Evening star., 1912-11-24


of Miss Louise Cunning Miss Cunning IS one OF the
stars under my management and l told the girl who
had handed me the card to show her in at once The
door opened and in the actress who was looking
for the position in "He Came from Milwaukee.
Before | had chance to express my astonishnent,
the who of decidedly thlrd-rate hstr1onc
and vocal caliber babbled forth you must forgive
Mr. Shubert but simply had to you personally to
get part in the Bernard play, so INDUCED IN the
trick of having some cards engraved III hurry
with Miss Cunning on them tired to get mold
of one of her cards. but couldn't. knew one OF your
stars cards would get into office OF course
appreciated the fact that the office boy who took my
card would know | wasn't Miss Cunning; SO handed
him nv own card first When | saw him glance at 1T
and read and start to take 1T IN to you SAD
to him. Oh just second, Dear. That card is soiled
Take this clean one He did, and, was quite natural
and as figured out, glanced at the second card
bearing Miss Cunning which substituted tor
nv own card that had originally handed to him.
When the visitor stopped to catch her breath-glvg
me time to catch my own made bold to tell her that
while | admired the righteousness of her method
could offer her nothing IN the cast l was assembling.
And also repeated to her the remark OF Russell sage
with which introduced this article; qualifying the
same however with the polite suggestion that the So
called "key of success was never made OF brass alone
ABOUT two wears ago | decided to put new
\ musical comedy in hurry to serve as stop-gap
When this fact heralded in the newspapers, my
outer offices Immediately took on the appearance or
recess period at girls boarding school, AS matter OF
fact three hundred and eghty-two chorus girls by
actual presented themselves for positions on the
girls rested in other hands than ne but this fact did
deter of the overzealous ones from trying to
get personal hearing with me- had ordered my office
door kept shut against such anticipated INVASION,
however and rested in temporary sense OF security
Despite my three OF the applicants did manage to
get by the closed door. .
The manner in which of the three succeeded Will
possibly serve nferential criterion of the modus
operandi of the other On the third day after the
announcement of my plans had appeared in the news
papers, was somewhat surprised as you may imagine
to find on my desk when got down to the office IN the
morning, small, cheap leather frame containing the
photograph of young woman whom had never before
seen.
called in two of the outside guardians of the gate
and asked them they knew how the picture had got
there or of whom it They assured me they had
it and that moreover my office door had not
been opened even once before | had opened it that
morning myself. l remembered that had locked the
door before leaving the building the night before and
that | had found it still locked when got down that
morning And knew full we'll that the framed picture
had been there when left the office the previous
evening. Nevertheless, | was too busy to go further
into the mystery and told of the stenographers to
take the picture away and put in drawer OF her desk
until its owner turned up to claim it.
As always when left the office that evening locked
the door And when unlocked it the morning after,
there my desk the frame containing the
same photograph of the same strange young woman.
called the stenographer in and demanded to know
why she had replaced the photograph that had spe-
officially ordered her to put in the drawer of her desk
the outside 1t trivial matter but 1T an
noyed me.
Ihe stenographer sao Sle ldu aohe dS h'u Iol ael
and that she had not taken the picture out OF her desk
the drawer of which, she said she had locked when she
went home the previous evening.
"Then how did the picture get out OF Your locked desk
drawer through my locked office door, demanded
with impatience.
The girl bewildered back to her desk pulled at
the drawer-and found it still locked She opened it
and the picture lying just where she had placed IT.
The framed photograph my desk was an exact dupi-
cate.
But the question still remained, Who had put it
there-how had they succeeded in putting it there
and who the orgina 1t had every of curios
ity in my makeup aroused | hid the second photo
graph and waited in patience to see whether the per
ornance would be repeated the next morning. 1t was