Again the professors were urging me to become more "regular" and pointing out the great career that awaited me—if I only would work.
There was some subsequent talk of sending the play to Osageville, Topeka, Kansas City....
But the faculty opposed it ... it would not be proper to send girls and boys out together, travelling about like a regular theatrical company.
As it had been said that I was going to take up the career of animal trainer,—after my going into the cage with the lions—so it was now pronounced, and reported in the papers—Travers saw to that—that I meditated a career as a professional actor....
Gleeful, and vastly relieved, Professor Dineen slipped me twenty-five dollars out of his own pocket.
Several fraternities showed indications of "rushing" me, after my star performance ... but my associations with the odd characters about town and the wild, ignorant farmers of the lower type that drove in each Saturday from the adjacent country, made them, at first, hesitate ... then utterly drop the idea....
Broke, I now wrote a long letter to Jarvis Alexander Mackworth.