Belasco’s serious purpose, in this play, underlying the quest of laughter, was to satirize moral humbug, and that good purpose he accomplished. _Anthony Depew_ is an amiable impostor, established at Chautauqua, New York, to give lessons in moral conduct to persons who deem themselves tempted to go astray. He goes astray himself, as far as compromising osculation, and he causes all manner of disturbance, in several households, by fixing the guilt of a kiss upon an innocent booby, who is his landlord. Worthing embodied that humbug in an admirable manner. His plan was definite, his execution firm and true, his satire cumulative; and from first to last he never swerved from that demeanor of perfect gravity which makes absurd proceedings irresistibly amusing. Miss Bates, even more than usually beautiful as _Cora_, made the tempter of _Anthony_ a compound of demure simplicity and arch, piquant glee, and, in her complete frustration of the _Professor’s_ moral heroics, she was a delightful incarnation of honest, healthful, triumphant woman nature. A colloquy of these two players, as preceptor and pupil, has seldom been surpassed for pure fun. Specification of the fantastic situations in which the _Professor_ involves himself and his landlord, _Adam Budd_,--abundantly comical in the seemingly unpremeditated humor, the soft, silky manner, and the grotesque personality assumed by Le Moyne,--would be a tedious business. Good acting, however, did not suffice to sustain the play in public favor. Writing about this venture Belasco says: “At the time I wrote ’Naughty Anthony’ the country was farce mad,--but the public will not accept me as a farce writer, and it was a failure. I believed, at the time, that had somebody else produced my play it might have succeeded, and this actually proved to be the case; for when I sold the piece and it was taken on the road, with my name omitted from the programme, it made money, although it had cost me a pretty penny. I soon saw that ’Naughty Anthony’ must be withdrawn or something added to the bill in order to keep it going.” “MADAME BUTTERFLY.”