Unfortunately there ave no very apparent signs of a raising of th~ tone of pantomime. Tt is still in almost all cases redolent of the music-hall. The thread of the nursery story which forms the basis is of the slenderest, and is quite lost in the maze of music-hall "turns," while the humour is often far from refined, Children who love the old nursery stories are, know, sometimes a little bit grieved at the liberties which are taken with their favourites and there is no doubt that they enjoyed far more the pretty poetical pantomimes, with at the same time plenty of fun in them, which Mr. Oscar Barrett used to give us a fow years ago. But children do not form the major part of pantomime audienees, and moreover, children have to go where their elders take them. Conse. quently managers cater for adults; and it thus Be sadly confessed that the taste of the average adult, pantomime-goer is not very refined. He loves the music-hall type of entertainment, plenty of pretty girls displaying their charms; and the managers thus find this class of pan-tom ime the most profitable. I have heard descriptions from' first-nighters" of a large number of this year's London pan-tommies, and the impression I gather is that while many of them are exceedingly light and pretty, vulgarity is the predominant note in severa!. Some, indeed', are full risky jokes, which can hardly be edifying to growing children, who often understand 1 good deal more than their elders—forgetful of th ix own early days—suppose.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.