In Residence

AU THEATRE DU GRAND GUIGNOL g1 ever been presented to the astounded consciousness of mortal men. Quickly overrunning the civilized world, it has penetrated (auspice Teucro) into the very remotest steppes of Central Asia, the wildest savannahs of the American prairie, where dog and oyster burble in plethoric harmony among the verdant shoots of cactus and coyote, where the giant Appomattox rolls in sulky majesty to the red bays of the Pacific. The Society formed to exploit this unheard- of invention is, naturally, of a most secret nature: perhaps I am revealing too much when I say that members are permitted to inscribe after their names the letters L.A.L. By the New Method, therefore, let us continue our interesting studies of the system of Doctor Goudron and Professor Plume. Laure, the first of three curtain (and hair) raisers, is a charming little drama. An ingénue comes by accident into possession of a letter compromis- ing her mother. Discovered by her father, she saves her mother by accusing herself. The mother, secure once more, bullies and ill-treats the heroic child, so that the curtain falls on her despairing shriek of “ Misérable!” Here then is truth! Notin a well, as lewd fellows have impotently pretended: but here, here on the stage of the Grand Guignol. It was just what happens every time, when anyone is fool enough to sacrifice themselves. It was magnificent ; it was war ! Curtain-lifter No. 2 was a still wittier scene, yet the element of improbability! damped, not indeed the en- thusiasm of the mob, but our own more sober and 1 A débutante with her mother finds herself by inadvertence at a ‘‘ gros numéro.” But we betray our correspondent’s reticence. Enough.—ED.