The American people not only fancy "detail"; they also want "ginger" and "the punch"! No _pousse café_ for them! They want "the straight goods"--and Mansfield certainly handed them over! _Chapter XIII_ IN VARIETY After my engagement with Robson at the Howard Athenaeum, which lasted for only a week, my mind was fully made up to adopt the stage as my vocation. I went to New York and secured a position as utility man at Niblo's Garden, under the management of Charles R. Thorne, Sr., and Edwin Eddy. But this lasted for only a few weeks, the season proving a failure. During the seasons of 1875 and 1876 I found it difficult to secure any employment whatever. The variety business, now called vaudeville, about this time had well-nigh supplanted the legitimate drama in the estimation of the masses and I, being rather an astute observer for a youngster, determined to turn my attention in that direction. The salaries offered were tempting and the opportunities of advertising one's ability much greater than in the legitimate. I persuaded my father to advance me enough money to have some costumes prepared and succeeded in inducing Bradford to prepare a sketch for me. It was called "His First Rehearsal," the receipt for which I take pleasure in submitting. You will see that sketches in those days cost small fortunes! [Illustration: (Handwritten receipt from Joseph Bradford.)] [Illustration: IN THE LITTLE REBEL _One of my first excursions into the legitimate_] I succeeded in procuring an opening at the Howard Athenaeum under the management of John Stetson. My associates appearing in the same programme were Gus Williams, Sol Smith Russell, Pat Rooney, Denman Thompson and several others who afterwards became famous players. I was handicapped to a great extent by this competition and my success was not very flattering until about the end of the week when I gained more confidence and my methods were a bit surer. On the Saturday night of my engagement Bradford brought a friend of his, Clay Greene, to see his _protegé_. That evening, fortunately for me, my sketch went particularly well. Years after Mr. Greene wrote the following tribute: THE LEGEND OF NATHANIEL BY CLAY M. GREENE "Come thou with me, tonight, and sit awhile, To see the mummers; not at the Museum: 'Tis laughter's Tomb. The Park's a dull Te Deum; The Globe's a Morgue. Mayhap there be a smile That lurketh somewhere in the dingy Athenaeum." Thus spake my friend, Joe Bradford: Rest his soul! I'd known him then a day, and we were chumming, As though we'd been for years Love's lute-strings thumbing. We'd told each other's lives; each ope'd his soul, And drank the other's health 'till riotous becoming.