Note:^[1]

A small boy often went to the theatre with his father. He loved to see the beautiful pieces that were presented there, and as the boy was very unsophisticated, the show appeared very real to him. He thought that the trees upon the stage were real trees and the mountains and lakes actual mountains and lakes. He never speculated about their true nature, and the consequence was that he became very much interested in the play and learned more truths from what he saw and heard than if he had spent the time reading books.

          But when the small boy grew bigger he was one day permitted to go upon the stage after the performance was over, and he saw that all the beautiful scenery which he had admired so much was nothing but pasteboard and painted canvas. Thereupon the boy became very much enraged, and said that he had been swindled and cheated. He wanted the manager of the show to give him back the money which his father had paid for him, and said the whole play was a tissue of lies. He said that he wanted the truth given to him without any fiction, and that he would never go to the theatre any more.

Franz Hartmann.

Note

^[1] Truth and Fiction. Franz Hartmann. The Word 5, no. 6 (September 1907), 354 [This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025]