Talking with me about this play, Belasco remarked: “We had a lively time getting that piece licked into shape and produced. The cast was, practically, an ’all star’ one (far finer, I know, than I could get together to-day), several of the members having been specially engaged, and it took a good deal of diplomacy to keep things tranquil and everybody contented. I remember I had an even more disagreeable passage with Lillian Andrews (who had been brought in to play _Big Virginie_) than that at my first meeting with Miss Coghlan. The Washhouse Scene was a hard one--you couldn’t fool with it; the only way to make it go was to _do_ it!--and at the dress rehearsal Miss Andrews refused point-blank to go through it as it was to be done at night. Both she and Miss Coghlan were under dressed with close-fitting rubber suits to keep them dry; but, even so, it was no fun to be drenched with hot soapy water, and I was sorry for them. But, of course, the scene had to be properly and fully rehearsed, and the upshot was I had to tell Miss Andrews she must do her business as directed or leave the company. And, after a grand row, we had the scene as it was to be at night. She and Coghlan and everybody concerned were in such tempers by the time I finished reading the riot act that everything was marvellously realistic; I doubt whether it was ever quite so well done at a public performance!” Belasco’s “L’Assommoir” ran until July 30, when Miss Coghlan ended her season in San Francisco. On the 31st Steele Mackaye’s “Won at Last” was first performed at the Baldwin; and, on August 11, came little Lotta, in “Musette,” “La Cigale,” and other plays, her engagement extending to September 6. THE PLAY OF “CHUMS.” While thus employed at the Baldwin Theatre,--that is, at some time between May and August, 1879,--Belasco was asked by James O’Neill to write a play for his use and that of Lewis Morrison (1844-1906), his intimate friend, and he had begun the adaptation of an old drama, which he purposed to entitle “Chums.” His original intention was that this should be produced with O’Neill and Morrison in the chief parts (those actors being desirous of leaving the Baldwin Theatre stock company and establishing themselves, under a joint business management, as co-stars); but he had made no contract nor even mentioned his project, and when, later, his adapted play, then incomplete, by chance became [Illustration: Photograph by Taber, San Francisco. Courtesy Mrs. Morrison. LEWIS MORRISON Photograph by Sarony. Belasco’s Collection. JAMES O’NEILL About 1880]