of a time, you should just have a look at the foreman’s battlefield. The curtain has hardly reached the ground when twenty pairs of hands seize the flats and practicables and begin “taking to bits.”
The prospects are hauled up, the property man throws his things into a basket, the upholsterer rolls up his carpet, raising clouds of dust, the furniture men remove tables and chairs, the trap-door sinks with a groan beneath one’s feet, and look out! A new prospect comes sailing down on to people’s heads from the flies. And here are the new walls already, the upholsterer hammers on hangings, the electricians drag cables about the stage, the property man rolls on with a new basket of things and the furniture men with new tables and cupboards. “Look sharp there!”—“Get out of the way with that, man!”—“Look out!”—“My God!”—“Mind your head!”—“Out of the way with them steps!”—“Hold this, Franta!”—“What on earth are you doing, man?”—“Screw it on, then!”—“Out of the way!”
L
