inconsistent, accepting with
tameness the most astonishing theories and opinions. Whole circles will
go on assuring each other how clever Miss So-and-So is, or, how beautiful
they think someone else. Not because these good people are any cleverer,
or more attractive than their neighbors, but simply because it is in the
air to have these opinions about them. To such an extent does this hold
good, that certain persons are privileged to be vulgar and rude, to say
impertinent things and make remarks that would ostracize a less fortunate
individual from the polite world for ever; society will only smilingly
shrug its shoulders and say: "It is only Mr. So-and-So's way." It is
useless to assert that in cases like these, people are in possession of
their normal senses. They are under influences of which they are
perfectly unconscious.

Have you ever seen a piece guyed? Few sadder sights exist, the human
being rarely getting nearer the brute than when engaged in this
amusement. Nothing the actor or actress can do will satisfy the public.
Men who under ordinary circumstances would be incapable of insulting a
woman, will whistle and stamp and laugh, at an unfortunate girl who is
doing her utmost to amuse them. A terrible example of this was given two
winters ago at one of our concert halls, when a family of Western singers
were subjected to absolute ill-treatment at the hands of the public. The
young girls were perfectly sincere, in their rude way, but this did not
prevent men from offering them every insult malice could devise, and
making them a target for every missile at hand. So little does the
public think for itself in cases like this, that at the opening of the
performance had some well-known person given the signal for applause, the
whole audience would, in all probability, have been delight