Who shall be last? The
hands of the public are for him, or for her. A certain actress who has
"come to the front of her profession" holds, for a time, the record of
delay. "Come to the front," do they say? Surely the front of her
profession must have moved in retreat, to gain upon her tardiness. It
must have become the back of her profession before ever it came up with
her.
It should rejoice those who enter for this kind of racing that the record
need never finally be beaten. The possibilities of success are
incalculable. The play has perforce to be finished in a night, it is
true, but the minor characters, the subordinate actors, can be made to
bear the burden of that necessity. The principals, or those who have
come "to the front of their profession," have an almost unlimited
opportunity and liberty of lagging.
Besides, the competitor in a donkey race is not, let it be borne in mind,
limited to the practice of his own tediousness. Part of his victory is
to be ascribed to his influence upon others. It may be that a determined
actor--a man of more than common strength of will--may so cause his
colleague to get on (let us say "get on," for everything in this world is
relative); may so, then, compel the other actor, with whom he is in
conversation, to get on, as to secure his own final triumph by indirect
means as well as by direct.
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