The Press., 1910-12-28

Rsz9z1sT ranging from 20.00O to 10000
 &g9I inhabitants for Dora to learn the difference between a papered house and a real audience and to un- derstand the true significance of the ''bad'' house.
 The first night the company was full If excitement and joy, pHmors and gossip, expectations and beliefs. When the curtain went down on the last act of the play for the first time every member of the company was quite sure that he or she had made a great hit The author, who was travelling with it, was positive that his play was a masterpiece. The manager was pos tive that he would have three or four New York houses offering him ''ime.'' Everybody agreed that the play had gone reasonably well. Ludlow said he
 never saw SC much enthusiasm in al
 audience.
 Holcomb alone was calm and ap
 parently unaffected by the general ex
 citement.
 '"The play is bad" he said to Dora
 as he walked with her to her hotel
 "atrociously bad, and am afraid w
 will all be banned in the morning. a bit of theatrical slang with whicl
 Dora had become familiar by thii time, understanding that 1t referred
 b an editorial rather than to culinar,
 process. HolcOmb was right. Even the de
 spised critics in this small town de
 clared the next day that the piece wal positively a failure. The fact tha
 they omitted all mention of Dora her self was not as great blow to her al | it was to Holcomb He had declared
 to her that she had deserved favorable comment.
 Notwithstanding this the company'I
 hopes were still high, for, while they
 all bought morning papers rapidly tt | get the opinions of the critics, wher
 they had read them there was an al
 most unanimous outburst, "What doel
 he know about it anyway"
 | The third day there was considerable
 excitement for word had gone round
 that the "big man from New York | was coming up to look over the piece
 and that meant surely that they: would II soon be ''back on Broadway" During | the performances there was no tall
 about anything but how the big mar
 was taking it, reports being brought | back between acts by the treasurer ,O' | the company.
 | "He says it is a knockout" was the
 first report that was carried from cal
 to ear. Nobody ever saw him laugh
 so much," was whispered about. "We
 will run all season on Broadway" waf
 the third electric charge that fired theiI
 minds and warmed their hearts and
 sent them galloping on joyousIy to the
 end of the play.
 II At the little supper parties into
 which members broke up that evening
 there was . great content, whether fl I was over the more liberal spread Ot she principals in the restaurants of tho
 main hotel or over the beer and cheese
 of the stage carpenter and the minor
 actors Once more they would be get
 ting home: once more they would b, { back on their beloved ''thoroughfar'
 of the theaters;" once more they would [ be before the public to which they loved to play, and, of course, the finan
 cfa' end of 1.-the fact that they could : saNs z.oney-that was not forgotten. } BleimaI himself was rot in evidence
 but in such short taiTs as he had witl the principal actors the next day b II expressed his belief that the goo things they all looked forward t would soon be realized.
 It was not until the end of the wee al that, while their expectations were stf tt at the highest, they learned. the trutE The big man from New York had dt . clared the play was rotten" and ha if refused to give it any more time eithe , 1 in New York or elsewhere, and the nC tice was posted on the call bOarC ! "Company will close on Saturday nigf ( next"
 4 It was a bitter blow for Dora Flu z lerton. Hardly over twenty, she hs fought out what to her was gre; ! resolution and discouraging condition , Her mother she had never know ! Her father, kindly but academ r.i man, had never quite seemed to unde I. stand her, while his sister had insistt lt that all of her improper instincts we n those of her mother, who, like herse s had longed for a stage career again ,i the opposition of her husband and yi, the disgust of her rssister-in-law. AS f ' back as she could retnember Dora hi ' been accustomed to being told by 'h . aunt that everything she had liked