Frohman asked Lestocq if he could not inspect it. The
proprietor, Dr. Distin Maddick, being an old friend of Lestocq, the
latter called informally with Frohman. While they were admiring the
white stone and brass interior, Maddick was suddenly called away. He
returned in a few minutes to say that a manager friend from Edinburgh,
hearing that Frohman was in the theater, had come in and asked to be
introduced. Of course Frohman acquiesced. After a little talk the
gentleman said:

"We have no beautiful theater like this in Edinburgh."

Quickly Frohman replied, with his fascinating smile, "No, but you have
Edinburgh."

* * *

Frohman hated exercise. In this he had a great community of interest
with Mark Twain.

On Sunday mornings, when he was out at his farm at White Plains, he
would read all the dramatic news in the papers, and then he searched
them carefully for items about people who had died from over-exertion.
When he found one he was greatly pleased, and always sent it to Mark
Twain.

In order to get him to exercise Dillingham once took him for a stroll
and pretended to be lost. The second time he tried this, however,
Frohman discovered the subterfuge and refused to go walking.

* * *

Frohman could pack a world of meaning in a word or a sentence. As Sir
Herbert Beerbohm Tree once expressed it, "he was witty with a dry form
of humor that takes your breath away with its suddenness." He gave an
example of this with Tree one day in London. They were discussing French
plays for America. The question of American taste came up. Frohman
described certain primitive effects which delighted our audiences.

"Ah," said Tree, "America can stand that sort of thing. It is a new
country."

"_Was_," came the laconic reply.

* * *

Frohman's retiring disposition and dislike for putting himself forward
was one of his chief traits. An illustration occurred when he controlled
the Garden Theater. It was during the presentation of Stephen Phillips's
play "Ulysses." There was a new man on the door one night when Frohman
dropped into the theater for a few minutes' look at the play. The
doorkeeper did not know the producer, his own employer, and would not
allow him to enter without a ticket. Instead of storming about the
lobby, Frohman simply walked quickly out of the door, around to the
stage entrance and through the theater. At the end of the act he walked
out of the main entrance. The doorkeeper, recognizing him as the man h