In stage literature of a frivolous nature the lawyer is a very
different individual. In comedy he is young, he possesses chambers,
and he is married (there is no doubt about this latter fact); and his
wife and his mother-in-law spend most of the day in his office and
make the dull old place quite lively for him.

He only has one client. She is a nice lady and affable, but her
antecedents are doubtful, and she seems to be no better than she ought
to be--possibly worse. But anyhow she is the sole business that the
poor fellow has--is, in fact, his only source of income, and might,
one would think, under such circumstances be accorded a welcome by his
family. But his wife and his mother-in-law, on the contrary, take a
violent dislike to her, and the lawyer has to put her in the
coal-scuttle or lock her up in the safe whenever he hears either of
these female relatives of his coming up the stairs.

We should not care to be the client of a farcical comedy stage lawyer.
Legal transactions are trying to the nerves under the most favorable
circumstances; conducted by a farcical stage lawyer, the business
would be too exciting for us.



THE ADVENTURESS.

She sits on a table and smokes a cigarette. A cigarette on the stage
is always the badge of infamy.

In real life the cigarette is usually the hall-mark of the