was commendable. A live ass is better than a dead lion; and so the
Republican Party, who consider themselves very much alive, went to look
after their daily thistles and left their dead lion in charge of a
policeman.

* * * * *

THE PLAYS AND SHOWS.

LOTTA is lithe; (which is alliterative,) pretty, piquant, and addicted
to the banjo. The latter characteristic is inseparable from her. In
whatever situation the dramatist may place her, whether in a London
drawing-room or a Cockney kitchen, whether on an Algerian battle-field
or in a California mining-camp, she is certain to produce the inevitable
banjo, and to sing the irrepressible comic song. In fact, her plays are
written not for LOTTA, but for LOTTA'S banjo. The dramatist takes the
presence of the banjo as the central fact of his drama, and weaves his
plot around it. His play is made on the model of that celebrated drama
written to introduce Mr. CRUMMLES'S pump and tubs. Thus does he preserve
the sacred unity of LOTTA and the banjo.

_Heart's Ease_--in which she is now playing at NIBLO'S Garden, is
plainly born of the banjo, and lives for that melodious instrument
alone. The author said to himself, "A California mining-camp would be a
nice place for a banjo solo." Wherefore he conceived the camp, with a
chorus of red-shirted miners. Wherefore too, he created a comic Yankee
who should be eccentric enough to bring a banjo to the camp, and a lover
who should be charmed by its touching strains. It required a prologue
and three acts to enable him to successfully introduce the banjo. In a
somewhat condensed form, these acts and this prologue are here set