s for pleasure bought,
The day alone for thought--
Let all begone who would annoy us thinking.
Then come while above
The stars wink at love--
Come all and drink and laugh tonight.
We'll clink and we'll drink,
Nor stop to sigh or think--
Come on with me who love delight.

Jessie Bartlett Davis was cast for "Minnetoa, an Indian Girl," but didn't
take the part until Flora Finlayson had made a hit and even then she wanted
certain changes made in the finale, which Waller refused.

Well, "The Ogallallas" deserved a better fate and probably would have been
a go, if there had been tenors enough to carry Waller's big themes. They
were really Grand Opera parts and the average--and better than
average--tenor could not continue night after night without breaking down.
It was great! Too bad it was so far ahead of the times--and failed.

That was Jinx No. 1.

* * * * *

Allison was everlastingly encouraging Waller to musical creations by
exciting his imagination with suggestions and in the end writing the story,
although he tried faithfully to find a librettist who, he too modestly
believed, might do better work than he. In the end, however, each of the
children of his brain came back to its creator. The fact was that Waller
couldn't or wouldn't work with others. So was conceived "Brother
Francesco," an opera set in a monastery in Italy during the Seventeenth
Century, and bringing up a vivid picture of monks, medieval chapels--dark,
massive and severe--and the dank scent of deep tragedy. There were but four
main characters, a quartette of voices, in "Brother Francesco," which was
in one act of about an hour and ten minutes, the whole story unravelling
itself in the public chapel between the ringing of the church bell and the
conclusion of the mass of the Benediction of the Holy Virgin. The altar
lights have not been lit. Enter Francesco, a novice, to light them. A
candle flashes on the altar; then another--and the tale unfolds. Francesco,
sorrowing over his lost love, Maria, observes the Father Confessor enter
the Confessional and, reminded of his too worldly thoughts, kneels and
sings an aria, "The Confession," in which the tragedy of his life is
revealed.

THE CONFESSION.

All my sins confessing humbly, oh, my father--
All my thoughts are ever of my lost Maria.
Wondrously fair and so pure was she
Whom I loved ere my heart was dead--
When l