e are the necessary evils of
a boarding-house, and I must be true to them'."

One will have to give Mr. Belasco this credit, that whatever he is, he is
_it_ to the bent of his powers. Had he lived in Elizabeth's day, he would
have been an Elizabethan heart and soul. But his habit is formed as a
producer, and he conforms the "new" art to this habit as completely as
Reinhardt Reinhardtized the morality play, "Everyman," or Von Hofmannsthal
Teutonized "Elektra."

"The Return of Peter Grimm" has been chosen for the present collection. It
represents a Belasco interest and conviction greater than are to be found
in any of his other plays. While there are no specific claims made for the
fact that_ PETER _materializes after his death, it is written with
plausibility and great care. The psychic phenomena are treated as though
real, and our sympathy for_ PETER _when he returns is a human sympathy for
the inability of a spirit to get his message across. The theme is not
etherealized; one does not see through a mist dimly. There was not even an
attempt, in the stage production of the piece, which occurred at the
Belasco Theatre, New York, on October 17, 1911, to use the "trick" of
gauze and queer lights; there was only one supreme thing done--to make the
audience feel that_ PETER _was on a plane far removed from the physical,
by the ease and naturalness with which he slipped past objects, looked
through people, and was unheeded by those whom he most wanted to
influence. The remarkable unity of idea sustained by Mr. Belasco as
manager, and by Mr. Warfield as actor, was largely instrumental in making
the play a triumph. The playwright did not attempt to create supernatural
mood; he did not resort to natural tricks such as Maeterlinck used in
"L'Intruse," or as Mansfield employed in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." He
reduced what to us seems, at the present moment, a complicated explanation
of a psychic condition to its simple terms, and there was nothing strange
to the eye or unusual in the situation. One cannot approach the theme of
the psychic without a personal concern. Sardou's "Spiritisme" was the
culmination of years of investigation; the subject was one with which
Belasco likewise has had much to do during the past years.

It is a privilege to be able to publish "Peter Grimm." Thus far not many
of the Belasco plays are available in reading form. "May Blossom" and
"Madame Butterfly" are the only ones. "Peter Grimm" has been noveliz