followed Sarah Bernhardt into the "two-a-day." [1]

[1] The _two-a-day_ is stage argot for vaudeville. It comes from
the number of performances the actor "does," for in vaudeville
there are two shows every day, six or seven days a week.

Nevertheless, in this sense the novice needs no literary training.
If he can see drama in real life and feels how it can be turned
into a coherent, satisfying story, he can learn how to apply that
story to the peculiar requirements of vaudeville. But no amount
of instruction can supply this inborn ability. The writer himself
must be the master of his fate, the captain of his own dramatic
soul.

CHAPTER III

THE VAUDEVILLE STAGE AND ITS DIMENSIONS


To achieve success in any art the artist must know his tools and
for what purposes they are designed. Furthermore, to achieve the
highest success, he must know what he cannot do as well as what
he can do with them.

The vaudeville stage--considered as a material thing--lends itself
to only a few definite possibilities of use, and its scenery,
lights and stage-effects constitute the box of tools the vaudeville
writer has at his command.