The Van Buren press., 1873-01-14
About Forrest.
4 New Batch Of anecdotes cy the Greal
Tragediaa.
From the Philadelphia Press. !

he was in raptures with the riders. ono
in particular, fine young athlete. Now,
tha. boy, with all his Young aud muscle,
said Forrest, gives far more pleasure
to this audience than | ssuld in Othello
or Macbeth How envy the handsome
rascal"
| have before related our call on Hen
ry Clay in 1850, when he was stepping
at the American hotel, Chestnut street.af.
ter the compromise measures, which
Clay advocated, and the famous Pierre
Ssuls. of louisiana, violently opposed.
| l praised Souls's abilities, which MIR.
Clay at once denied, ending with the OK
clamation, "Hs is netting but an actsr,
sir. " when suddenly recollec!ing that the
great tregedian was present. be added
quickly, 90 mean = Frsnca actor, Mr..
Forrest. A. we passed down stairs
after the interview, Forrest lvughsd very
heartily as he said, And think tho bet
ter actor of the two was the old man
himself. "
Once a few Of us were asked to diae
with man about town, and when we
reached his rooms at the appointed time,
we found our host had forgotten his in
vitstien. We did not remind him Of his
neglect, but sought our homes wiser and
hungrier men. Forrest preferred to eat
his dinner at Guys on Seventh street,
where found him an hour later with n
broiled chicken before him, and bottle
OF champagne At his sido. As l drank
his health, he exclaimed. plunsing his
tork into. the luoious fowl, AHA. olc
fellow holding it out at arms length ,
"a bird in the hand is worth two IN the
bush. y
At my rooms in Washington, onacer
tain occasion. a senator deeply in his
cups, insisted upon roughly handling the
tragedian, who was then suffering from
gout Forrest bore it tor long time,
while the guests were greatly annoyed,
At last, unable to bear the pain, he said
"D--n it, sir, uuhand me, or will recite
one Of your speeches, aad then every
body will roar. ', :.
He had fund of anecdote about Gen.
Jackson, whom he had known in his boy
hood at Nashville, but was not much i'm
pressed by Gen Lafayette. whom he had
met at Richmond in 1925. He was
among the spectators Of the reception,
and liked to tell how the French patriot
questioned everybody that saluted him.
:. Arc you married 7" he would ask, and
IL the reply was, I" Yes, general, the po
lite marquis would say, Happy ma" !"
aud il the next one answered "NoT to
the same interrogatory, the =" illustrious
guest" would also exclaim. " Happy
man"
When he prosecuted our Sunday Dis
patch for libel, on account OF the severe
criticisms Of that finest Of dramatic re-
viewers, JOHN ID. Stockton, l called on
him, and, telling him how kind Capt
Hincken, one Of the propristors, had
been to me when started the Press, he
quickly rejoiAsd: "A man who did that
for you in your days of trial, my friend.
must be good man. Telegraph Dough
erty to stop proceedings on the condition
Of the proper retraction to be written by
yourself And 1t was done.
lie was very fond of children and Of
10 wers, and had stores Of poetry to make
them happy; and his description of the
beautiful painting Of the girls preparing
to take bath, in his 6nc collection, was
itself u picture.
Among many memsrandas in my pos.
session 2one are more useful than lhs
Forrest Souvenir" Of Mr. William d.
Gemmill, Of this city, which he has kind
ly allowed me TO use. 1t is = collection
Of portraits and photographs OF Forrest
from his youth, the bills OF the plays
which he has acted for fifty years, criti
cisMs of all kinds, anecdotes, and 9 ser
les of remarkable "reminiscences OF the
great actor by the veteran Chinese Du.
rang, who died in Philadelphia, Feb. 10,
1860, in his scvsnty.six,h year. lie has
annotated many pages, in his ewn hand
writing, with incidents OF Forrest. Here
We have n play bill Of the Walnut street
theatre for February 2, 1922, announcing
the celebrated tragedy of" Mahomet, the
Imposter. a" with Master Forrest as Ia
phana He was then just sixteen. He
had first appeared ut the same theatre in
his fifteenth year, az Yeusg Norral. to a
house worth S3l6 Mr.. Duraug narratos
that the boy Forrest accompanied Col.
John Swift, still livisg, to the Trivoli
Gardens, on the North sdc OF Market
street, q few doors from juniper, some
tins in 1920. and there was an exhibition
Of the inhalation Of laughing gas, then
quite the rage in our public places. A.
the instance Of the colonel, young For
rest was induced to inhals the exciting
ether, whereupon he broke ont into such
an exhibition Of histronic powers rs
startled his devoted friend This iaci-
dent did much to tx the future Of the
ambitious tyro. At the magnificent din
ner at the Merchants hotel to Mr.. For.
rest, IN 1897, Col. Swift alluded to the
scene in the Tivoli with great effect In
Mr. Gemmilfs collection We have the
original cast Of "Metamora in Now
York in 1890, and the play bill of the
samo production at Boston in the same
year This wsrk was written fer For
rest by the brilliant j. A. Stone. For
rest was then only twsnty-four. In lS47
Mr. Dursng tells us that as mere boy
for lack Of female performers, young For
rest played girls characters Frequently.
He was then eleven years old. When At
Louisville, in 1928, Forrest and James
n. Scott, known as Long Tom Coffin"
played pait Of dandies with great eclot,
and in n pieco called the Tailor in Dis.
trsss Forrest took negro part "with
so much African nature that he seemed
the very incarnation Of the race. The