They will be given in five separate acts." Every eye watched intently, as three little coloured boys came out from behind the rock and went through the scene of a highway robbery.

Little Jim Gibbs, his white teeth and gleaming eyeballs making his face seem as black as night by contrast, strode out with a high silk hat, a baggy umbrella, and an old carpet-bag.

He was evidently intended to represent a lonely traveller, for, as he sauntered along in front of the audience, two other boys of the Gibbs family sprang out of the bushes in the background, with white cloth masks over their faces.

One carried a dark lantern and the other a toy pistol, which he held at Jim's head.

They proceeded to go through the traveller's pockets, stealing watch, purse, carpet-bag, and umbrella.