"My experiences of the newspapers, on the whole, were
very pleasant My manager, George Loveday, conducted out
business on very independent and fearless lines. A few little
waspish journals that you know exist here and there didn't
relish this. They took it out of us now and then in what
George called ' a scorcher ; ' but we were English, you know,
and kept to our English ways, I don't know whether that was



IN AMERICA. 159

altogether wise, in spite of the proverb, * When at Rome, do as
the Romans do ; ' but at least we held our own, made friends, I
think, of the best people, and won our way to the respect and
esteem of the highest critics.
" Some of our pieces on first representation were a little like
olives to unaccustomed palates, and seemed to bother them.
*Spriggins' and the 'Dodger,' essentially London t)rpes,
although of very opposite characters, puzzled them a good
deal ; but on return visits they became immense favourites.
The characters the Americans didn't quite understand in my
rkpertoire^ however, went straight home to the Canadians. I
felt perfectly at my ease in the Dominion ; it was, in fact,
England ; the theatres English, the audiences English ; and
there was nothing we played that was not accepted with the
same applause and laughter which belonged to my experiences
of the United Kingdom.
"I always find it difficult to talk about myself and my acting.
