his case with all his
persuasion, he added:

"I am sure I can make you rich. You have overlooked a great chance to
make money."

Lester Wallack said, "It is a good idea, Mr. Frohman, but your company
must reflect credit upon the theater, and your leading woman must be of
the same type as my leading woman, Rose Coghlan."

Charles immediately said, "The company shall be worthy of you and the
name it bears."

Lester Wallack agreed to rehearse the company and to permit his name to
be used in connection with it. After Charles left, Lester Wallack said
to his son:

"Watch that young man, Arthur. He is going to make his mark."

Arthur Wallack was about to take a trip to England, and Charles
commissioned him to engage the leading people. He therefore engaged
Sophie Eyre, who had been leading woman at the Drury Lane Theater, and
W. H. Denny.

Charles himself selected the remaining members of the company, who were
Newton Gotthold; C. B. Wells; Charles Wheatleigh; Max Freeman; Rowland
Buckstone; Henry Talbot; Sam Dubois; George Clarke; Fred Corbett; Louise
Dillon, who had been with him in the precarious Stoddart Comedy days;
Kate Denin Wilson; Agnes Elliot; and Grace Wilson.

At the time he engaged the Wallack Theater Company Charles had no
office. He was then living at the Coleman House on Broadway, just
opposite the then celebrated Gilsey House. Most of the engagements were
made as he sat in a big leather chair in the lobby, with one foot thrown
over an arm of it.

The principal capital that Charles had for this venture was five
thousand dollars put up by Daniel J. Bernstein, who became treasurer of
the company. Alf Hayman, whom Frohman had met in Philadelphia, was
engaged as advance-agent.

It was a courageous undertaking even for a seasoned and well-financed
theatrical veteran. Although Lester Wallack was well known, his theater
and its successes were not familiar to the great mass of people outside
New York. In those days theatrical publicity was not as widespread as
now. No wonder, then, that the daring of a young manager of twenty-five
in taking out a company whose weekly salary list was nearly thirteen
hundred dollars was commented on.

Charles called his aggregation the Wallack Theater Company. The
repertoire consisted mainly of "Victor Durand," a play by Henry Guy
Carleton which had been produced at Wallack's on December 13, 1884.
Subsequently the company also played "Moths," "Lady Clare," "Diplomacy,"
a