As The School for Scandal was in some sense a product of its time, so The Contrast, if read discerningly, throws a very interesting side light on the taste and manners of American soci ety in I 787, long before modern plays with their quick action and dialogue and their artistic scen cry, to say nothing of the breath-taking real ism of the moving-pictures, had worked their changes in the American theatre. There is no doubt it was a successful play at the time. It is difficult to visualize New York with a popala tion of about thirty thousand people, yet it was then, as it ever has been, the first city of the North American continent, and to fill its principal theatre with the best people of the city more than once was a strong endorsement for any pro duction.