A happy, likeable book is Harry Randall : Old Time
Come- dian. By Himself. (Sampson Low, 12s. 641.). For thirty 'years this clever mirth-provoking artist has been convulsing music-hall and other audiences with plain honest fun, and in 1911 he left them ; -but even if he were willing to continue the good work- he could not, for the Variety Halls are dead. Killed, partly no doubt; by the cinema, but also, so the author thinks, by the proprietors themselves, who saw more profit in revue. Many a' man of middle age will lament their death, but in- this easy-going, pleasant-humoured volume he will be able to live again some of the joys of former years. Still there clings a savoury charm round the names of Vesta Tilley, Marie _Lloyd, Dan Leno and Harry Randall, and this book will help to keep it fresh.
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