Yates was nearly treating the enlightened British public with an antidote
to "the vast receptacle of 8,000 tons of water," by setting fire to the
saloon chimney. Great as the consternation of the audience was in the
front, it was far exceeded by the alarm of the actors behind the curtain,
for they are so sensible of the manager's daring genius, that they
concluded he had set fire to the house in order to convert "the space
usually devoted to _illusion_ into the area of reality." The great Mr.
Freeborn actually rushed out of the theatre without his rouge. Little Paul
drank off a glass of neat water. Mr. John Sanders was met at the end of
Maiden Lane, with his legs thrust into the sleeves of his coat, and the
rest of his body encased in the upper part of a property dragon; whilst
little round Wilkinson was vainly endeavouring to squeeze himself into a
wooden waterspout. Had he succeeded he might have applied for the reward
offered by the Royal Society for a method of
[Illustration: SQUARING THE CIRCLE.]
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