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Sat. eve we thought we would go somewhere and the young Aldrich child wanted to go to a variety, so we went to the Oxford a concert hall near here. It is a good deal the same as the Howard is in Boston. If I have told you about the concert halls here you may skip this, if not it may be of interest to you. In the first place on each side of the theatre under the balconys, they have bars, regular saloons. You go in and take your seat with your hat and coat on and pipe in your mouth. They always smoke pipes like this [[image]] made of briar wood. On the back of the seat front of you is a rack to hold glasses. The waiter comes around every 3 or 4 minutes to see if you want anything and if you should get anything and pay him for it without leaving a couple of pennies He will ask you for them. They are

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not at all bashfull. In the centre of the hall on the floor is a man with a desk and stick. His business is to announce the next performer and also to applaud when it is necessary. You see that these Britishers don’t even know when to applaud so this fellow kindly starts the crowd by rapping with his stick on the desk, and yelling, “bravo”. The performance its self is about the average variety show only the songs they sing were popular in the States 15 or 20 years ago. So much for cheap variety I have only been to one nice theatre and that was very small, not larger than the Bijou. They also have a bar under the Balcony. I believe it is the custom in all the European theatres. I had a letter from Frank W. the other day, it seems that he had a letter from Dan Lyons which troubled him, poor

Transcription Notes:
Image: sketch of a pipe