This may be one reason for the renunciation of this
barbarous practice of the olden time, but there has been wonderful
progress in civilization during the last twelve hundred years; and
certain it is that scenes of cruelty that suited the ferocious
tastes of the eighth century could not possibly be repeated in the
nineteenth.
FANNIE ROPER FEUDGE.
OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
A SWEDISH PROVINCIAL THEATRE.
It is not so magnificent as the Scala and San Carlo, and still, after
seeing both those famous theatres, I must confess I preferred that
of Carlstad to either. It is small and different in form from the
generality: it reminded me, in fact, of a hall in a certain New
England town where I used to go to the panorama as a child. There
was a gallery like that in which the men and boys sat who tramped the
loudest and kissed their hands, to the confusion of their neighbors,
when the lights were turned down to enhance the effect of the burning
of Moscow; only, at my panorama the gallery was unfashionable on
account of the noisy male element, whereas at Carlstad it was the
dress-circle. We--a party of Americans, the only foreigners in the
house that night--occupied orchestra-stalls, as I presume the two or
three front benches in the parquet may be called. There was a white
cape in our vicinity, as well as one in the balcony; so our seats were
probably as fashionable as those in the first and only circle; but
behind us, stretching out to the doors and in under the gallery, was a
dense mass unrelieved by opera-cloaks of any description; and that was
the region of the unpretending---of those who came simply to enjoy, to
see and not to be seen.
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