The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-01-25

went to the public school in keokuk,
and when my rhyming fever threaten
ed the other scholars they shipped me
to boarding school In st. Charles,
Mo. After few years in that instl-
| tuition accumulated another layer OF
! knowledge at Adelbert college, Cleve-
LAND, O. reached Yale in 1892 with
every intention of remaining two
i years. BY that time had convinced
4 myself that my duty to posterity de-
manded that occupy the chair OF
English literature in some uniyer-
sity."
i what happened to change your
plan?'
1T came about like. this: ! thought
Il had been entirely cured of my po-
j etc fever, but one day got violent
4 relapse. / determined to become
/ playwright, and with that end in view
III came to this city in 1898. have
!, been here ever since with the eacep-
ton of two years spent in London.
where was engaged in gathering
data for the encyclopedia Britannica.
AS preliminary training for produc-
}, a job as a reporter on Park row
: newspaper. 1t might be well to state
right here that l was the worst re
, porter that ever asked if it were true.
il lasted just six months, but l don't
; hesitate to say that the practical ex-
i perience gained during that period
i was more beneficial than the rest of
4 my education"
5 When did you produce your first
play?"
Y In 1894. 1t was musical piece
called The Bathing Girl and it hung
!, up record which has been equalled,
o but never surpassed. 1t ran for one
J. consecutive night at the Fifth avenue
# theatre and when | saw the newspa-
}, pers the next morning started rum
l ming for cover. The experience cost
e my father $500 and cost me the
/ most excruciating agony. For two
o years the abbreviated run of the
piece was standing joke along Broad
is way and in the newspapers. More
g. than once was determined to leave
the drama to its fate, but my parents
t wouldn't have it,
N Father and Mother sest Audience.
rs "They still had confidence in you?"
Sc My father and mother are my best
lie audience They regard my mos.
o. glowing notices as entirely too con-
er sentative Two years later, in con
junction with Mir. Collin Kemper, OF
Messrs. Wagenhals & Kemper,
so wrote Alexander the Great Tha,
lie was my first substantial success. My
ne best known plays of recent years
~ have been The Triangle All for 9
ry Girl, My Boy, The Bridge and Two
to Women In some quarters The Tri
angle is regarded as my best work
but the box office does not corrobo
! rate that claim. 1t failed in this cit.
on but the critics said it had one of the
i'm greatest third acts ever written. Mrs
to- Leslie Carter is starring in Two Won
en- The Bridge also is on tour
,es How long did it take you to writ
Excuse Me?'
ext Not SO very long, but ! was Ion
all time getting started. Sometimes
think for whole days without bein
ing able to put mark vi paper. The
md the stuff comes with rush.
Weren't you afraid to open
ing New York on the thirteenth of I'll
rite month"; W
e On the contrary, was immense
tort pleased My one hobby is upsettir
Isicl alleged hoodoos. | will go out of m
way to walk under ladder 1t ma
our be interesting to XII Nv the way I'll
number Is had figurel in my late
lber production. The first performant
a took place at Allentown, Pa, on Fl
ath- day the thirteenth. The contract
NJ bring the play to New York WI
pop signed on the thirteenth. and v
but opened at the Gaiety theatre on Il
thirteenth.
reer Managers will keep you busy nc
that you have produced a success. ;,
thir Il don't think they look at it
first that way. You are liable to get
even many orders for plays after you pl
ezed duce failure. ! know that has be
tiled the case. All the managers ha
fond treated me with the greatest courte
was and consideration, even at a tin
"
IA. extra wagons to cart off my failur
nade Managers who have lost thousands
cyan dollars on my plays have come RIG
lnds, back and demanded more puni
poet ment. That goes to disprove t
.ther popular belief that they do not ex
cago themselves to get new material. A
pay do not let any one tell you that [
-ould unknown dramatist has no chance
: break in. Any playwright who /
the goods can get hearing in t
pub city. The managers are hungering
pany good plays and every manuscript g
at if respectful consideration"
stuff
ested Once National Guardsman.
land- Are you still member of the
listen tional guard?"
rs of no. l resigned my captiancy
con the Sixty-ninth Regiment about