No doubt this letter will reach you with many others, with signatures anonymous and otherwise. Being a bit spiteful I will confine myself to five lines in the hope of gaining insertion. Are not pieces with "girls with a past" played out? Then why slay the slain? I am sure healthier work will now be submitted to the public. And when that happy time arrives there will be found on my bookshelves certain brown-paper-covered tomes that are waiting the inspection of every actor-manager in London. Need I say more? You yourself, Sir, will practically answer the question.
Permit me to keep the ball a rolling. Why is the "young lady of fifteen" to be alone protected? Are not the boys and girls of an older growth to be also preserved from contamination? What is to be done for that large class of playgoers who have entered their second childhood?
Now that a piece at present being played at a West-End theatre has been well advertised for a whole week in the more largely-read columns of a most influential daily paper, it is to be sincerely hoped that _Box_ and _Cox_ are satisfied.
"With kind regards"--'tis good to see your writing Even on meagre correspondence-cards, But would more matter you had been inditing With kind regards!
Below you add that you are "mine sincerely," I wonder if in those two words you wrote A sweet confession that you care--or merely The usual ending to a friendly note?
I wonder if that week you still remember, The shooting lunches and round games of cards, Our walks and talks that wonderful September-- I wonder what you meant by "kind regards"!
With kind regards, and eyes that, reading, soften I read your note, most blessed among cards, And think of you--I dare not say _how_ often-- With kind regards.
APPROPRIATE.--_The Command of the Sea_, by WILKINSON SHAW. The author will be hereafter known as "SEA-SHAW."
_Mr Punch._ "WELL, SIR, AND WHAT FOUND YOU IN MUSCOVY?"
_Prince of Wales_ (_quoting Shakspeare_). "'NOTHING BUT PEACE, AND GENTLE VISITATION'!"]
_Desperate Position of Messrs. Duffer and Phunk, who are rival aspirants for the hand of Miss Di._
_Miss Di_ (_unable to get her Horse to face the water as a jump_). "OH, DO PLEASE, ONE OF YOU, JUST TRY IF THAT PLACE IS FORDABLE!"