"All right," he said; "then be here at seven o'clock."
I went on that night and never missed a number. In the middle of the
performance, Mr. Carleton said to me:
"Now, let loose. Do anything you like."
Being exceedingly limber, I did a slide down the run, stumbling over
everything, and made a hit from the start. From that time on I took
liberties that no one else in the company dared.
Mr. Carleton was a very strict disciplinarian, but he always encouraged me
to go ahead. After two or three years playing leading roles in the
principal opera companies, I determined to step forward and go after "the
big things." So back to New York I came, still unknown.
After waiting around for three months, I decided that the world was
against me; that a bright and shining light was being crushed. Also, that
a law ought to be passed whereby no Englishman could come to this country
and play.
Took Bull by the Horns.
I remember standing on the corner of Twenty-Eighth Street and Broadway,
with my head just full of such anarchistic ideas, when something plainly
said to me:
"If you are as darn good as you think you are, why don't you go out and
get a job? There is room for every one."
I immediately walked over to the office of Jesse Williams, a dramatic
agent, and said, "I want a job. I will play prima-donna roles or old men's
roles. I want a job, and I don't care what it is."