The great difficulty experienced in throwing bouquets to popular
performers has long been the subject of complaint at the Opera and other
theatres. It is calculated that, in every twelve bouquets thrown at the
stage, three fall in the stalls, four hit the fiddles, two reach the
proscenium (one of which tumbles at the feet of somebody it was not
intended for), and the rest fly into the pit-boxes, where they were
never meant to go, or break into pieces in the air, showering down like
floricultural rockets upon the heads of the spectators. To remedy this
inconvenience the Cerito catapult has been invented. It consists of a
gun working with a spring; and the nicest aim can be taken, as it is
screwed on to the front of the box. N.B.—Double-barrelled machines for a
_pas de deux_; and bouquets prepared, like grapeshot, to tumble into
thirty small ones, for danseuses Viennoises and Anglaises.