man was now able to capitalize his brilliant road-company
experience. The success of the play now assured, he immediately
organized a road company, in which appeared such prominent actors as
Joseph Holland, Frank Carlyle, and Percy Haswell. He established an
innovation on October 26th by having this company come over from
Philadelphia, where it was playing, to act in the New York house.

The two-hundred-and-fiftieth performance occurred on April 19, 1890,
when the run ended. It was a memorable night. Katherine Grey and Odette
Tyler meanwhile had joined the company. The theater was draped in
flags, and General Sherman made a speech in which he praised the
accuracy of the production.

With his usual enterprise and resource, Charles Frohman introduced a
distinct novelty on this occasion. He had double and triple relays of
characters for the farewell performance. Both Lilla Vane and Odette
Tyler, for example, acted the part of _Gertrude Ellingham_; Wilton
Lackaye, Frank Burbeck, and George Osborne played _General Haverill_;
Alice Haines and Nanette Comstock did _Jenny Buckthorn_; while Morton
Selten and R. A. Roberts doubled as _Captain Heartsease_.

Frohman now put the original "Shenandoah" company on the road. Its first
engagement was at McVicker's Theater in Chicago. Frohman went along and
took Bronson Howard with him.

Most of the Chicago critics liked "Shenandoah." But there was one
exception, a brilliant Irishman on _The Tribune_. Paul Potter, whose
play, "The City Directory," was about to be produced in Chicago, was a
close friend of Howard. He wanted to do something for the Howard play,
so he got permission from Robert W. Patterson, editor in chief of _The
Tribune_, to write a Sunday page article about "Shenandoah." Frohman was
immensely pleased, and through this he met Potter, who became one of his
intimates.

Then came the opening of Potter's play at the Chicago Opera House.
Although Potter knew most of the critics, there was a feeling that they
would forget all friendship and do their worst. Five minutes after the
curtain went up the piece seemed doomed.

But an extraordinary thing happened. From a stage box suddenly came
sounds of uncontrollable mirth. The audience, and especially the
critics, looked to see who was enjoying the play so strenuously, and
they beheld Charles Frohman and Bronson Howard. The critics were
puzzled. Here was a great playwright in the flush of an enormous success
and a rising youn