To the Editor of the Standard
Sir,—Will you kindly allow me space in your columns for a word of warning to the play-going public against putting implicit confidence in the advertisements and playbills of the Strand Theatre?
Last Saturday afternoon I went there with three friends; we had purchased our tickets a week beforehand, and I myself had come up to town for the day from a distance of nearly thirty miles, with the special purpose of seeing Miss St. John play Madame Favart. Her name was advertised as usual in the papers: it occupied its usual place in the bill handed to us in the theatre; but the part was played by a substitute, and that without a word of explanation or apology for the absence of the principal performer. I feel sure that my feeling of disappointment, and of having failed to get that for which I had paid my money, was shared by many of those present.
As tho name of Miss St. John continues to be advertised in the papers, I think a timely warning may save others from being misled, as I was, by an artifice unworthy of a theatre like the Strand.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Lewis Carroll.
October 9.