organ, made with a certain number of tunes and no more. These tunes may be played over and over again, as long as the public will listen, but they can neither be added to nor diminished. The machine will revolve its given number of times, and nothing can stop it. What one editor rejects, another is bound to take; what one publisher spurns, another is bound to print and circulate. Nature provides a remedy for this in fires, dry-rot, and other destructive agencies. The vanity of seeing one's name in print is not an unamiable weakness. The best books have some evil in them, and the worst some good. Let them go their ways in peace, and find their various levels.

JOHN HOLLINGSHEAD.

DEALING IN THEATRICALS.

HERE is no

brick-and-mortar

investment more profitable in London than that of building theatres, and there is no occupation more easy and agreeable than theatrical management. The happy landlord of a London theatre builds in odd holes and corners-in back-yards and blind-alleys, in slums and dust-holes; and when his temple of the drama is nearly complete, he obtains a narrow entrance and a frontage in a public thoroughfare sufficient to carry a flaming gas ‘device,' and immediately lets his property at a fifteen per cent. rental, reserving various privileges, and taking the fullest security. His choice of

tenants is ample and varied. At one end of his list are a host of penniless showmen; at the other are half a dozen belted earls with what are called 'theatrical proclivities.' Undeceived by the Micawberism of one class, or the dazzling brilliancy of the other, he demands and obtains those material guarantees which make business a pleasure and earth a paradise.

The theatrical manager's occupation is easy and agreeable, far beyond that of most occupations, because he has so many people to advise him and take an interest in his affairs. The soap-boiler in the City and the Government clerk at the West-end have no misgiving as to their power of directing his faltering footsteps. Sixty newspapers, more or less, seem to be written, printed, and published for no other purpose than to point out to him the many pitfalls in his path. Not only newspapers of an artistic character are amongst his friends, but trade journals leave their more serious affairs to watch over his trivialities. He is told what to do by the recognised organs of Mincing Lane; he is