As It Worked.

Otago Witness, Issue 2437, 28 November 1900, Page 69

As It Worked.

A famous actress narrates the story of the greatest lesson she ever received against too much realism. In a certain drama the heroine, under great excitement, suddenly stops to gain composure as she hears the approaching carriages of her unexpected guests. "Mark!" she, says. "I hear the wheels of their carriages." We obtained the effects of approaching wheels (says the actress), but, try as we would, the stamping of the horses' feet upon the gravel before Clarisse's cioor we could not manage. At last a brilliant idea struck me, which the stage manager endorsed. It was that we should have a donkey from Covent Garden to trot tip and down behind the scene 3on the gravel especially laid for him. We were decidedly nervous on tho firrt appearance of our iour-footed friend, whose role was to counterfeit the high-step-ping horses of the brilliant French Court. When his cue was given there was only an ominous silence. I repeated the word in a loudei voice, when such a braying and FcufHing were heard as sent tue audience into prolonged roars of laughter. Although it was one of the most serious situations of the play, I could not help joining in their mirth until ethe tears rolled down my cheeks.