The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-11-01
John Philip Kemble.

people yet remember the fun he catiset
among the wits of that day by the way
in which he pronounced the lines in TIL,
Tempest, Ny bones are full of aches,
making Aches as if it were Aitches
Beard he pronounced as if written Bird
and story is told of his walking into
hairdresser's shop in Regent street, anc
addressing the polite assistant bowling
behind the counter:
"Young man, want my bird dressed.
"Whatp cried the youth, almost
doubling the sanity of the very grave
gentleman before him. "Sir, do yot
take this for cook-shopw
Coleridge tells of being at party
with Kemble, when, after dinner, JohI
Philip began to talk in his usual meas
tired style. In the midst of his discourse
his servant announced that his carriage
had arrived. Kemble nodded and went
on. The announcement was made twice
afterwards. Kemble each time nodded
his head little more impatiently. Al
last, and for the fourth time, the servant
entered and said, "Mrs. Kemble says
sir, she has the rheumatis and cannot
stay" "Add ism," dropped John, in
parenthesis, and proceeded quietly in hi.
harangue. He would correct any body
everywhere. The king used to tell an
anecdote of him in this way; 81 re
member once Kemble was talking and
found himself out of snuff. / offered
him my box. He declined taking any
-he, poor actor, would not think oi
putting his fingers into royal box.
said, Take some, pray, you will obleeg,
me- Upon which Kemble returned, III
would become your royal mouth better
to say obHge me- and he took pinch
But there is still stronger illustration
of John Philips ruling passion. 1t il
well known that he took particular de
light in watching the habits of animals
and attaching them to his person. HI
was at one time immensely delighted by
the present of young lion whelp
which, with his famous cat Mustapha
(immortalized by Mathews), he reared
with most tender and solicitous care
While the animal was yet very young
John and friend Basil MONTAGUE got into
coach to take drive before going to
the theater, and the lion was favored
with seat. This peculiar mode Of
travelling, however, did not seem to be
very agreeable to the animal, which be.
came very restless, and set up tremen-
dous howl as the wheels ratified over the
rough stones. Hush, hush!" said John,
as if he were speaking to a spoiled child,
and patting the whelp on the head.
Hush, my poor, poor fellow; remem-
Der, ahl the good citizens" But the
lion was quite Indifferent either to the
good citizens or Kemble's blandish-
ments; SO he uttered another "hoo-ho-
ow-oohp p' and making leap, smashed
the window and thrust out his head.
Thealarmed driver turned hastily round,
and seeing the head of the wild beast
grinning at him from behind, he leaped
from his seat in terror, and left his vehi-
Gle and its unfortunate contents to go
anywhere they pleased. The horses,
frightened at the noise behind, and freed
from all control, started off at fearful
pace.
"Do you know, my dear FRIEND" said
Kemble, :" that l am afraid the horses
have run awayT
"I should not be astonished," said
Montague, stretching his neck from the
window.
"Hoo-oh-ow-ooh !" howled the animal,
again thrusting his grizzly head through
the window.
"Now do, pray, for heavens sake, be
still" demonstrated Kemble, soothingly,
the only response being louder and
more prolonged growl, that frightened
half the people in the street. On they
went. faster and faster. A sharp turn
was before; the wheel caught on the
edge of the pavement, and over went the
coach with tremedous crash, the horses
galloping off with the shafts. A crowd
gathered round in an instant, and Kem-
Bile (who was unhurt), smothering his dis
c,mposure, stepped from the wreck with
his usual dignity of manner. Turning
round to look for his friend, he found
poor Montague with his head buried in
the foot-rug and his feet in the air, the
unhappy lion nearly squeezed to a jelly
beneath him. "Here, here, my friend" /"
cried Kemble, displaying unwonted ac-
tivity, aud pulling up Montague from
the bottom of the vehicle. 81 am sorry,
my dear friend, that you have suf-
fered-" Montague was about to inter-
rupt by protesting that he had not suf-
fered great deal, when Kemble added,
eyes, my friend, that you should have
suffered yourself to become the instru-
ment of inficting serious injury upon
my poor unfortunate animalW and he
pointed to the lion, which had rolled
itself up like ball.
"The animalp shouted Montague, en-
ragged at the misplaced sympathy of his
friend, and sputtering out mouthful OF
dust; "dem the ANIMAL"
"No, don't do that" said Kemble,
drawing himself up with a princely air
"but," and here he drew his companion
nearer to him, putting aside the i'm
propriety of the expression, allow me to
say that the proper pronunciation of the
word is damn P'
The solemn Kcmble was once accused
of perpetrating a pun. He had been
walking out one day with friend, when
in one of the numerous by-streets of the
city, he observed several little chimney.
sweeps playing at marbles, "The no
blest Roman" was delighted, borrowed 8
marble, and began to "knuckle down. y
After beating the sweeps he threw them
half-a-crown, and, taking his friend by
the arm, whispered, in triumphant but
confidential way, "Do you know, now
that l think 'taw' is the best thing ]
play"