“Many thanks for your letter and for your kindly interest. I am so glad that the press out West has taken up the question of the Theatrical Trust so splendidly. It helps us in the big fight. There is a hard year before us, and if we win I think we shall have succeeded in breaking the tyrannous ring. The London press was bully. I was interviewed extensively and succeeded in getting many leading papers interested. They have taken up the Trust question seriously over there. I hope you read ‘The Referee.’ They began a series of Trust articles in the number before the last. The article was written in a very forcible style. “Regarding the theatre in Washington, what you write is very interesting and I shall be most happy to hear more about it. “Mr. [Fuller] Mellish called to see me, and there is an understanding that at the first opportunity I shall gather him in. Then,--he may remain with me for life, if he wants to. “With kindest regards to yourself and your wife, I am, “Faithfully, “DAVID BELASCO.” TRIBUTE TO IRVING. While Belasco was in Washington, with his new play “The Girl of the Golden West,” there befell one of the saddest bereavements and one of the greatest losses the Stage has ever known,--the sudden, pathetic death of that great actor and manager and even greater man Henry Irving, which occurred at Bradford, England, October 13, 1905, immediately after the close of his performance in “Becket.” Belasco, always one of his disciples and most ardent admirers, when informed of his death, paid him this tribute: “There are no more such masters! The English-speaking, the modern, Stage has lost its greatest inspiration! The name of Henry Irving stood for all that was artistic in the highest sense. He was the loyalest servant of the public; the friend, the champion of the Stage. He belonged to us almost as much as to England. And what is saddest of all, he leaves no one behind him to take his place. He was a great, a marvellous, actor, a dramatic genius; he was the greatest stage director of modern times; he was the prince of managers; and, what was best of all, he was the best and kindest of men and the truest of friends. God rest his great soul! He has died as he would have wished, but we shall not look upon his like again.” BLANCHE BATES AND “THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST.”