Philip Curtiss

“ Half-way up the alley he heard rapid steps behind him and heard his name spoken.
"Mr. Bellsmith!"
He turned, and the little comedian, Charlie Barnes, came up beside him, looking more pitiful than ever with his overcoat open and his brown derby hat drawn over his eyes.
"Mr. Bellsmith," began the comedian, with a complete and suddenly abject change of manner. "Mr. Bellsmith, I hope you did n't take wrong what I said just now in the dressing-room. I lost my temper. I'm always that way but I did n't mean it." ”

“ Like most men of his kind, he had always regarded men of Bellsmith's class as operating on a special principle, one having no relation to the usual economic laws. The average New Yorker when he speaks of "a rich man from out of town" instinctively pictures him as inordinately rich, richer than any New Yorker could ever be. Israels had always classed men like Bellsmith as having an inexhaustible gold-mine ”

“ Did you happen to know that one of those girls is supporting two children out of forty-five dollars a week and paying her hotel bills on the road? How much do you think she's got laid aside to meet this? ”

“ Barnes was siding with Israels. It was not a question of one less date for the "Eleanor" show but a question of the "show business" against a very lubberly outsider.
"But the other booking?" asked Bellsmith. "The theaters in Troy and Rochester and Buffalo? What will happen if we don't keep our dates?"
Israels laughed without mirth. "Don't you worry about them. They 'll be only too glad of those dates for other shows that are making more money than we are and ask for a smaller percentage. A dozen shows will be rushing for them as soon as the dates are open. ”

“ Israels did not reply, for the answer to that question was the single unhappy fact which he had held back from Bellsmith in a series of unhappy revelations.
"To tell the truth, Mr. Bellsmith," he admitted at last, "it would n't even do you any good if you could get to Chicago. You see, theaters in Chicago are scarcer than they are in New York. It was n't 'Eleanor' as a show that had that booking but Harcourt & Gay as a firm. They need that Chicago date too badly for something else to let you have it now." ”

“ One is closing to-night and sending these people back to New York without a job. The other is playing to certain loss all the way from here to Chicago and then not even getting the booking in Chicago."
Israels shrugged. "You know, Mr. Bellsmith—," but Bellsmith knew what he intended to say and forestalled him.
"Oh, I'm not blaming you," he interrupted. "You did n't cheat me. I bought this thing blind and now I intend to pay for it."
"Pay for it!" snorted Barnes, suddenly coming back into the argument. "It's we who pay for your fun. You have n't got much to lose by it." ”