* * * * * OLD TIMES REVIVED. [Illustration] What! when _London Assurance_ is going off so well every night, isn't it a pity that it should go off altogether? CHARLES WYNDHAM as _Dazzle_ is delightfully flashy, and FARREN as the old beau, _Sir Harcourt_, admirable. Miss MOORE charming, Mrs. BEERE bright and sparkling; BOURCHIER quite up to "the Oxonian" mark of _Tom and Jerry_; BLAKELEY delicious, and GIDDENS as good a _Dolly Spanker_ as you'd wish to see. It's too good to be "taken off." Not that the piece itself is a perfect gem, but the acting! _Tout est là._ Oddsfish, your Majesty, CHARLES REX, Merry Monarch of the Cri, don't remove it altogether, but let us have it just once or twice a week during the season. CHARLES, "our friend," do! It's worth while, if but to see you sitting carelessly at the end of the piece in that chair, R.H., as if you didn't care for anything or anybody. Only--cut the tag and come to the Curtain. * * * * * THE ETHICS OF MATCH-BOXES. BY COUNT DOLLSTOI. (_INTENDED FOR A CONTEMPORARY, BUT FOUND TO BE TOO SHORT._) I. What is the true explanation of the use which people make of matches--of safety matches, wooden matches, wax matches, and, less commonly, of fusees? Ask any man why he uses such things, and he will tell you that he does it to get a light, or because others do it. Is this true? You will probably think so. Let us examine the question. Why does a man hold his hand in front of a match when he lights it in the street? To screen it from the wind, or _to hide it from the sight of passers-by?_ Why do ladies leave the dinner-table before the men begin to smoke? To avoid the smell of tobacco--which is well known to be aromatic, healthy, and delightful--or _because the natural modesty of women shrinks from witnessing the striking of a match?_ Why, in a railway-carriage, do you hold your fusee out of window when you light it? Is it because you do not care about being half-choked--a paltry plea--or is it to conceal from young persons who may be in the carriage the sparkle which must inevitably remind them of wicked and alluring eyes? "_To get a light, or because others do it._" Is that true? Do not trifle with the question. Read all my works. Do not get them from a contemptible circulating library, but buy them. II. Some may not yet be convinced that the striking of matches is suggestive and immoral. To me nearly everything is suggestive, but there are some stupid persons in England. I will be patient with them, and give them more evidence.