called the Theatre Commission, which thinks it has got even with woman. It met the other day under the presidency of M, Lépine, the Prefect of Police, and decided (in consequence of the numerous scenes that have occurred Paris theatres during the past season, owing to ladies wearing large hats and refusing to remove them when requested) that wearing hats of excessive dimensions should be prohibited in theatres under penalty of a fine. It is too soon yet to ascertain what is thought of this decision by the sex that rocks the and wears the hats, bat if there is anything certain in this weary world, that the commission has been wasting its time. Ifit had not been com-of mere men, it would have known that the first duty of woman, and especially of theatre-going woman, is to be in the fashion; that if fashion decrees that large hats must be worn, they will be worn in theatres as elsewhere; that if any serious attempt is made to enforce the new regulation, women will stay ray from the theatres and take their menkind with them, 60 that the theatrical managers will be obliged, in self-defence, to implore them to come back again, hats and all. The simplest solution of the problem would be for the theatres to provide proper cloakroom accommodation, so that a lady could remove her hat in the lobby with some hope that it would be restored to her after the play without being damaged. Unfortunately all Paris theatres
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.