A very remarkable woman is Pauline Hall, whose stage career of twenty-five years encompasses every experience possible in light opera in this country. Miss Hall began as a dancer. She spent her apprenticeship in the chorus. She sang inconsequential roles in opera, and she acted small parts in drama. She had her season in burlesque. She was for years the foremost figure in the best light-opera organization this country has ever known. She has starred, and she is to-day a better singer than the majority of her youthful contemporaries, a better actress than all except a very few of them, and a more satisfactory all-around artist--if the expression be permissible--than any of them. When I heard her sing with Francis Wilson in "Cyrano de Bergerac"--about the stupidest opera, by the way, ever produced--and in "Erminie" in the spring of 1900, I was amazed; her voice was in splendid condition, certainly better than it had been five years before, true in tone, clear, and without huskiness. It showed its wear only in the loss of the richness and sweetness--the music, one might say--of the old Casino days. In figure Miss Hall was trim and youthful. Her face was plump and rounded like a girl's. Her hair, cut short for boys' parts and coquettishly curled, retained its dark, almost black, hue, while her eyes--wonderfully handsome they always were--snapped and sparkled like a debutante's. Pauline Hall's fame reached its height during the long run of "Erminie" at the New York Casino. She was the originator of the role of the Erminie, and she sang in the opera in all the principal cities of the country. She was--and is still, for that matter--one of the finest formed women on the American stage, and her stately manner and graceful demeanor gained for her the sobriquet so commonly associated with her name--statuesque. During her subsequent starring career Miss Hall continued a popular favorite, although she was not consistently successful in obtaining operas of notable merit. "Puritania" met with excellent success, but "The Honeymooners" and "Dorcas" were neither of them strong enough to make any lasting impression. They were both of the familiar "prima donna in tights" type, and their librettos were without striking originality, and their scores showed only commonplace tunefulness. In spite of this handicap Miss Hall succeeded in maintaining--largely through the force of her personality and art--her place among the foremost in light opera in this country. During the season of 1899-1900 she most happily again became associated with Francis Wilson, who is also an "Erminie" product. Miss Hall, with her renewed youth and her years of experience, at once took a position in Wilson's company, second only to the star. In "Cyrano" she made Christian--a barren and sterile character--vigorous, picturesque, and attractive, while her Princess in "Erminie," barring the loss of vocal mellowness already referred to, was stronger than it was a dozen years ago.