their light wine and beer..." He is, at least, an optimist! But then,
we are reminded he is also a bachelor.

In his own American language JOHN WEAVER pictures the feelings of an
old-time saloon habitué when his former friend the barkeep, now rich
from bootlegging, with a home "on the Drive" and all that, declares
his socially-climbing daughter quite too good for this particular "Old
Soak's" son. Weaver's retrospect of "Bill's Place" will bring damp
eyes to the unregenerate:

"So neat! And over at the free-lunch counter,
Charlie the coon with a apron white like chalk,
Dishin' out hot-dogs, and them Boston Beans,
And Sad'dy night a great big hot roast ham,
Or roast beef simply yellin' to be et,
And washed down with a seidel of Old Schlitz!"

"The Puritans disliked the theatre because it was jolly. It was a
place where people went in deliberate quest of enjoyment." So says
ALEXANDER WOOLLCOTT, who emerges as a sort of economic champion of
stage morality, though no friend at all of censorship. Despite the
_mot_ "nothing risqué nothing gained," Woollcott emphatically
declares the bed-ridden play is not, as a general thing, successful.
"A blush is not, of course, a bad sign in the box-office," says he,
developing his theme, "but the chuckle of recognition is better. So is
the glow of sentiment, so is the tear of sympathy. The smutty and the
scandalous are less valuable than homely humor, melodramatic
excitement or pretty sentiment."

And last in this variegated and alphabeted company the anonymous