erience.

Haverly sent the Mastodons on their first trip to England, and Charles
naturally went along. It was the first of the many trips he was to make
to the country which in time he was to annex to his own amusement
kingdom.

In July, 1880, the company sailed on the _Canada_, and their arrival in
London created a sensation. The men, headed by "Big Bill" Foote and
Charles Frohman--"The Long and the Short of It," as they were
called--marched with their hat-boxes to the old Helvetia Hotel in Soho.

Overnight their printing--the first colored paper ever used on an
English bill-board--was posted, and it startled the staid Londoners. It
made them realize that a wide-awake aggregation was in town. Charles
knew that a real opportunity confronted him, and he rose to the
occasion.

The engagement opened on July 30th at Her Majesty's Theater. The sacred
precincts that Patti, Neilson, Gerster, and Campanini had adorned now
resounded with the jokes and rang with the old-time plantation melodies
of the American negro. The debut was an enormous success and the
prosperity of the engagement was insured.

Before long came a request from the royal household to make ready the
royal box. The fun-loving Prince of Wales, afterward King Edward VII.,
wanted to see an American minstrel show.

But it was the wide-awake Charles who had started the machinery that led
to this royal dictate. He realized soon after his arrival how important
a royal visit would be. He got in touch with the right people, and the
net result was that on a certain night in December the red canopy and
carpet that betoken the royal visit were spread before Her Majesty's
Theater.

By virtue of his rank "Big Bill" Foote should have received the royal
party on behalf of the company. But Foote fled from the responsibility,
and Charles, wearing his much-hated evening clothes and the equally
despised silk hat, did the honors. The royal party included Edward, his
wife, Alexandra (now the Queen Mother), his brother Clarence (now dead),
and a troop of royal children old enough to stay up late at nights.

With his usual foresight Frohman had prepared himself for all the
formalities that attended a royal visit to the theater. Among other
things he found out that precedent decreed that the entire performance
must be directed toward the royal box. With much effort he carefully
impressed this fact upon the company. He even had a rehearsal the
morning of the royal night and al