"When the boss turned up, he looked at me in amazement. "'I didn't hire you regularly,' he said. "'But I need the job,' I told him. "He looked at me hard for a minute, then he said: 'See here, Selwyn, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll give you five per cent on all the goods you sell to-day.' An Energetic Salesman. "Well, I didn't need any more than that. I started in to work, and any man who came in that store to buy a collar was lucky if he escaped from my clutches without leaving a dollar or two behind him for several other articles--shirts, neckties, any old thing. Whether he needed them or not was all one to me, so long as I got my five per cent. When the day was over, the proprietor found he owed me three dollars and eighty-five cents. "Accordingly, he proceeded to make a new deal. "'I engage you,' he said, 'at eight dollars a week.' "He raised me later to ten dollars, and then to twelve. At length the firm failed; but meantime I was getting into the theatrical atmosphere. That came about in this way: "Among the chaps I met where I boarded was one who knew somebody who knew somebody else who was connected with the Herald Square Theater, which was about to be opened. I needed the money, so I decided to put in a plea for the job of usher in the new house. I got it, and used to linger after the show to watch any rehearsals that might be put on. "Then I took to imitating the actors for the benefit of my comrades on the usher staff--and sometimes to the enjoyment of those higher up in the government of the theater. I remember that once while Mansfield was playing in the house I was doing a travesty on him for the edification of the Slocum brothers, his managers at the time, when the mighty Richard himself walked into the room and discovered me. What he said I don't remember now, but it went home at the time all right, and it's a wonder I didn't go there too. "After Mansfield, 'Rob Roy,' the comic opera, held the boards at the Herald Square for quite a time. Joe Herbert, one of the comedians, left the cast, and Dave Warfield was picked to succeed him. But he couldn't seem to remember the lines and business of the part. I was pat on it from seeing the show every night from the front, so I remember one time after the performance Warfield got me to coach him in a sort of parlor off to the left of the auditorium. A Series of Discouragements. "Naturally, my imitations of other people suggested to some of the boys that I might be able to act myself, and one fellow I had met got up a performance in a town on Long Island. Well, I went on, and when I came off they shipped me back to New York as the worst actor they had ever seen--and it was a sort of amateur show at that. This touched my pride and fired my determination, so when I lost my job as usher by 'grafting' on seats, I made up my mind that I would be a regular actor and show my critics that they had been mistaken.