Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-10-15

machinery. They know Jus. what they want,
and they have excellent Judgment as to what is
good. There are a number Of good-sized cities,
and l played eleven months in three cities
alone; l travelled all over Australia, went
60 the gold regions and had success
everywhere. / can get an engagement any
time l want it there and consider the country
one of the best paying amusement countries Of
the world. went from it to Ceylon and played
at Colombo for several weeks and then went
on to Hjndoostan."
IN CHINA AND JAPAN.
"How did you like China and Japan?"
Every much, indeed" replied Mrs. Potter.
"Coming from Calcutta We sailed to Singapore
and Penang and thence to Hong Kong. There is q
good theater here and large English popula-
ton. The Island of Hong Kong belongs to
England though all the laborers and many Of
the merchants there are Cinnamon. From Hong
hongf went to the big Chinese city of Canton.
This place has about million or 30 inhabitants,
but there are few English in 1t. The next
big city 1 played in was Shanghai,
which the foreigners call the Paris of the east.
II has good theaters and o great number Of
English and Americans and French 1t has
many rich people living in it and you need as
good clothes to appear in the Anglo-Shanghai
society as you do in London society. / acted
here for some time and then went to Japan. I
sailed across the inland sea and landed first at
Nagasah. The trip from Shanghai ia q delight
full one and Nagnsaki is of the prettiest cities
in the world. 1t has about 10000 people
and the japanese houses in which these live are
built around the sides of great hills which slope
down into beautiful bay. From here l went
TO Kobe, another big town, end then on to
Yokohama and Toxic. At Toxic I played
before the mikado at his palace and he
gave me japanese pug dog, which l have
named after him, "Mutsuhito. When played
in Toxic we had to keep the play going all day,
and We began to act at O'Clock in the morn
ing and it was not until dark that we stopped.
In both China and Japan they keep the theaters
open all day, and in Toxic the families who
| came brought their lunches with them. and the
seats nearly all the floor, the Japs squat
ting down and sitting either on their heels
or cross-legged. The stage was on pivot and
when 1t was necessary to change from one scene
to another the stage was rolled around and the
scenery, which had been made up at the back,
was thus brought around to the front. There
were number of the best ladies of
Toxic at the theater when'I played and they
| were very anxious to see my clothes and to ex-
anime into their makeup. The japanese like
long delays between the acts, and the men had
n way of coming behind the scenes without ask
ing that did not much like. The Japanese
theaters themselves seldom have ladies among
| their actors and the parts of women are always
taken by boys or men,"
THE AFRICAN TOWN CUT SHORT By FIRE.
'Did you go from Japan to Africa?" asked.
NO." replied Mrs. Potter. ~ went first
back to London and from there we sailed to
the Cape of Good Hope. We arrived there on
the 21st of January and two days later we
opened the theater in Cape Town with the
biggest house ever seen in that city. We played
Romeo and Juliet and / received with a
perfect ovation. We played there a month
aud had good houses every night. and we
thought we were going TO make a lot Of money.
We had just begun the fifth week, when one
Sunday afternoon a fire broke out in the
theater aud it burned to- the ground. Our
wardrobes were all consumed in the
fire and nearly all of our stage prop
erty We lost thousands of dollars worth of
property and the result was We had to throw