the various departments to which the working of scenery and effects
are entrusted.

[1] A _drop_ is the general name for a curtain of canvas--painted
to represent some scene and stretched on a batten--a long, thick
strip of wood--pocketed in the lower end to give the canvas the
required stability. _Sets of lines_ are tied to the upper batten
on which the drop is tied and thus the drop can be raised or lowered
to its place on the stage. There are sets of lines in the rear
boundaries of One, Two, Three and Four, and drops can be _hung_
on any desired set.

1. The Stage-Carpenter and His Flymen and Grips

As a rule the stage-manager is also the stage-carpenter. As such
he, the wizard of scenery, has charge of the men, and is able to
erect a palace, construct a tenement, raise a garden or a forest,
or supply you with a city street in an instant.

Up on the wall of the stage, just under a network of iron called
the "gridiron"--on which there are innumerable pulleys through
which run ropes or "lines" that carry the scenery--there is, in
the older houses, a balcony called the "fly-gallery." Into the
fly-gallery run the ends of all the lines that are attached to the
counter-weighted drops and curtains; and in the gallery are the
flymen who pull madly on these ropes to lift or lower the curtains
and drops when the signal flashes under the finger of the stage-manager
at the signal-board below. But in the newer houses nearly all
drops and scenery are worked from the stage level, and the
fly-gallery--if there is one--is deserted. When a "set" is to be