on him for the edification of
the Slocum brothers, his managers at the time, when the mighty Richard
himself walked into the room and discovered me. What he said I don't
remember now, but it went home at the time all right, and it's a wonder I
didn't go there too.

"After Mansfield, 'Rob Roy,' the comic opera, held the boards at the
Herald Square for quite a time. Joe Herbert, one of the comedians, left
the cast, and Dave Warfield was picked to succeed him. But he couldn't
seem to remember the lines and business of the part. I was pat on it from
seeing the show every night from the front, so I remember one time after
the performance Warfield got me to coach him in a sort of parlor off to
the left of the auditorium.

A Series of Discouragements.

"Naturally, my imitations of other people suggested to some of the boys
that I might be able to act myself, and one fellow I had met got up a
performance in a town on Long Island. Well, I went on, and when I came off
they shipped me back to New York as the worst actor they had ever
seen--and it was a sort of amateur show at that. This touched my pride and
fired my determination, so when I lost my job as usher by 'grafting' on
seats, I made up my mind that I would be a regular actor and show my
critics that they had been mistaken.

"But how to get a chance? That was the mighty question. In this emergency
I turned to Ben Roeder, manager for David Belasco, whom I had met when
'The Heart of Maryland' was at the Herald Square. I went up to the
offices, which were then in Carnegie Hall, told Mr. Roeder that I was out
of a job and must get something as quickly as possible.

"After thinking a bit, he said that the only company not wholly filled, of
which he knew, was that being gathered for William Gillette in 'Secret
Service.' He gave me a card of introduction to the stage manager, and I
hustled down to the Garrick Theater.

"'Nothing doing,' I was told. Everything was filled, even to the extra
men.

How Selwyn Held Up Gillette.

"Then what do you think I did? I was desperate, you see. The fifty cents a
performance I had been getting at the Herald Square as usher did not
enable me to pile up a very big sum against a rainy day such as had now
overtaken me. I determined to see Mr. Gillette himself. I found out that
he was staying at the Plaza Hotel. I went up there, wrote on a card,
'Edgar Selwyn. Important,' and sent it up to him.

"Pretty soon the message came down that