“One day I met Mr. Henry Butler in New York. He suggested that we interest wealthy men and form a stock company. ’But let’s try another plan first,’ he said. At this time three enterprising young men were the lessees of the Herald Square Theatre. They were ’Charlie’ Evans, who made a fortune with Hoyt’s ’A Parlor Match,’ F. C. Whitney, and Max Blieman, a picture dealer. They opened the house with a musical comedy, but wanted to produce a ’straight’ drama. ’I’ll go down and see them myself,’ Butler volunteered, ’and you wait here for me.’ He brought back good news. ’They have confidence in you,’ was the cheerful message, ’and they are willing to “gamble.”’ “Blieman called on Palmer and paid cash for the scenery made at the time Palmer intended to produce the play. The play was to be the opening attraction at the Herald Square, under joint management. “But early in the summer Blieman sent for me. ’Whitney has “cold feet”,’ he remarked, ’and has dropped out.’ ’There are still two of you left,’ I answered. Several weeks after this Blieman sent for me again and this time he was in despair. ’Charlie’s dropped out now,’ he said; ’but by---- I believe in the play and I’ll stick....’ “The opening took place in Washington; and as I could not get into the theatre before Sunday we were not ready to open until the middle of the week. We practically lived in the theatre. We made a great sensation on the opening night, but Washington, unfortunately, was in the grip of a financial panic, and the houses in consequence were very poor,--so poor, indeed, that Blieman’s pocket was empty. He was obliged to confess that he had not enough money left to send the company back to New York. So here we were,--stranded, billed to open in New York on Monday night and no money to get there. “Blieman summoned courage and made a hasty trip to New York to try to raise some money, and when I saw him in the evening he was all smiles. ’What do you think,’ he confided to me, ’I’ve just borrowed fifteen hundred dollars from “Al” Hayman on a picture worth thirty thousand.’ Here was a boy after my own heart! The fifteen hundred dollars enabled us to return to New York, and at last the poor old storm-tossed ’Heart of Maryland’ had its metropolitan opening--on the strength of a pawned painting!”