In which he owned stock
Had presented a medal to an employee who had remained with them
At the same salary for fifteen years. 
So he had me fired. 
And the Better Industrial Relations Exhibit was a great success. 
And many of the morning and evening newspapers
Ran editorials about it.

THE PRIMA DONNA

She had been interviewed at all possible times,—­
And sometimes the interviews came at impossible ones;
But it did not matter to her
As long as the stories were printed and her name was spelt correctly. 
So we sent a photographer to the hotel one day
To take pictures of her in her drawing room. 
He was an ungentle photographer
Who had been accustomed to take pictures of young women
Coming into the harbor on shipboard, and no photograph was complete
Without limbs being crossed or suchwise. 
But she did not mind even that,
If the pictures were published the next day. 
He took a great number of her in her salon,
And departed happy at the day’s bagging. 
A great international disturbance reduced all the white space available
And no photographs were printed the next day
Of the prima donna. 
And when I met her at rehearsal, she said very shortly: 
“Je vous ne parle plus” and looked at me harshly. 
Was I to blame for the international situation?

PRESS STORIES

Though bandsmen’s notes from the street below resound,
And the voices of jubilant masses proclaim a glorious holiday,
I painstakingly pick out words on the typewriter,
By fits and starts, thinking up a story about the great Metropolitan tenor. 
The typewriter keys now hold no rhythmic tingle. 
But the local manager in Iowa wants the story. 
He has engaged the great tenor for a date next March
When the Tuesday musicale ladies give their annual benefit for the Shriners. 
He wants the concert to be such a success,
That his Iowan town will henceforth be in the foreground
Of Iowan towns, as far as music is concerned. 
So he has wired in for this tale about the singer,
A story about his wife and baby, and what the baby eats per diem. 
And though the call is to the street below,
Where jubilant masses proclaim the holiday,
I must finish the story about the tenor’s wife and baby
To put the Iowan town in the foreground, as far as music is concerned.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF CREDIT

The Irish prize play had come back to Broadway. 
Where to put the credit?  On the astute manager
Who saw in it
A year of Broadway, two of stock, eternity in the movies;
Or the League of Public Spirited Women
Banded together to uplift the Drama—­
That was the question stirring dramatic circles and the public. 
It had failed in its first run of three weeks at an