about their own personal affairs, really to the forward trend of the story. I doubt if the production of novels, even to the writer temperamentally disposed to that form of expression, is as absorbing as play-making. The difference between the novel and the play is the difference between _was_ and _is_. Something has _happened_ for the writer of the novel and for his people. He describes it as it was; and them as they were. In the play something _is happening_. Its form is controversial--and the playwright, by force of this controversy, is in turn each one of his characters, and not merely a witness of their doings. When they begin to take hold of him, their possession is more and more insistent--all interests in real life become more and more secondary and remote until the questions in dispute are not only decided, but there is also a written record of the debates and the decision. By the time our train pulled into New York, I was impatient to make a running transcript of speeches of my contending people. But that is a relief that must be deferred. Like over-anxious litigants, the characters are disposed to talk too much, and must be controlled and kept in bounds by a proportioned scenario, assigning order, and respective and progressive values to them. That was the work of a day by that time, and then, with the material gathered, and the intimacy with the people and the places, the play was one that wrote itself. AUGUSTUS THOMAS. [Footnote 1: The Witching Hour; Mrs. Leffingwell's Boots; The Earl of Pawtucket; The Harvest Moon; Oliver Goldsmith [Published by Samuel French].] [Footnote 2: Written before the death of Mr. Goodwin.] =HOOLEY'S THEATRE,= TWENTY-THIRD SEASON R.M. HOOLEY Proprietor and Manager. HARRY J. POWERS Business Manager. * * * * * COMMENCING MONDAY EVENING. AUGUST 7th, 1893. Every Evening and Saturday (Only) Matinee MR. NAT C GOODWIN AND COMPANION PLAYERS Under the direction of Mr. Geo. J. Appleton, will produce for the first time on any stage, a drama of character, entitled ="IN MIZZOURA"= By MR. AUGUSTUS THOMAS, author of "Alabama," etc. * * * * * CAST OF CHARACTERS.