AT THE THEATRE DOORS.

NZ Truth, Issue 83, 19 January 1907, Page 8

AT THE THEATRE DOORS.

Back swings the gate m tlie vestibule; the electric bulbs leap out ; Somebody slips on the gall'ry stairs; someone- utters a shout. A girl m white looks and laughs at a man m the sway rag crowd, The clatter of feet on the steps is sudden, confused, and loud ; Someone, bound for the Front Reserved, lifts, liffhtlv a scornful brow. The usheir comes .for the ticket, slips, and hands them m with a bow ; In the dusk of , the lamp-lit street, a cab draws up -to the kerb ; Down the heated corridor floats the whiff from a flow 'ring hert), And a red-lipped girl walks slowly by the way of plush and £old> She— who rushed with the gall'ry crowd m rollicking days of old — Wonders at the buzz and stir, the figfyt for the coveted ; row ; [ Thinks that she doesn't care for plays as she' used to— lon>g ago. Here strolls paint , and powder and gems, with vacuous eye-glassed : youth. 1 Each with a social part to play— a mumming to varnish truth. I And by the Dress Circle entrance has fathered a gibing crowd, Taking stock of the women's silks, with comment envious, loud. Newsboys, harsh voiced, yelling their wares; tall policemen on their beat; Lounging .men m the private bara ; and hungry men m the street ; Glint of carriage lamps near the path, red lights from cars sliding by ; Over it all the purple airch of the unimnassioned sltv— Splashed with scatter of' nowdered stars, white driftings of Milky Way, The preat 'wide theatre of human life', where ev'ryone must play !