from his misfortune.

The only business he knew was the cigar business. With the assistance of
a few friends he was able to start a retail cigar-store at what was then
708 Broadway. It was below Eighth Street and, whether by accident or
design, was located in the very heart of the famous theatrical district
which gave the American stage some of its greatest traditions.

To the north, and facing on Union Square, was the Rialto of the day,
hedged in by the old Academy of Music and the Union Square Theater. Down
Broadway, and commencing at Thirteenth Street with Wallack's Theater,
was a succession of more or less historic playhouses. At Eighth Street
was the Old New York Theater; a few doors away was Lina Edwins's; almost
flanking the cigar-store and ranging toward the south were the Olympic,
Niblo's Garden, and the San Francisco Minstrel Hall. Farther down was
the Broadway Theater, while over on the Bowery Tony Pastor held forth.

Thus the little store stood in an atmosphere that thought, breathed, and
talked of the theater. It became the rendezvous of the well-known
theatrical figures of the period. The influence of the playhouses
extended even to the shop next door, which happened to be the original
book-store founded by August Brentano. It was the only clearing-house in
New York for foreign theatrical papers, and to it came Augustin Daly,
William Winter, Nym Crinkle, and all the other important managers and
critics to get the news of the foreign stage.

It was amid an environment touching the theater at every point that
Charles Frohman's boyhood was spent. He was an impulsive, erratic,
restless child. His mother had great difficulty in keeping him at
school. His whole instinct was for action.

Gustave, who had dabbled in the theatrical business almost before he was
in his teens, naturally became his mentor. To Charles, Gustave was
invested with a rare fascination because he had begun to sell books of
the opera in the old Academy of Music on Fourteenth Street, the
forerunner of the gilded Metropolitan Opera House. Every night the
chubby Charles saw him forge forth with a mysterious bundle, and return
with money jingling in his pocket. One night, just before Gustave
started out, the lad said to him:

"Gus, how can I make money like you?"

"I'll show you some night if you can slip away from mother," was the
brother's reply.

Unrest immediately filled the heart of Charles. Gustave had no peace
until he made good