ch besmears its prey with slime, only to gorge it the more
easily.

On reviewing what we have written, we find no observation on Master
Payne's voice, in which nature has been very bountiful to him. We heard
him a few times, with no little pain strain it out of its compass. He
need not do so; since, judiciously managed, it is equal to all the
purposes of his profession. Those are dangerous experiments, by which
he may spoil a voice naturally clear, melodious, and of tolerable
compass. His pronunciation is at times hurtful to a very nice ear. He is
not to imagine that he has spoken as he ought when he has uttered words
as they are pronounced in general conversation. There are some, and high
ones too, who will say "good boy" when they mean "goodbye;" and it would
not be at all impossible to hear a very fine lady say that she was daown
in taown, to buy a gaown. We do not accuse Master Payne of this; but at
times a little of the _a_ cheats the _o_ of its good old round rights;
so distantly however, as not to be noticed except by a very accurate
ear--but he ought not to let _any ear_ discover it.

To the correct orthoepist, several persons on the stage give offence in
the pronunciation of the pronoun possessive MY--speaking it in all cases
with the full open Y, as it would rhyme to _fly_, which should only be
when it is put in contradistinction to _thy_ or _his_, or any other
pronoun possessive: in all other cases it should be sounded like _me_.
This is a pure Americanism, not practised in any other place where the
English language is spoken, and, so far as it goes, deprives the word of
a quality of nice distinctness.

It gives us great pleasure to communicate to our readers the
intelligence that Master Payne's success at Richmond, even surpassed
that which he had met before. From a letter submitted to our perusal we
have, with permission, made the following extract: "Wednesday night
Payne arrived; Thursday was the first day of his performance; the other
nights, being Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and
Saturday, when the house closed for the season; and on Sunday he
departed in the mail stage. This flying visit (of ten days only)
produced him upwards of SEVENTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS!!"

* * * * *

It was our intention to confine our remarks on this occasion entirely to
Master Payne. It seemed to us that the interest taken by the public in
this native plant, the novelty