“It would be a special satisfaction to me to see you crown your career with such a wonderful, such an unparalleled, accomplishment. However much honest difference of opinion there may be regarding some of the productions you have made (as you know, you and I are hopelessly at variance about some of the plays you have brought out), there could be no room for cavil or honest censure of such a venture as the production of three of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, which, practically speaking, are unknown, are _new_, to the American Stage, and which are peculiarly well suited to _your_ purposes and treatment. And it would be all the more splendid that such production should not be made at the high-tide of general theatrical prosperity, but should be made when the whole world seems shattered, and the rest of theatrical managers are running about like ants that have been disturbed in their hill! “Faithfully yours, “WILLIAM WINTER.” (_Telegram, David Belasco to William Winter._) “New York, May 19, 1917. “Dear William Winter, I [have] just read your letter. You are right, and I promise you and myself to do the plays as you suggest, counting upon your generous assistance, without which I could not do them. I shall come over as soon as I possibly can, to speak further of this. Thank you for your enthusiasm and your faith. God bless you! “DAVID BELASCO.” CONCERNING SARAH BERNHARDT. [It was part of my father’s purpose in making this Memoir to devote a section in it to BELASCO’S CONTEMPORARIES. The notes which he made on the subject were not extensive. For that reason and for others I have decided not to attempt to supply the section. Before making the decision, however, I addressed to Belasco some inquiries bearing on the subject and especially one concerning his “favorite player.” His reply to the latter embodies a notable tribute to a wonderful woman and is, I think, of exceptional interest. Among other things, it strikingly illustrates how radically doctors sometimes disagree. No person more admired the resolute courage shown by Sarah Bernhardt than Winter did, who wrote of her: “It is good to see upon the Stage--and everywhere else--indomitable endurance, the aspiring mind that nothing can daunt and the iron will that nothing can break.” And no writer more justly appreciated than he did her artistic faculties, her supremacy as “an histrionic executant.” His final estimate of her, however,--an estimate as exact as a chemist’s analysis and one which will survive all disparagement,--is, in some respects, in such sharp disagreement with Belasco’s that readers of the latter will find the former specially instructive. It is embodied, together with his studies of her acting, in his book entitled “The Wallet of Time.”--J. W.] (_David Belasco to Jefferson Winter._) “The Belasco Theatre, New York, “May 31, 1918. “My dear Jefferson Winter:--