become an unmitigated nuisance.
Fortutunately she was followed by a caricature
still more untrue and repulsive, in the
shape of the Young Man of the Day; a
caricature so repulsive, and so unlike
the truth, that it proved to have no
vitality whatever. The young man, it may
be hoped, will now conduct his sister to
oblivion. The Girl of the Period is produced
at the two theatres in question, at a
vast advertising expense, and with a
magnificence remarkable to behold. Nothing
comes of it but a gorgeous exhibition of
impossible dresses.

In connexion with this point attention
may be called to a most aggravating
custom which appears, year by year, and
more and more, to find favour with
managers. Advertising is one of the
theatrical nuisances of the time. The playbill
is a mere advertisement, and the names
of the performers have to be hunted out
from a mass of glycerine, and rose water,
and cosmetics. The pantomime reeks with
advertisements. What does anybody care
about the makers of the dresses of the Girls
of the Period? Can it interest the public to
know that Messrs. Want and Ask, or Knag
and Rankle, are responsible for the paniers
and fichus worn by those charmers?
Suppose the eminent firm of Wheedler and Co.
did supply the gloves, what then?

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that
nothing is done even by the clowns at the
establishments under notice, unconnected
with advertising. The well-known boxes
suggestive of droll surprises, are continually
being carried in by tottering supers for
advertising purposes. Harlequin wags his
head, and flourishes his wand, but after the
usual sounding slap on the canvas no
laughter-moving trick ensues. The box
opens, and the affair is found to be an
advertisement pure and simple; a puff of
somebody's sherry, or somebody else's
mustard, or yet another person's coats. Whole
scenes are arranged with this object alone;
and the result is most distressingly dismal.

When the clowns are not engaged in
calling attention to the different wares to
be recommended, they are occupied with
beating and maltreating policemen. And
this brings Your Commissioner to points
which he really thinks worthy of your
Lordship's attention. From time immemorial
a policeman has been the natural
butt of the clown. He has been deceived,
cajoled, punched, bonneted, in countless
pantomimes. His miseries have been
invariably received with delight. But, in
the present season, this matter takes a
wholesale form. The police force is held up
to persistent ridicule, and claptrap appeals
to the gallery against the police are made
in every scene. The gratification with which
these are received, stimulates the clown to
fresh exertions, and the changes are persistently
rung on the muzzle rules, on the hoop
regulations, and on the supposed general
incompetency of the force. The police have just
now a difficult task to perform, and it would
be just and politic to ensure them fair
play. Your Commissioner is not desirous
of emulating the colonel of marines at
Plymouth, and is of opinion that no man or
body of men is the worse for a little
harmless "chaff." But in this case the chaff is
not a little, nor is it harmless. It would
possibly not be detrimental to the public
interest if your Lordship were to consider
the propriety of slightly abbreviating the
present licence in this matter. It appears
to Your Commissioner to be at least as
important as the elongation of the skirts of
the ballet.

Again, does the new Factory Act apply
to theatres? If it do, how comes it that the
stage swarms with "young persons and
children" to an advanced period of the
night? If it do not, does it not
appear desirable that some effective
supervision should be instituted over the work
done by absolute babies, in pantomime? It
appears a singular anomaly that the
proprietor of a mill should not be allowed to
employ children of a certain age at all;
should be strictly under regulation as to the
kind of work to be done by older children;
and should be absolutely restricted to
certain hours of work; if the manager of a
theatre be allowed to do in this respect
exactly as he likes. For little children to
go through their share of the pantomime
from two till five, and then again from
eight till eleven, and this twice a week,
seems hard work. Your Lordship may
think the question worth consideration.
The unhappy appearance and visible terror
of some of the "young persons" grilling
high up among the gas battens, in
transformation scenes, may likewise not be lost
upon your Lordship.

Only one pantomime remains to be
considered to complete the list of that kind of
entertainment at the West-end of the town.
Burlesque has driven the pantomimists
from all but three theatres in this quarter.
This third pantomime offers but little for
Your Commissioner's remark. A singularly
active, and apparently boneless,