s._

River Falls, it happened, had been "discovered" before and abandoned,
but Charles thought he was making route history.

Charles immediately set to work with the extraordinary energy that
always characterized him. The chief bill-poster in St. Paul was named
Haines. Charles captured him with his engaging smile, and he became a
willing slave. It was Haines who taught him how to post bills. Later on
when Gustave arrived with the show, he spoke of the boy with intense
pride. He said:

"I have taught your brother Charley how to post bills. He took to it
like a duck to water. He didn't mind how much paste he spattered over
himself. His one desire was to know how to do the job thoroughly. I am
going to make him the greatest theatrical agent in the world."

Curiously enough, Haines lived to be a very old man, and in the later
years of his life he was able to stick up the twenty-eight-sheet stands
that bore in large type the name of the little chubby protege he had
introduced to the art of bill-posting back in the long ago.

At St. Paul Charles had opposition--a big musical event at Ingersoll
Hall--and this immediately tested his resource. He got his printing
posted in the best places, went around to the newspaper offices and got
such good notices that John Dillon was inspired to remark that he had
never had such efficient advance work. It is interesting to remember
that at this time Charles Frohman was not yet eighteen years old.

Now came the first evidence of that initiative which was such a
conspicuous trait in the young man. He had come back to see the
performances of his company, and had watched them with swelling pride.
Several times he said, and with pardonable importance:

"What _we_ need is a new play. _We_ must have something fresh to
advertise."

The net result of this suggestion was that his brother obtained the
manuscript of "Lemons," a comedy that, under the title of "Wedlock for
Seven," had been first produced at Augustin Daly's New Fifth Avenue
Theater in New York. A copy of the play was sent on to Charles to
enable him to prepare the presswork for it, and it was the first play
manuscript he ever read. "Lemons" vindicated Charles's suggestion,
because it added to the strength of the repertory and brought
considerable new business.

Charles took an infinite pride in his work. He was eager for
suggestions, he worked early and late, and when the season closed at the
end of June he was a full-fledged