The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-05
Morgan smith ths philadelphia Negro

Morgan smith the philadelphia Negro
r..'|u Actor.
Mr. Conway, in his last letter to the Round Table
from London, pives the folio wing interesting &C
count Of the first appearance and wonderful success
Of Morgan Smith, the negro actor from Phtlade-
pha witnessed novel and very I'm oressive scene
the other evening, at the Oympc-o or, az IL Is call
ed now, 1om Tavlors theatre. II was announced
that the play OF Otheko would be performed there,
with the character OF "Othelo" rendered by nePro
from Phiadeipha-Mr Morgan Smith. Mr.. Smith
had never found IN America tneatre willing to
admit him to lite STAGE. lie has oniv
Of late arrived in EoRand, and this vas
but his twentieth appearance IN any
theatre That he should appear on any London
stage was n formidable ordeal under such circum-
stances. ] he theatre was well filled, and 1T was
strange to see the most fashionable row OF seats In IL
occupied by a we LdIessed and, Dy general aoree.
ment, decidedly good-looking array OF colored
Oeoplo. Amongst these was Ellen Craft the cele
brated fugitive slave, who escaped some fifteen
years ago iIom Macon, Georgia, in the disguise OF
southern gentleman, attended by her husband
William Craft, who acted the part, IN that very real
drama, of her lhsl body servant. mero were with
her two handsome mulatto women. Then there
was the Reverend Sea Martin, his vile, and her
cousin, who would both be called any
two or three others. these ladies in their
nch opera clOaks were q parterre oil African
beauties such as one scarcely ever sees ana on
this occasion attracted the opera'glassss oil the
fashionable audience almost as much as the
actors on the stage. Mr., SMITHS appearance in the
makeup OF the Moor was most aumlraDe, ana ne
was received with round OF applause Never was
there q man on the Stage who more perfectly
looked the character he was about TO represent.
And when in addition to this he showed that ne was
q complete master OIL the grand Iakespear1an con-
ception; when from first to last, he gave the most
chaste and finished readings, never ranting, never
at q loss; when, with new electric movements and
tones he kindled and thrilled those present in
way which IN the present decaoence OF the Shake.
spearan drama on the London stage, none had
dared expect, ms Triumph complete. From
first to last he moved the entire assembly with HIM;
agan and again ue house echoed the plaudls
ana brayos; and when the curtain fell he was
called before it by the most deaiening
and long-cOntinued applause. So great
was the success That the manager announced,
amid cheers, tLat he had then and there
made an engagement with Morgan Smith
to continue his representations 1t IS even said that
the Oympc and Sadie g Wells 10 have lawsuit
Tor hs services. risk nothing IN saying that the
most distinguished theatrical success in London at
the pre-, ent moment is that OF the Philadelphia
negro, whose whole tTalmno has been obtained In
the negro gal cries of theatres his native city and
in Boston. A friend who has seen Ira Aldridge, the
negro who has been making such ir in st. Peters
bulg and other cities of the continent, assures me
that Morgan Smith mas far more dramatic genus
and VIII be q gI eater man in the end lJ has always
been my conviction-iolmed from a long personal
acquaintance with the negroes in the Southern
States--thGt the negro race has very important
artistic gifts, and particularly that they have great
dramatic quar- There is at tins lime another
American negro IN London, training for the stage,
for whom great things al e predicted.