y-day I received a raise of four dollars.

The Turning of the Long Lane.

"The season approached its end, and then came the announcement that the
whole company was to go to London. I went about on air for a while, just
before the keenest disappointment of my life. One night I was told that it
had been discovered that there was one too many in the party, and I was
_it_. I was to be left behind.

"Well, of course I couldn't help myself any by kicking. I just had to grin
and bear it, and hustle for another job. But this was mighty hard to find
at that time of the year. I hunted the papers for ads of the summer snaps.
Finally I landed on one from Louisville, which stated that the Cummings
stock company wanted a juvenile man. I sat down and wrote to them at once,
enclosing my picture and putting my salary at twenty-five dollars per
week. And I had an answer telling me to come on.

"You ought to have seen that manager's face when he saw me! But he let me
go on. I couldn't be discharged, because they weren't making enough to pay
salaries. We finally went to Washington, by some hook or crook, where we
didn't do any better. I was only getting my board and lodging, but after
we shifted to Rochester we struck it big, and the manager nearly paralyzed
me one day by paying me eight weeks' salary in advance. He also put on my
first play--a one-act affair, 'A Night in Havana.'

Stranded in Chicago.

"From the Cummings stock company I went with Sothern in 'The King's
Musketeer.' I didn't care for the company, and began writing more plays. I
got a man named Isham interested in my 'Rough Rider Romance,' and left the
company to go to Chicago, where it was to be put on. I had just five
dollars in my pocket when I arrived, to be greeted by the telegram: 'Isham
committed to insane asylum.'

"There I was, stranded in the Windy City, with a fiver. I went to my
friend, Edwin Arden.

"'What shall I do, Ed?' I said.

"'I'll lend you twenty-five to get back to New York on,' he replied.

"I took the money, calling blessings down on his head. 'Arizona' was
playing in Chicago at the time, and passing the theater that evening I
handed in my card at the box-office, and they passed me in. Vincent
Serrano was _Tony_, and as I watched him I told myself that that was the
part for me. I found out that Kirk La Shelle, the manager of the show, was
in New York, and I was for starting East by the first train to see him;
but for some reason I didn'