Soon after his return to New York Belasco received a message from the great singer Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink, who had been much impressed by his presentment of Warfield in “The Music Master,” who desired to adventure on the dramatic stage, and who proposed that Belasco should undertake her management and write a play for her use. This he gladly agreed to do, and the play, which was to have been a sort of sister piece to “The Music Master” and was to have been called “The Opera Singer,” was planned and in part written; but the demands on Belasco’s energies and time were more than any one person could meet and he was regretfully forced to relinquish that project. “It hurt me to let go,” he said: “I had a good story. Mme. Schumann-Heink had great natural talent for acting, and I believe that if I could have carried it through, working in a tremendous scene for her, as a singer on the opera stage, we should have set the country wild. But--there is a limit, and I was pretty near to mine, so _that_ little scheme went up in smoke!” The following letters all are characteristic of Belasco in varying moods: (_David Belasco to Blanche Bates._) “Belasco Theatre, New York, “April 3, 1905. “My dear Blanche Bates:-- “I have received a note from Mr. William Courtleigh of the Actors’ Society in which he asks if it is possible for you to appear with Mr. Wm. Gillette at their benefit. I have promptly said ‘No.’ In the first place, you are not going to support Mr. Gillette. You would do all the hard work--yelling, shouting and running about like a maniac,--while he sat calmly smoking his cigar, with a calcium light upon him. Besides, this would be no novelty, as Gillette did the same thing at the Holland Benefit and I saw the poor little -------- girl disgrace herself. There is nothing at all in these ‘benefits,’ and I hope you are pleased that I got you out of this one. “With all good wishes, “Faithfully yours, “DAVID BELASCO.” (_David Belasco to John Luther Long, in Philadelphia._) “Belasco Theatre, New York, “April 26, 1905. “My dear John:-- “I have just received the beautiful Tennysonian verses. I shall _dramatize_ them, of course, and you were bully to send them to me. “But really, Jonathan, haven’t we given that gang of grafters a shake-up? It cost me a lot of money,--but (thank Heaven!) I had it to spend, and could unmask them. If I have done a wee bit of good in helping to clear away the rubbish, I am more than rewarded. “Good luck to you, and my best affection! “Faithfully, “DAVID BELASCO.” (_David Belasco to Mrs. F. M. Bates._) “Belasco Theatre, New York, “July 13, 1905. “My dear, dear Mrs. Bates:-- “I am so sorry I did not see you the other morning when you called at the theatre, but I have been nearly crazy with neuralgia for the past week.