suggestion from a prosaic policeman that he cease to put idiotic
questions to the unoffending lamp-post.

There are those--and enough of them to fill any theatre--who sincerely
admire Mr. FECHTER; but it is impossible to resist the conviction that
their admiration is only a dutiful acquiescence in the judgment of Mr.
DICKENS. With the utmost desire to do no injustice to a genial
gentleman, who conscientiously strives to carry out his theories of what
acting should be, the undersigned is forced to confess that Mr. FECHTER
in an English play is a spectacle so hopelessly and earnestly absurd, as
to call for commiseration rather than for the laughter which it would
deserve were it professedly a burlesque entertainment.

MATADOR.

* * * * *

EXCELSIOR.

The _Gold Hill Daily News_, of Nevada, has found a big sapphire--a
regular _Koh-i-noor_ of gems. It says:

"While at San Francisco, a few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of seeing
the SANGALLI ballet troupe at MAGUIRE'S Opera House, and the artistic,
glowing beauties of the Sapphire dance yet pleasurably linger in our
memory."

The dance in question, which the Gold Hill editor describes as "a higher
order of the famous 'Can-can,'" is new to us. It makes us feel "blue" to
think that we have never seen the Sapphire dance. "Higher" than the