DIFFICULTIES WITH HALL-KEEPERS. 151 



necessary in putting it up, and would trust no one but 

 himself to stretch the canvas, fasten the guy-ropes, and 

 give the finishing touches. But the strain must often 

 have been a severe one, especially when, as often 

 happened, he had been travelling all day long, and only 

 arrived just in time to make the necessary preparations 

 before delivering his lecture. Even under the most 

 favourable circumstances the screen could never be 

 erected in less than an hour, and the physical exertion 

 involved, particularly in stretching the canvas, was very 

 severe, as I can testily from much personal experience. 

 And very often it would happen that the hall-keeper 

 was unable, or unwilling, to give the necessary assist- 

 ance. Hall-keepers, in fact, were a source of constant 

 trouble to my father, and he often inveighed bitterly 

 against them as a class, that is, for he met with many 

 shining exceptions. One great difficulty which he often 

 had with them was caused by their reluctance to allow 

 him to put the necessary screws into the floor. In the 

 case of the old cumbersome blackboard, there certainly 

 was some excuse for their unwillingness, for the screws 

 used were the well-known " stage-screws," which make 

 a ragged hole in the boarding fully half an inch across 

 But when the new frame took its place these were re- 

 placed by ordinary screw-eyes, making holes so small as 

 to be barely noticeable ; and, indeed, in putting up the 

 frame for a second lecture, it often required a very close 

 search to find the old holes. 



But some of these hall-keepers were as jealously 

 careful of their floor as a yacht-owner of his deck, and 



