Evening star., 1922-06-18

these unknowns? That's what I'd
like to dope out. Why doesn't some
body tell the world what a wonder
1 am. for q changer"
"Alid about me?" adds Sheila. Here
] am. doing classy color stuff for the
same masazines as Meta Keefe: but
do 1 win any personal paragraphs
from the column conductors? l do
not. And yet the funny sap who does
the Crows Nest is always ringing in
something about Meta. It's all wrong,
all wrong. Say, somebody pass the
cigarettes"
You should worry. Sheila," says
Barry Platt Read mine and weep.
The night my first and only play
opened in the Village there were two
Broadway premieres, one of them a
musical girl show, and all the re-
views / got you could have pasted
on a postcard. In fact the only time
print as Perry Blatt How am I ever
going to become a well known drama
tist with a start like that? While this
Duff O'Brien person was hailed as
conner from the very start How
come, I'd like to know"
X Y k*
At whicfg Ames Hunt chuckles and
"A favors the table with that crooked
smile of his. 'Ill tell you" says he.
"o'Brien was lucky enough to be
taken up by the Rollers. So was
Meta Keefe. So was Montague Burr
and all the others who have broken
in. They found favor with the
Rollers"
IT don't get you" says I. "who
and what are the Rollers?'
THE log rollers" says Hunt. "They
have accepted the term themselves.
SO I am quite free to use it And
since they did a good deal toward
helping me at first, I hardly feel like
giving them any unkind words now.
1 didn't choose to stay with them, but
that was entirely my affair. How
ever. the Rollers have gone on and
prospered, and today they come very
near being the whole show in this
town"
"Yes, I've heard of them," says
Barry, but in a vague sort of way.
They boost each other. don't they.
and belong to a mutual admiration
society?"
THAT is their working scheme,
stated crudely and simply" admits
Hunt. Its a case of you tickle me
and I'll tickle you; you beat the
tom-tom for my stuff and I'll beat 1t
for yours. There's no denying, too,
that it is much more helpful than a
society of knockers. OF course, it
does choke out real criticism; and oc-
casionally, If not frequently, this log
rolling system does fool the dear
public into buying trashy books or
seeing poor plays or raving over bad
art But, on the other hand, the
Rollers do encourage real genius now
and then. So there you are"
But the genius must first make
the grade with the Rollers" objects
Shena "And their organization is
rather q close combine, / take it.
How did they start anyway"
Which seemed to be the cue that
Ames Hunt had been waiting for. He
smothered q cigarette stump in the
saucer of his coffee cup, lighted a
fresh one reflectively. and then told US
all about 1t.
X X \
esTT was ten or dozen years ago."
he began, "when I had come on
from Boston fully convinced that
had already achieved fame. Why
not? had staged a college play.
and I'd managed\a stock company
that had almost paid expenses for
one whole season. 1t was a great
shock to learn that no one in New
York had heard Of me. Worse
than that, none Of the big producers
seemed to ysarn for my services. I
couldn't believe 1t for while. Then
nv funds ran low and l mo I'd frem