Of course they must have seen us, but with an indifference that almost bordered on contempt they paid no attention to us.
In the play one of the actors died on the stage, but the death had nothing of the tragic or heroic in it.

After a brief interval he rose up and walked off amid the merriment of the audience.
Many Chinamen come here to spend their evening.

The admission is fifty cents, which entitles one to a seat.

As the play runs through six hours at a time, they feel that they get the worth of their money.
They meet their friends there also; and although they are not very demonstrative towards each other, like the warm blooded races of Italy and Greece and Northern Europe and the United States, yet they are very happy in the presence of men of their own race and nation.

The theatre is about the only place where they can meet on common ground, at least in large bodies, and then, as we have already intimated, the theatre is something more than a place of amusement in their eyes.
Their forefathers liked such plays, and they believe that the spirits of the dead are in a certain sense present to share in the enjoyments of men in the body.
Only men and boys act on the Chinese stage.