Correct again, Dixon! Do you think Belasco would use German silver knives and forks on a dinner table in a play of his? Nix! The real stuff for him! _Sterling!_ And you can say what you want, it’s attention to details like that that makes a play. I suppose _Fanny’s Second Play_ may be pretty good drama, but I never had any experience like the hero in the show and by George, I don’t believe it could have happened! Besides, _my_ sister never acted that way and consequently I must put the whole thing down as rubbish. The author doesn’t understand human nature. No, sir, he doesn’t understand human nature! HILL The society atmosphere, too, is perfectly ridiculous. Why, I’ve been in the Astor as many as five times and I never saw any society people act that way. Our American playwrights are not gentlemen, that’s the rub. SUMMERS Ah me, when Sarah Siddons and Clara Morris and Ada Rehan were in their prime--those were the days! What use longer, I ask you, gentlemen, to inscribe praise to actresses if one is no more invited to meals by them? Times have changed. This Mr. Cohan, paugh! This Miss Barrymore, fie!! DIXON Sure thing! Warfield’s the only one left who can act and _Belasco_ taught _him_ all _he_ knows. Belasco--there’s the wizard! Did you notice the way he got that amber light effect in _Seven Chances_? Wonderful, I say, wonderful----. FENEMY (_interrupting_) But did you ever smoke one of _George Tyler’s_ cigars? HILL About this play we saw tonight. I kind of think I’ll have to let it down a bit easy because the management’s taken out a double-sized ad. in the Sunday edition. And besides, say it should turn out next week to be by an English dramatist instead of an American! Then wouldn’t we feel foolish! DIXON (_vehemently_) Well, we know who the producer is! Isn’t that enough? If it’s put on by Belasco, it’s great; if it’s put on by anybody else, it’s a frost--and there you are. That is, anybody but Klaw and Erlanger. No use throwing the hooks into them too hard. They pull too much influence with our bosses. HILL (_with a self-amused grin_) I wonder what the magazine er-um-um critics, as they choose to call themselves, will think of this play? DIXON Humph! Magazine critics? Why they’re all _young_ fellows. Impudent, too! They think that just because they’re educated they know more about the game than we do--than _I_ do--and I’ve had my opinions quoted on as many as two hundred garbage cans in _one_ week! SUMMERS Ah, dear me, gentlemen. In _my_ time, a critic was a person with a taste for drama; to-day a critic is largely a person with a taste for quotation in the Shubert ads. FENEMY (_to the others, tapping his temple significantly with his forefinger_) The poor chap actually thinks Molière knew more about playwriting than Jules Eckert Goodman! HILL and DIXON (_laughing uproariously_)