The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 12, Issue 8 (November 1, 1937)
The Pant in Pantomime
The Pant in Pantomime.
And how it goes on! The acts change with lightning rapidity, the clown trips over Yorick's skull, the ghost walks arm in arm with Falstaff, the infant Samuel teaches his teacher, the poet blows coloured bubbles, and when the pork butcher catches them and fills them with sausage-meat they are still coloured bubbles; the pantomime elephant runs away from the mouse, the tight-rope walker falls off the step-ladder, the comedian cries over Little Nell and Little Nell laughs because he cries. Logic goes on a jag and Improvidence is married to Prudence. The dunce preaches wisdom and wise men play noughts and crosses on their diplomas. Forethought gazes through his telescope while Destiny nibbles at his heels. There is madness in earnestness and sanity in the maddest acts.
It's a great play if you don't insist on sense; for the climax is locked in a box and the key is held by old Uncle Ultimate. You take the show on trust or you don't take it at all. The brothers Why and Wherefore are dumb, and Ballyhoo is an auctioneer selling hot air in coloured bottles.