I take it for granted that the person who does me the honor to read these pages will concede that I have ao quired, by force Of experience alone, a little wisdom in respect to the Vaudeville business of America. That business which has engaged my earnest and almost exclusive attention for a period of about sixteen years, has undergone such wonderful ramifications in that period that, frankly speaking, I can scarcely look back upon it now without the vague feeling Of one who has lately passed through a disconnected dream.