e a pass
of admission to the ladies' cloakroom, but to reach the front of the
house meant a walk of four minutes round a complete block, and,
even if it had not been winter time, it is almost impossible for any
actress, when once dressed for her part, to go into the street without
attracting a great deal of notice, and also very likely entirely
spoiling her appearance, as theatrical "make-up" is only meant for the
dry atmosphere of the theatre.

On this same tour, in a famous south coast resort, this lady had to
dress in an underground dressing-room with twelve others, and the only
lavatory for women's use was opposite the stage-door box, where all
letters were called for, and the stage hands lounged about the whole
evening. In the most important town on this tour the dressing-room
in which she was directed to dress had, for its sole ventilation, the
door by which one entered, exactly facing the one general lavatory.
The aperture, high up in the wall, opened into another room where,
during this week, fifty cocks and hens, used in an animal turn, were
kept. It would be quite impossible to describe the sickening smell
which all this meant. The only thoroughly clean, sanitary hall which
she visited, was in Scotland.

In almost all the theatres, even where the conditions are considered
above criticism, the lavatories reserved for the ladies are, by a
curious arrangement, generally on the floor where most of the actors
dress. They are almost invariably difficult to use, for as the
dressing-rooms are usually allotted by men, there is little
consideration of women's comfort in this matter. It is a curious
side-light on the intelligence of men that they almost universally
seem to think that women, by a special Providence, are exempt from
these natural laws; and almost all women are still too Early Victorian
to insist upon some change. Many of the old theatres in London and the
provinces suffer from want of proper ventilation; and many of them
are appallingly, incredibly dirty. In the provinces dressing-rooms are
sometimes dripping with damp; and it is not an uncommon experience to
share the room with mice and other vermin.

It is only possible for me to touch very lightly on employment by the
cinematograph firms; but from the enquiries I have made, the usual
payment seems to be roughly from 5s. to 7s. 6d. a day, the workers
finding their own clothes: 10s. 6d. if the workers can ride and swim:
3s. a day for walking on, when