THE WORLD'S CHEAPEST THEATRE.

IN THE course of his long and successful career, Carl Hertz received many offers to tour the world. On the first of these, he went to China, and had little difficulty in making himself popular with the audiences. It was while he was in this country that he was advised to go to Shanghai where, he was assured, he would be well received.

Carl thought this a splendid idea. But when he arrived at the eastern port, he was dismayed to learn that the only theatre in the town was occupied by a Chinese company. Since one native play often takes several weeks to perform, Carl, knew that it was hopeless to wait on until the theatre was free.

This was something of a blow, for he had reckoned on making a useful pile of money from his Shanghai performances. In the course of his walks through the town, however, he had noticed a large strip of wasteland which was situated conveniently near the main roads. At the time he had not been able to understand why this land had not been put to some useful purpose, but other affairs had come along, and he had given the matter no further thought.

An exceedingly original idea now struck him. He found the owner of the land, and asked him how much he would charge to let out the land for one month. To Carl's intense surprise, he was told that he could have the use of the land rent free. Luck was with him.

He next asked a Chinese builder to estimate for constructing a temporary wooden theatre. Always a clever business man, Hertz was careful to explain that he would require the theatre for one month only. Consequently, he would only need to hire the wood.

The builder thought for a moment.

"Who can say how much it will cost?" he said. "It will require a large staff of men and much wood."

"Can't you give me some idea?" persisted Carl.

"That is very difficult, sir. I have never built anything so large before."

Carl took the bull by the horns.

"Build it anyway," he said. "Make your bill as small as possible, and let me have it afterwards."

The work was soon in hand. A large number of men was employed, and within two weeks the giant wooden building was completed. Hertz was well pleased with the result, and intimated as much to the builder.

"Thank you, sir," replied the latter. "I am glad you like it. I have the honour to present you with the bill."

As he spoke, he produced a length of stick around which several yards of paper were rolled. Carl's eyes almost fell from his head when he saw it, for it was covered with a number of minute Chinese figures which he reckoned must indicate several thousands of pounds. He immediately sent for a clerk from a nearby bank in order to find out exactly how much he would have to pay in English money.

The bank clerk carefully unrolled the scroll, and examined each of the figures in turn. Poor Carl was hopping about like a cat on hot bricks, cursing himself for his folly in allowing himself to be swindled by a rascally native.

"How much is it? How much is it?" he cried.

The clerk smiled.

"I cannot tell you exactly, sir," he replied. "But it is something in the neighbourhood of £10."

Ten pounds! Carl's theatre was surely the cheapest and most rapidly constructed in the history of drama. For a whole month he played to capacity, and came away from Shanghai considerably richer for his enterprise. In fact the whole tour was a wonderful financial success, due chiefly to Hertz's keen business acumen. On his second world tour he incorporated a cinematograph show in his programme--this was then something of a novelty-and more than doubled his previous earnings.