On July 8 a revival was effected at the Baldwin of Boucicault’s “The Octoroon,” “re-touched and re-arranged” by Belasco. This, and a double bill, comprising Byron’s “Dearer Than Life” and “The Post of Honor,”—brought out on August 5,—filled the summer season, and on September 2 Belasco’s play in five acts entitled “Olivia,”—the first dramatization of Goldsmith’s “The Vicar of Wakefield” to be acted in California,—was produced with the following notable cast:

Belasco’s dramatic epitome adhered to Goldsmith’s story as closely as is feasible for stage purposes; it was an effective play, it was admirably set upon the stage and acted, and it gained substantial success. “Those were strenuous times for me,” he writes; “every one was thrusting duties on me then which, as I was always a glutton for work, I grasped as opportunities. One lesson I learned at the Baldwin which I have never forgotten—that one of the greatest mistakes a man can make is the mistake of permitting anybody else to do his work for him. I wrote ’Olivia’ between times, as it were, and I was genuinely surprised by its success.”

After the run of “Olivia” J. C. Williamson and his wife, “Maggie” Moore, came to the Baldwin,—opening in “Struck Oil,”—and Belasco, while directing the stage for them, completed an alteration of Wills’ “A Woman of the People,”—which was brought forth October 14,—and a play, made at the request of Rose Wood, which he called “Proof Positive,” based on an old melodrama. This was produced on October 28, and in it James O’Neill gained a notable success in the character of an eccentric, semi-comic Jew.