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ONCE A CLOWN, ALWAYS A CLOWN and Oregon have not been so favored in more years than that, their opera houses abandoned, torn down, burned or given over to films, occasional minstrels and political rallies.

In one week in middle August, again, I found that splendid all-star revival company of "The Rivals", headed by Mrs. Fiske, playing Everett, Tacoma, Yakima, Walla Walla and Spokane, Washington, and Missoula and Helena, Montana. I'll wager that there were young men and women of voting and marrying age in the Yakima, Walla Walla, Missoula and Helena audiences who never had seen a stage play before. A teacher of elocution and dramatic coach in a town of twenty-two thousand in the Middle West canvassed the graduating class last spring and learned that only ten of its members had seen a play other than amateur in their lives.

Perhaps the country is hungry again for the sound of the human voice in its drama. I hope so, but until there is more evidence of it, Miss Bates and the all-star revival of Sheridan's old comedy will have to be classed as missionary enterprises.

To play in Pueblo on Thursday; Grand Junction, thirteen hours distant across the summit of the Rockies, on Friday; Price, Utah,