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110 a very rare natural gift—such simplicity as we find in the people—or else it is merely the result of lack of experience in theater-going. But we maintain that the people are used to going to the theater, or that they soon will be; it is therefore futile to count upon their simplicity: in this year of 1903, the simplest public is that thronging the boulevards, night after night, to see a comedy of M. Capus. After all, I am not so much opposed to the use of scenery and elaborate costumes as to the scandalous and useless excesses they entail, which no well-organized society should tolerate, and which have nothing to do with art. My People's Theater shall have nothing but a large hall, like the Salle Huyghens, or a public meeting-place like the Salle Wagram—preferably with a slanting floor, allowing every spectator a full view; at the end of this hall there must be a high and wide platform.

As I see it, there is but one primary physical requisite for a real People's Theater: the stage and auditorium must be large enough to accommodate large masses of people. The other requisites are