Belasco left the “Frayne Troupe” about the end of January, 1878, and returned to San Francisco. There I trace him first at the Bush Street Theatre,—where he performed as James Callin and as Pablo, in the prologue and drama of “Across the Continent,” then first presented, by

Oliver Doud Byron, in San Francisco,—and, a little later, back again at the Baldwin Theatre. He labored there, with short intermissions, as actor and stage manager, from March 26, 1878, to the latter part of September, 1879. On the former date the New York Union Square Theatre Company emerged at the Baldwin in “Agnes,” in which Belasco played Rudolphe. During the engagement of the Union Square Company “One Hundred Years Old,” “Saratoga,” “A Celebrated Case,” and Joaquin Miller’s “The Danites” were presented under Belasco’s direction, and, in each of them, he acted a subsidiary part. His services as director proved so valuable that when the engagement was ended and the company made a tour of Pacific Slope towns an arrangement was effected with Maguire whereby Belasco accompanied it. The tour lasted until the end of May, and it was followed by a brief return season in San Francisco. At its close the company, which included O’Neill, Charles B. Bishop, Rose Wood, and F. F. Mackay, presented to Belasco a purse of $200 in gold “as an expression of appreciation of his services and esteem for himself.” The presentation was made, in presence of the assembled company, on the stage of the Baldwin Theatre, by F. F. Mackay, who, in making it, read the following letter: