acking in exact sequence, are measure
of his type of mind, of his vivid memory, of his personal opinions.

Belasco has reached his position through independence which, in the '90's,
brought down upon him the relentless antagonism of the Theatrical Trust--a
combine of managers that feared the advent of so individualistic a
playwright and manager. They feared his ability to do so many things well,
and they disliked the way the public supported him. This struggle,
tempestuous and prolonged, is in the records.

A man who has any supreme, absorbing interest at all is one who thrives on
vagaries. Whatever Belasco has touched since his days of apprenticeship in
San Francisco, he has succeeded in imposing upon it what is popularly
called "the Belasco atmosphere." Though he had done a staggering amount of
work before coming to New York, and though, when he went to the Lyceum
Theatre, he and Henry DeMille won reputation by collaborating in "The
Wife," "Lord Chumley," "The Charity Ball," and "Men and Women," he was
probably first individualized in the minds of present-day theatregoers
when Mrs. Leslie Carter made a sensational swing across stage, holding on
to the clapper of a bell in "The Heart of Maryland." Even thus early, he
was displaying characteristics for which, in later days, he remained
unexcelled. He was helping Bronson Howard to touch up "Baron Rudolph,"
"The Banker's Daughter" and "The Young Mrs. Winthrop;" he was succeeding
with a dramatization of H. Rider Haggard's "She," where William Gillette
had failed in the attempt.

"The Heart of Maryland" established both Belasco and Mrs. Carter. Then he
started on that extravagant period of spectacular drama, which gave to the
stage such memorable pictures as "Du Barry," with Mrs. Carter, and "The
Darling of the Gods," with Blanche Bates. In such pieces he literally
threw away the possibilities of profit, in order to gratify his decorative
sense. Out of that time came two distinctive pieces--one, the exquisitely
poignant "Madame Butterfly" and the other, "The Girl of the Golden West"--
both giving inspiration to the composer, Puccini, who discovered that a
Belasco play was better suited for the purposes of colourful Italian opera
than any other American dramas he examined.

Counting his western vicissitudes as one period, and the early New York
days as a second, one might say that in the third period David Belasco
exhibited those excellences and limitations which were ther