to me: "Papa, I
am glad to see so many of our own countrymen." She certainly had never
seen so many before, without intermixture of people of foreign races.
Now it is certainly our wish to carry that intensity into everything. If
the thing is worth doing at all it is worth doing thoroughly. What we do
we mean to do it for everybody. You have seen the result. We try, for
instance, if we open a Latin school at all, to have it the best Latin
school in the world. And then we throw it open to everybody, to native
and heathen, to Jew and to Greek, to white and black and red, and we
advise you to go and do likewise. [Applause.]

You recollect the old joke, I think it began with Preston of South
Carolina, that Boston exported no articles of native growth but granite
and ice. That was true then, but we have improved since, and to these
exports we have added roses and cabbages. Mr. President, they are good
roses, and good cabbages, and I assure you that the granite is excellent
hard granite, and the ice is very cold ice. [Laughter and applause.]

WILLIAM F. HALL

YARN OF THE MANAGER BOLD

[Speech of William P. Hall (popularly known by his pen name, "Biff"
Hall) at the fortieth dinner of the Sunset Club, Chicago, Ill.,
January 7, 1892. The Secretary, Joseph B. Mann, acted as Chairman. The
general subject of the evening's discussion was, "The Modern Stage;
its Mission and Influence."]

GENTLEMEN.:--I must confess that I have never regarded the
drama in a very serious light. As to its purpose and mission, if I was
trying to find out, I should consult the pleasant-faced young man who
sits in the box-office. He knows how these things stand with the public.
Perhaps the reason I do so regard the matter may be found in my early
experiences. The first theatrical performance I ever saw was in this
city twenty-five years ago, and one of the prominent features was our
old friend, Billy Rice.[6] Billy Rice never gives rise to a serious
thought on any occasion. Why, the other night I went to hear Billy Rice,
and I heard him tell that same old story that he told in the same old
way twenty-five years ago. It really gave me the idea that the drama is
not progressive. [Laughter.]

I consider that the theatre and the newspaper are brother and sister;
they are always together. Wherever two or three are gathered together in
the wilderness some venturesome individual starts a newspaper, and then
immediately through its column