At least the
cultivated portion of the public at Warsaw never go to the theater to
see a poetic work of art, but only to see and enjoy the skill of the
performers. Of course there is no such thing as theatrical criticism
at Warsaw; but everybody rejoices when the actors succeed in causing
the wretchedness of the piece to be forgotten. The universal regret
for the wretched little theater on the Krasinski place, where
Suczkowska, afterward Mad. Halpert, founded her reputation in the
character of the Maid of Orleans, is the best criticism on the present
state of the drama.

The Russians take great delight in the most trivial pieces. Even
Prince Paskiewich sometimes stays till the close of the last act. To
judge by the direction of his opera-glass, which is never out of his
hand, he has the fortune to discover poetry elsewhere than on the
stage. In truth the Warsaw boxes are adorned by beautiful faces. Even
the young princess Jablonowska is not the most lovely.

The arrangements of the Warsaw theaters are exactly like those of the
Russian theater at St. Petersburg, but almost without exception, the
pupils of the dramatic school, of whom seventeen have come upon the
boards, have proved mere journeymen, and have been crowded aside by
performers from the provincial cities. None of the eminent artists of
late years have enjoyed the advantages of the school. The position
of the actors at Warsaw is just the same as at St. Petersburg. The
day after their first appearance they are regularly taken into duty
as imperial officials, take an oath never to meddle with political
affairs, nor join in any secret society, nor ever to pronounce on the
stage anything more or anything else than what is in the stamped parts
given them by the imperial management.

Actors' salaries at Warsaw are small in comparison with those of other
countries. Forty or fifty silver rubles a month ($26 to $33) pass for
a very respectable compensation, and even the very best performers
rarely get beyond a thousand rubles a year ($650). Madame Halpert
long had to put up with that salary till once Taglioni said to Prince
Paskiewich that it was a shame for so magnificent an artist to be no
better paid than a writer. Her salary was thereupon raised one-half,
and subsequently by means of a similar mediation she succeeded in
getting an addition of a thousand rubles yearly under the head of
wardrobe expenses. This was a thing so extraordinary that the managing
Gener