On  one  occasion,  for  instance,  I  went  to  report  a  play  of
mediocre  quality  that  was  running  at  the  Olympic,  and  was
so  impressed  with  a  love  scene  which  was  a  part  of  it  that
I  was  entirely  blinded  to  all  the  faults  of  construction  which
the  remainder  of  the  play  showed,  and  wrote  it  up  in  the
most  glowing  colors.  And  the  copy-reader,  Hartung,  was  too
weary  that  night  or  too  inattentive  to  capture  it.  The  next
day  some  of  the  other  newspaper  men  in  the  office  noticed  it
and  commented  on  it  to  me  or  to  Hartung,  saying  it  was
ridiculously  high-flown  and  that  the  play  itself  was  silly,
which  was  true.  But  did  that  cure  me?  Not  a  bit.  I  was
reduced  for  a  day  or  two  by  it,  but  not  for  long.  Seeing  other
plays  of  the  same  caliber  and  with  much  sweet  love  mush  in
them,  I  raved  as  before.    •

A  little  later  a  negro  singer,  a  young  woman  of  considerable
vocal  ability  who  was  being  starred  as  the  Black  Patti,  was
billed  to  appear  in  St.  Louis.  The  manager  of  the  bureau  that
was  presenting  her  called  my  attention  by  letter  to  her  ' '  mar-
velous" ability,  and  by  means  of  clippings  and  notices  of  her
work  published  elsewhere  had  endeavored  to  impress  me
favorably.  I  read  these  notices,  couched  in  the  glowing
phrases  of  the  press-agent,  and  then  went  forth  on  this  evening
to  cover  this  myself.  To  make  it  all  the  grander,  I  invited
McCord  and  with  him  proceeded  to  the  theater,  where  we
were  assigned -a  box.
