ughter. It was a cruel thing to do.

But I forgive him. I take away many delightful memories of my evening with
_Pygmalion_, and, best of all, the picture of Sir HERBERT'S frank and
childlike pleasure at having discovered Mr. BERNARD SHAW.

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Jones_ (_selecting a uniform for his chauffeur_). "I LIKE
THIS ONE BEST, BUT IT'S RATHER EXPENSIVE."

_Expert Salesman._ "THEN I SHOULD HAVE IT. AFTER ALL, THE GUV'NOR PAYS!"]

* * * * *

"POTASH AND PERLMUTTER."

If you have ever been to an American commercial drama, you will know the
opening scene of this one before the curtain goes up. The business
interior; the typewriter on the left; the head of the firm opening cryptic
correspondence and dictating unintelligible answers; spasmodic incursions
of cocksure buyers and bagmen; a prevailing air of smartness, of hustle, of
get-on-or-get-out. In _The Melting Pot_ Mr. ZANGWILL has been creating a
diversion with an Hebraic theme, his hero being a refugee from Kieff, where
his family had perished in a pogrom. This new variation has
occurred--independently, no doubt--to the author of _Potash and
Perlmutter_, who has grafted it (including the detail of the immigrant from
Kieff) on the old commercial stock, and done very well indeed with his
blend.

His two protagonists in the Teuton-American-Semitic firm of "cloak and
suit" manufacturers that gives its title to the play are extraordinarily
alive. I am but imperfectly acquainted with this racial variety, but I can
easily recognise that Messrs. AUGUSTUS YORKE and EGBERT LEONARD, who
represent the two partners, are gifted with the most amazing powers of
observation and reproduction.

The pair are alike in their mercenary tastes and in that loyalty which is
so fine a feature of the Jewish race, and is here found in frequent
conflict with their commercial instincts. The cruel wrench that their
generosity always costs them is a true measure of its excellence. They
quarrel alike over details of business policy; but they always stand
together where profit is obviously to be made by a common attitude, or
where they find themselves in a tight corner. Yet the author has preserved
a nice distinction between them. It is _Potash_, the elder of the two, and
encumbered by fetters of domestic affection, who is the weaker vessel, and
commits the indiscretions with whose issue he is impotent to cope; it is
_Perl