THE BIT THEATRE. 273 



offices connected with shipping, junk shops, Jew clothing 

 stores, Chinese laundries and low groggeries. The lioUow 

 square, which these buildings surrounded, was the dumping 

 place for superfluous material from the high ground over- 

 looking the bay, as well as for the odds and ends which comrfiu- 

 nities generally surreptitiously throw into such places. On the 

 planked streets, after the arrival of States' steamers and other 

 craft, drays thundered back and forth, confidence men played 

 their little games on incoming passengers, hotel runners did 

 their work, and bootblacks left their shining marks. 



One day in my saunterings over this portion of the city I 

 came across one of the places of amusement heading this 

 chapter. It Avas of no greater pretension than scores of the 

 rickety buildings surrounding it, except that it w^as of two 

 stories. The bar-room was as prominent a part of the 

 premises as the liquor announcement was of the posters, as 

 the audience was forced to pass through it to get to the 

 " auditorium." 



The manager w^as Miss Rowena Granice, whether an as- 

 sumed or real name I don't know. I saw her in the trying 

 light of day standing — leaning from a sort of inside balcony 

 above the bar-room — like another Juliet, or rather like the 

 grandmother of that interesting young woman, although on 

 her face paint, powder and paste had done their work, until 

 she looked like a flamboj^ant fright : an exemplification of the 

 conflict we are warring with time, and of the fact that we may 

 apply pigment and dye, we may pad and bewig, and wrap 

 our forms in the gay robes of youth, only to see what we are 

 trying to fend off come back like a pent-up flood, and, washing 

 ofl" cosmetic and color, and obliterating our other shams, 

 deliver the human humbug to Old Age's grim follower. The 

 Romeo who played to this Juliet was a rotund German, who, 

 from his position on the bar-room floor, invited her to step 

 down from her perch and take a drink with him ; a request 

 she coyly agreed to. 



