Palmo, the Father of Italian Opera in America--Interview with Col. Mapleson--The Cost of Rigging a Company--What it Costs Every Time the Curtain is Rung Up--Mme. Grisi's Superstition-- The Best Operas--Salaries of Singers--Neilson and the Diamond Merchant 353-366 CHAPTER XXVI. THE MINSTREL BOYS. Emmet, Brower, Whitlock and Pelham among the Earliest--Pot-Pie Herbert--Daddy Rice and Jim Crow--Zip Coon--Coal Black Rose --My Long Tail Blue--Early Days of George Christy--Minstrel Men Generally Improvident--Minstrel Men as Mashers--Haverly's Mastodon Minstrels--The Boys at Rehearsal 367-381 CHAPTER XXVII. PANTOMIME. George L. Fox, the King--G. H. Adams, his Successor--Boxing Night in London 382-388 CHAPTER XXVIII. VARIETY DIVES AND CONCERT SALOONS. First-Class Varieties--Harry Hill's Famous Resort--Interview with Harry Hill--Ida and Johnnie--Deacons in a Dive--The Bouncer at Work--The Cow-Boy's Call for Mary--The Can-Can-- Music by Bands--Over the Rhine 389-415 CHAPTER XXIX. A TEAM OF IRISH COMEDIANS. The Song and Dance Men--Harrigan & Hart--Levi McGinnis the Alderman 416-429 CHAPTER XXX. THE BLACK ART. Sword Swallowers--Jugglers in America, Europe, China, and Hindoostan--Herman Sells the Barbers--Herman Sold by the "Boys"--Wonderful Chinese Jugglers--How Ladies are Suspended in Mid-Air--How to Eat Fire--Walk on Red Hot Iron--Cut off a Man's Head, etc., etc. 430-439 CHAPTER XXXI. THE INDIAN BOX AND BASKET TRICK. The Trick-Box--The Board--The Basket--The Magician's "Ghost Story" 440-448 CHAPTER XXXII. VENTRILOQUISM. Prof. Kennedy and Val Vose--Louis Brabant _Valet de Chambre_ to Francis I. Wins Wife and Fortune through his Wonderful Gift--M. St. Gille and his Wonderful Exploits--Alexandre and the Load of Hay--The Delusion Fully Explained--How to do it--The Suffocated Victim 449-458 CHAPTER XXXIII. ON THE ROAD. Making Dates at the "the Square"--Copy of Contracts--Billing the Town--The Cyclonic Advance Agent 459-465 CHAPTER XXXIV. THE GREEN-EYED AND OTHER MONSTERS. The Street Arabs and Lotta--The Stage at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century--Little "Accidents" of Bernhardt and Indiscretions of Patti--"Sudden Johnnie" and Colombier-- Lizzie McCall's Crime--Miss Bertha Welby and Miss Cleves--The "Old Gray" and the Skipping Rope Dancer--Husband and Wife and Ballet Girl--Mephistopheles and Venus 466-483 CHAPTER XXXV. JOHN WILKES BOOTH, PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ASSASSIN.