features of my new and original play, and differing only in the two
modifications--these being the very same two modifications which
Mr. X had urged me to make in my play. Mr. Smith had taken this play
to the firm which employed Mr. X, and this firm had accepted the
play and produced it, without Mr. X, their chief play-reviser,
ever seeing it--or else without his mentioning that it was my play,
with the two modifications in my play which he had recommended. The
play had been taken to the Hudson Theatre, owned by William Harris,
Jr., who had accepted my play and submitted it to Mr. X, and the
play had actually been produced at this theatre for nearly a week
without either authors or managers ever hearing of my play!

I may be unduly suspicious, but I could not credit this peculiar
chain of coincidences. I took the matter to the Author's League,
whose executive committee read my play, saw the other play, and
agreed that I had cause for inquiry. Mr. Louis Joseph Vance,
representing the league, undertook to interview Mr. X, who was an
intimate friend of his, and sent Mr. X a telegram asking for an
appointment. Mr. X did not answer. Mr. Vance assured me that this
was the first time the gentleman had ever failed to reply to such a
request from him. Subsequently, Mr. Vance made an appointment to
meet Mr. X at luncheon, and hear his explanation of the matter; but
Mr. X failed to keep the appointment. I went ahead with plans for a
law-suit, whereupon Messrs. Jones and Robinson withdrew their play.

My reasons for telling the story are two. First, I think it well
that would-be playwrights should have some idea what they may
encounter when they venture into the jungles of Broadway; and
second, because critics and play-goers who saw the play of Smith and
Brown will wish to know which play was written first.