breakes
up,"--"_in wild confusion_" carried out? No one knows better than this
present scribe what changes are necessitated at the last moment, and
after the book is published. But an alteration which omits the point of
the story is scarcely an improvement. It does not affect me that the
demon _Scroogins_ was reduced comparatively to a dummy, for poor Mr.
SHIEL BARRY was suffering from dreadful hoarseness, and could hardly
speak, much less sing. There were originally too many plums in the
pudding. The knock-about scene by two ARMSTRONGS, in imitation of our
old friends the Two MACS, very ingeniously introduced as _Jeames the
First_ and _Jeames the Second_, Royal Footmen, is immensely funny.
_Cinderella's_ joedelling lullaby is pretty. All the music is bright and
lively, and I fancy that though there are the names of four or five
Composers to the bill, Conductor SOLOMON,--who keeps them all going, and
sticks to his beat with the tenacity of a policeman,--has done the major
part of it, and the minor too. Bravo, Mr. EDWARD SOLOMON! "What's a hat
without a head?" and what's a Norchestra without a NED? Mr. ALFRED
CELLIER is responsible for a charming minuet.

Extraordinary Omission from the Shakspeare Tableaux at Her
Majesty's, when they had the materials at hand--

Illustration: "THE TWO MACS."

One more question--Where were "the Lyrics by Mr. CLEMENT SCOTT?" Is Mr.
LESLIE satisfied with one Lyric in Shaftesbury Avenue? And is he keeping
back Mr. SCOTT'S for his next Opera? Perhaps though, as Miss VIOLET
CAMERON now appears as the Prince, the lyrics are sweetly sung, which is
an inducement to revisit _Cinderella chez elle_.

The Transformation Scene is very effective. Will the Public ever regain
their taste for the short Pantomime, with one Big Show in it, and an
hour's Harlequinade. JACK IN THE PRIVATE BOX.

* * * * *

A JAPANESE BELLE.

"This tiny Japanese lady, whom you left, as you thought, on the lid
of the glove-box at home."--_Sir Edwin Arnold, in Daily Telegraph._

EDWIN ARNOLD, Knight and Poet, vividly descriptive man,
I'm in love, and you must know it, with your _belle_ in far Japan.

Her _kimono_ looks so telling with sleeve swaying in the wind,
And the amber _obi_ swelling into satin bows behind.

Though her charming little nose is, you confess, a trifle flat,
When the lips are red as roses, who would stop to think of that?

Sunny smiles so s