The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-11-13
NUMBER o7,4sa.
ICCNTINUED.

: " "
1 recognized through haze of to-
bacco-smoke my roistering friend
2 Tom, engaged in what he was wont
to term cultivating the muses-in
other words, keeping up a smoking
dozen very shady utility actors.
That ardent young gentleman hail
ed me boisterously.
"Hallo. George, my pippin! Come
to see life, eh? Sit down and have a
spider"
Declining the chronological be-
S5verage referred to, I contented my
self with ordering less elaborate IL
quid, and asked Tom if he had seen
his friend Wylde
ttWhat, Guglielmo?" answered
Tom. "Hell be here presently; he's
on in the second piece tonight as q
Cory Ruffian. he gets murdered in
the fourth act, and will probably drop
In them
In about an hours time he appear
ed, not so drunk as usual, for the
night was comparatively early-hard-
,-,ly, IL o'clock. He had only taken
1su&cient to produce the first of many
s'stageso intoxication through which
that ataccomplished artist was nightly
wont to pass. In his first stage he
was jubilant and loquacious.
On recognizing us, Mr.. William
Wylde struck a dignifed attitude, and
burst into quotation, after the man
ner OF his tribe. Eying me sternly,
and then lifting his eyebrows up to
his hair, he asked, dramatically:
p -t st(ioV,ta 0Crr f,.0,,, Do1,1o Sror, ri
-lairoa'' ~. s5r.. ,4il, ..sr.
"From both, my lord, Bellairo
greets your grace" answered that imp
Tom, readily. .,,..
Mr. Wylde smiled loftily, and closed
his eyes. eWhichp" he inquired,
(which is the merchant here, and
which the Jew?" u
I modestly replied that for myself
i inclined to mercantile pursuits in
preference. Mr.. Wylde waved his
hand.
""Then must the Jew be merciful. ("
Whereupon he took seat and order
led refreshment.
It is unnecessary to relate by what
degrees Mr.. Wylde attained his ul-
terror condition of intoxication, how
= he passed from the jubilant to the
noisy stage, thence to the fiercely
morose stage. Suffice it to say that
I kept him we'll supplied with his fa-
vorite refreshment, and we grew con-
fidential.
"I'll tell you what, my boy" said
Mr. Wylde, when he had reached the
depths of melancholy; 'sif ever you
think of embracing our profession,
think we'll. Think twice. It's a
sickening life. Genius may starve in
it. Gin-gin-I mean genius is not
patronized as it should. Look at me-
What keeps me down? I've had ex-
perienoe enough; 1 know my bust
ness; there's not another man in the
company that can beat me at versa
tility. I've played Jeremy Diddler,
Romeo and Long Tom Coffin in one
bill I'm not o fool. What, then,
keeps mo back? Til tell you. It's
combinations. It's professional iea-
lousy. It's cliques. That's what it
is, my boy"
"Yet you have done we'll in your
time," 1 urged. "For example, you
married WE'LL"
Mr.. Wylde shook his head mourn
fully.
81 married, sir, lady of family.
She was not clever, but 1 waived that.
She frightened my home for spell /;
but she is gone. After ife's titful
fever she sleeps we'll"
tAnd your wife's family"
my wife's family, sir" broke out
Wylde, wrathfully, ''are not to be
mentioned by friends of mine. A set
OF curmudgeous--an ungrateful
brood. Why, they are base, COM
mon and popular"
..Did they never recognize your
ahilities?"
"Never. A set of arrogant, stuck
up, coneeited-but there. Pahl'
'It's said,"I L remarked, confiden-
tially--'tit's said in legal circles (you
know how rumors get about among
us lawyers) that after your wife'f
death, her father came down with
something solid"
"It's q lie, then," returned by Mr.
Wylde, concisely.
Ibid you ever get remittance
from him--about year and hal
ao09O