always
well driven home into the minds of the audience. We have not, however,
ventured to introduce any of our sages to theater audiences.

The theater in China is a much simpler affair than in America. The
residents in a locality unite and erect a large stage of bamboo and
matting, the bamboo poles are tied with strips of rattan, and all the
material of the stage, excepting the rattan, can be used over again
when it is taken down. Most of the audience stand in front of the
stage and in the open air, the theater generally being in front of the
temple; and the play, which often occupies three or four days, is often
performed in honor of the god's birthday. There is no curtain, and
there are no stage accessories. The audience is thus enabled to
concentrate its whole attention on the acting. Female parts are played
by men, and everything is beautifully simple. There is no attempt to
produce such elaborate effects as I have seen in the West, and of
course nothing at all resembling the pantomime, which frequently
requires mechanical arts. A newspaper paragraph caught my eye while
thinking of this subject. I reproduce it.

"The Century Theater in New York City has special apparatus for
producing wind effects, thunder and lightning simultaneously. The wind
machine consists of a drum with slats which are rotated over an apron
of corded silk, which produces the whistling sound of wind; the
lightning is produced by powdered magnesium electrically ignited;
thunder is simulated by rolling a thousand pounds of stone, junk and
chain down a chute ending in an iron plate, followed by half-a-dozen
cannon balls and supplemented by the deafening notes of a thunder drum."

Although, however, Chinese play-goers do not demand the expensive
outfits and stage sceneries of the West, I must note here that not even
on the American stage have I seen such gorgeous costumes, or robes of
so rich a hue and displaying such glittering gold ornaments and
graceful feathers, as I have seen on the simple Chinese stage I have
just described. Western fashions are having a tendency in our ports
and larger cities to modify some things that I have stated about
Chinese theatrical performances, but the point I wish especially to
impress on my readers is that theatrical performances in China, while
amusing and interesting, are seldom melodramatic, and as I look back on
my experiences in the United States, I cannot but think that the good
people there