Those Elusive Sleepers.
"'Look here, Hattie,' said the manager, 'I tell you what we'll do. I'll make it fifty-five a week and your sleepers. How does that strike you?'
"I was delighted. With my sleeping-car berths settled for by the company, I stood to save a good bit at every jump, which was just like putting so much extra money in my pocket. I accepted, and, will you believe it, we never used sleepers once during the whole tour, for we did all our traveling by daylight. The joke was on me, all right, that time."
When "The Girl from Maxim's" exhausted its drawing power after a long run in town and was sent on the road the lead was awarded to Miss Williams, who acquitted herself so well that she was put into "The Rogers Brothers at Harvard," and played for the first time as a real principal on Broadway. Her imitations of different types, in this show were extremely clever, and she was engaged again for the Washington experiences of the Rogers Brothers the next season. In short, Hattie Williams had "arrived."
She has most peculiar views on applause.
"People come to the theater," she told me, "for relaxation and amusement. I do not see why, after they have paid to be entertained, I should expect them to go to the exertion of applause in tight gloves. If I have satisfied them—made them feel that they have had their money's worth—I should be content to let it go at that. Their being willing to come to see me again is the real test of their good opinion."