Punch, or the London Charivari
Volume 105, September 9th 1893
edited by Sir Francis Burnand
A BROWN STUDY IN AUTUMN TINTS.
(Being a Fragment from a Matter-of-fact Romance.)
And he walked along the deserted streets and could see no one. Here and there would be a pile of stones and wooden blocks, telling of an impeded thoroughfare, but the place itself was empty. There were seemingly no inhabitants in this deserted city. They had vanished into thin, or, rather, murky air.
Then he looked at what appeared to be a playhouse. The doors were closed, and the bill-boards were pasted over with blue paper. Evidently the portals of the theatre had not been open for weeks, perchance for months.