HUMOURS OF THEATRICAL "VISITORS' BOOKS."

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2644, 28 January 1908, Page 7

HUMOURS OF THEATRICAL "VISITORS' BOOKS."

The chief characteristic of theatrical lodgings are dingy furniture, a talkative landlady, and a grimy "Visitors' Book," wherein the departing actor or actress is invariably asked to inscribe some remark before leaving. The book is usually brought in along with the "bill" on Sunday morning, and few players refrain from making some comment in its pages. The majority of the remarks are of the stereotyped order, lauding the lodgings and praising the cooking of "ma" (by which familiar name the provincial landlady is known to her Thespian patrons), but occasionally one lights upon observations of a more or less quaint nature. For instance, the writer once espied in a visitors' book at some particularly uncomfortable lodgings, a couplet that ran thus :

I'm taking my leave to-day, and it's clear That's the only thing worth taking here ;

whilst in another lodging, where comfort was conspicuous by its absence. an injured Thespian delivered himself thus "These are the best lodgings I have ever stayed at —with the exception of two thousand others. I shall certainly recommend them to everybody (except my friends), and I can safely say that* every comfort is carefully unprovided by Mrs. " Sometimes a player will comment upon the business done at the theatre. whilst bestowing a word of praise upon* the landlady. It is no uncommon thing to find remarks of this sort "Business here absolutely rotten, but the week redeemed by the kindness of Mrs , who made us very comfortable and anxious to come back. Shall always think kindly of 'ma.' and only wish there were more like her." Rather amusing was the comment of an actor who evidently had enjoyed the cooking provided by his landlady. It consisted of a quatrain that ran thus The actor has a weary time, For folks tread on his bunions ; But snubs «ire all forgotten when We taste ma's steak and onions. Another Thespian poet, writing in a different vein, proclaimed that All the world may be a stage, but there'd be no actors there If they had to live on the wretched grub that I've been eating here.