["When _Chu Chin Chow_ reaches its 2,000th representation on the 29th, it will have run for 1,582 days, 26 days longer than the War." _Sunday Times._] Behind its pendent curtain folds We know not what the future holds; We only know that worlds have gone Since _Chu Chin Chow_ was first put on. Mid all our stress and strife and change This strikes me as extremely strange; I think when plays go on like this There ought to be an artistice. But, when we have another war After the peace we've toiled so for, And empires break and thrones are bust And nations tumble in the dust, And culture, rising from the East, On tottering Europe is released, And Chinamen at last shall rule In Dublin, Warsaw and Stamboul, Soon as the roar of cannon ends And all men once again are friends, I must fulfil my ancient vow And go and visit _Chu Chin Chow_. * * * * * ST. CECILIA OF CREMONA. _Punch_ has no desire to plunge into the controversy which has arisen over the employment of women in professional orchestras, especially as the cause has already been practically won, and here, at any rate, the saying, "What Lancashire thinks to-day England will think to-morrow," has failed to justify itself. The example of Manchester is not being followed in London, and what is deemed advisable for the Free Trade Hall in one city is not to dominate the policy of the Queen's Hall in the other. But without going into the arguable points of this latest duel of the sexes, Mr. Punch, already in the last year which completes his fourth score, may be allowed to indulge in an old man's privilege of retrospect and incidentally to congratulate the ladies on the wonderful and triumphant progress they have made in instrumental art since the roaring 'forties. For in the 'forties women, though still supreme on the lyric stage, had hardly begun to assert themselves as executants, save on the pianoforte. _Punch_ well remembers LISZT--with the spelling of whose name he had considerable difficulty--in his meteoric pianofortitude. But the young WILMA NERUDA, who visited London in 1849, escaped his benevolent notice. She was then only ten. It was not until twenty years later that, as Madame NORMAN-NERUDA, she revisited London, proved that consummate skill could be combined with admirable grace in a woman-violinist, took her place as a leader of the quartet at the Monday "Pops," upset the tyranny of the pianoforte and harp as the only instruments suitable for the young person, and virtually created the professional woman-violinist. Indeed, she may be said to have at once made the fiddle fashionable and profitable for girls.