Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-04-23

tesy, his play is held for weeks, and then in many cases returned unread or with only few pages glanced over. He will go the rounds from manager to manager, from star to star, until finally, baff1ed and beaten
 he throws his luckless manuscript aside.
 Almost every dramatic author has to pass through this ordeal. Lucky is he if he at last secures an opening for his play. Ever then his troubles are not over. His play may fall into the hands of a manager who will not be willing to give it the proper cast, and the poor author sees his work ruined by the inefficiency of the actors Even if the play succeeds there will be a puZZling diversity of opinion as to it's mer- its. One critic will praise the dialogue; another will condemn it unequivocally. One will speak of the plot interesting and original; another will pronounce itdull and threadbare Even if the critics agree the public may refuse to come to see it. and an artistic success is small consolation for financial failure. The impossibility of gauging the merits of play by a mere reading is shown by the frequency with which managers accept plays which turn out to be failures and reject others which eventually win great.success. My eXperi- ence with Tn Old Kentucky may be of value as d case in point. That play was originally written for Katie Putnam, a charming ubrette actress very popular in the west and south, for whom had already written two plays, each of which had been fairly successful. In giving me a commits sion for third play she asked me to write her play strong enough to command sue cess in new dramatic territory which she proposed entering. This I conscientiously tried to do. But when the manuscript of Tn Old Kentucky" was offered her the heavy expenses of mounting the play and of giving it a proper production caused her to propose 10 take in place of it another play of mine, ''The Little Maverick" in which Maggie Mitchell had successfully starred during her last season on the stage
 ''1n Old Kentucky" was then sent to sev- eral managers, all of whom are supposed to possess excellent judgment, but who for various reasons could see little chance for success with the play. It was not until it fell into the hands of MT. Jacob Lit, one of the most enterprising and shrewd of American managers, that any proposition for production was made, and even he states frankly that he had no idea of the success which the play was afterward to at tain. But there is th;s consolation to the dramatic author. Nc matter how hard may be his struggles to place his plays, when once he has achieved a great success all doors fly open. To place Rival Candi- udCeS tt pldS "fICIell DS MT. d. IN. 1horrlS and myself-in one of the best New York theaters on my own terms was an easy task, as it was also to secure commissions for other plays from prominent managers
 To sum up the matter, it may be said that success is not to be won as a rule without suffering bangs and rebuffs which may be endured, but cannot be forgotten. Still the prize, if gained. is worth the struggle, and the chance as affording the entertainment of the masses and as teaching necessarily lessons of either good or evil needs the best brains and the most conscientious work that can be enlisted in its service