with a large G. Its inventive power is limited to the substitution of this one letter. And the individuals who appear upon the stages of the booths to sing the "trial d'operette" are also the refuse of the _café_ concerts. They can only impose upon an unsophisticated audience. For this reason the _forain_ opera is no longer found in the suburban fairs of Paris or other large cities. It is confined to country fairs and provincial festivities.
But the variety houses are on quite a different scale. The most flourishing and the best known at the present time are the establishments kept by Marquette and Emile Cocherie, who styles himself on his programmes, "Head of the _fêtes_ of Paris." At the commencement of each campaign, that is to say before the Fair du Trône, Emile Cocherie gives an audience in his villa at the Porte de Montrouge to all the [p090] artists who aspire to enter his troupe. In his presence the candidates must all _jouent le canevas_, _i.e._ improvise a scene with dialogue upon a given subject. The same old themes are used which have served ever since the origin of the open-air [p091] stage; all the situations of the Italian comedies and Gallic farces which amused the crowd even in the time of the _escholiers_. A new topic is not prohibited, but there are very few "patterers" who can _speak outside as well as inside_, as the terms of the engagements run.
Still clever actors who can improve the performance receive extra salaries. The illustrious Clam, who is called _the last of the merry-andrews_, earned as much as five hundred francs a month at the _forain_ theatres. I asked M. Cocherie, who was left inconsolable by the departure of this whimsical performer, why he did not try to replace him by some young student of comedy who had passed creditably through the Conservatoire.
"He would not suit me," replied the experienced manager. "I have tried them, and still have one in my show, but he does not succeed. The lads have not effective voices, they are not merry and, above all, they have no gift for improvisation. A commercial traveller who can push a sale well, a hawker from the street, would be much more in my line than M. Coquelin _aîné_."
And it is quite true, this Clam is a splendid clown. I do not recommend you to make his acquaintance in the _Clamiana_, a collection of jokes which seem very dull when they are read, printed with old type in a small newspaper. Clam should be heard outside the show in the tumult of smacks and kicks which accompanies his improvised dialogue with his butt.