To the Dramatic Editor:

As a performer who appeared at the Barney Fagan benefit last night at the Manhattan Opera House, before an audience that was disappointed at the non-appearance of the majority of the stars announced, may I thank you for the manner in which the times wrote up the affair?

There should be a law that would forever put a stop to the custom of artists permitting themselves to be advertised when they have no idea whatsoever of appearing, and this law ought to be applicable to managers who bill stars without their permission. There is too much of this sort of thing, and the sooner it is stopped the better for all concerned.

In the hundreds of benefits where I have appeared during the war I have noted that in the majority of cases it has been those stars most widely announced who have been conspicuous by their absence.

HOUDINI.
Sept. 1, 1919.

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