professional note of pathos was obtrusively present, he lamented that he was not able to bring his parents to America.
The story of Morris Gest is the last one in the world to use as a “success story” of the type of “the poor immigrant boy who became a great theatrical producer.” He is not a great producer, of course, although he is a great panderer to the least creditable tastes of a public whose taste he has been no mean factor in debasing. Gest sold newspapers in Boston, and became property boy in a Boston theater. In 1906 he was a member of a notorious gang of ticket specu¬ lators who were the bane of the public until ticket¬ peddling on the sidewalks in front of theaters was suppressed by the police. There are still other stories told about him that link his name with another sort of traffic, but whether these stories are true or not, there HOW JEWS CAPITALIZED A PROTEST AGAINST JEWS 109 is nothing in Gest’s career to indicate that he would ever contribute anything to the theater’s best interest. He is the son-in-law of David Belasco.