e buzzed about the fortunate
brother.

"Do you think you can get me a job as programmer with your show?" he
asked.

"No," answered the new advance-agent. "Don't start in the business until
you can be an agent or manager."

On August 2, 1872, Gustave Frohman started to Buffalo to go ahead of the
Callender Minstrels. Charles followed his brother's career with eager
interest, and he longed for the time when he would have some connection
with the business that held such thrall for him.

Life now lagged more than ever for Charles. He chafed at the service in
the store; he detested school; his one great desire was to earn money
and share in the support of the family. His father urged him to prepare
for the law.

"No," he said, "I won't be a lawyer. I want to deal with lots of
people."

Charles frequently referred to Tony Pastor. "He's a big man," he would
often say. "I would like to do what he is doing."

A seething but unformed aspiration seemed to stir his youthful breast.
Once he heard his eldest brother recite some stanzas of Alexander Pope,
in which the following line occurs:

_The whole, the boundless continent is ours._

This line impressed the lad immensely. It became his favorite motto; he
wrote it in his sister's autograph-album; he spouted it on every
occasion; it is still to be found in his first scrap-book framed in
round, boyish hand.

Now the singular thing about this sentiment is that he never quoted it
correctly. It was a life-long failing. His version--and it was strangely
prophetic of his coming career--was:

_The whole--the boundless earth--is mine._

Meanwhile, Daniel Frohman had gone from _The Tribune_ to work in the
office of _The New York Graphic_, down in Park Place near Church Street.
_The Graphic_ was the aristocrat of newspapers--the first illustrated
daily ever published anywhere. With the usual family team-work, Daniel
got Charles a position with him in 1874. He was put in the circulation
department at a salary of ten dollars a week, his first regular wage. It
was a position with which personality had much to do, for one of the
boy's chief tasks was to select a high type of newsboy equipped to sell
a five-cent daily. His genial manner won the boys to him and they became
his loyal co-workers.

With amazing facility he mastered his task. Among other things, he had
to count newspapers. It was before the day of the machine enumerator,
and the work had to be done by hand. Charles dev