11 AUGUST 1923, Page 22

In Over the Footlights Mr. Stephen Leacock has collected some

of the very best of his work. " Roughing it in the Bush," a study of the three friends who are " tough enough to stand the hardships of living in the open," is delightful. At the end of the " roughing" we are shown the three friends, in boiled shirts, washing down a chefs dinner with champagne, and going over to the hotel. " It seems there is dancing at the hotel every evening." An Ibsen play, The Sub-Contractor, is funny ; so is Cast Up by the Sea, an old-fashioned melodrama ; so is Deadmen's Gold, a film. A Greek tragedy, Oroastus,"as put on by the senior class of the Podunk High School," is as amusing. The play is given with com- ments. The opening of the chorus is good :—

" 0 how unhappy is this (now standing before us) King! O Fate ! with what dark clouds art thou about to overwhelm (or perhaps soak) him ? 0 what grief is his ! and how on the one hand shall he for his part escape it. 0 woe ! 0 anxiety, 0 grief, 0 woe ! "

But it is a little difficult to choose between so many amusing studies. Over the Footlights is the best book Mr. Leacock has written for a long time.