went before the curtain and
entertained the audience until midnight. When the company arrived not
twenty people had left. The final curtain dropped at two-thirty o'clock
before a delighted but weary crowd. The telegrams from the treasurer
which were read to the audience had saved the day--and the receipts.

In the early stages of this long journey of the Mastodons came an
episode that made an indelible impress upon the memory of young Charles.
In view of the later history of the two actors in it, it is both
picturesque and historic.

It was in Cleveland, and the day was hot. The Mastodons had just
finished their parade, and Charles, weary, perspiring, and wearing the
abhorred silk hat, entered the box-office of the Opera House on
Cleveland Avenue. Sitting in the treasurer's seat at the window he saw a
sturdy lad fingering a pile of silver dollars. He slipped them in and
out with an amazing dexterity. Hearing a noise, he looked up and beheld
young Frohman with the tile tilted back on his head.

The boys' eyes met. Into each came a wistful look.

"I wish I had that silk hat of yours," said the boy at the window.

"I wish I could do what you are doing with that money," was the response
from the envied one.

Such was the first meeting between Charles Frohman and A. L. Erlanger.

Here is another episode of those early days that resulted in a life-long
and significant friendship. In a Philadelphia newspaper office Charles
met a rangy, keen-eyed young man named Alf Hayman, who was advance-agent
for Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Florence. When Hayman and Charles had concluded
their business they started out for a walk. The Colonnade Hotel, at the
corner of Fifteenth and Chestnut streets, was then the fashionable hotel
of the city. In the course of this walk the two boys (they were each
scarcely twenty) stopped in front of the hostelry, and Charles said:

"Some day I hope to have enough money to stop at the Colonnade."

He never forgot this, and whenever he met Hayman in Philadelphia he
would always insist upon walking over to the hotel and recalling the
conversation. Hayman afterward became general manager of all the Charles
Frohman forces and remained until the end perhaps the closest of all the
business associates of the manager.

* * *

Thus passed the years 1878 and 1879. Charles was growing in authority
and experience until he was really doing all of "Big Bill" Foote's work
and his own. Now came a great and thrilling exp