Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-08-06

Religious Air and the
Actors that FIJI
his Cottage.
Prof. Swings Letter to the Alliance
Gone more letter of summer
gossip. Having studied and enjoyed
Newport, / accepted an invitation
from Lawrence Barrett, and came
hither to find in a cottage the
friendship and peace and fun which
hotels cannot give. And it was
rather a.delightful change to pass
from great material things over to
the mental and spiritual and social
good under the Barrett roof. Nv
heart had formed quite an attach
ment to this good actor and good
man in the last days of General
Custer, when this pair of insepara-
bic friends called, at times, at my
Chicago home. The tragic fate Of
Custer lends to Barrett a charm of
memory.
Lawrence Barrett learned years
ago that the sea could help him
over his vacations and reconstruct
his mind and body, and he bought
q piece OF its edge and built a beau
tiful cottage on its rocks. In inf
mite kindness the sea runs inland
every few miles, to make places for
homes and boats and lish-nets and
lighthouses. The vast Atlantic
fringes itself, and each tassel of this
fringe becomes a summer resort.
Mr.. Barrett owns an acre or two of
this Sea-washed ground, and from
solid high wall, all his own, he
eteps down into his boat or into the
water, or takes in the life-making
air. His house oyerlooks the watery
scene from the rocks which stand
perhaps forty feet above the highest
tide. The house has spacious
poarches, and is indeed all that
taste and common sense can ask.
1t is large and inviting.
"The inmates so far surpass the
house. or any house, that only an
architect or a carpenter could study
the porches and gables and forget
the mortals within. | shall leave
Oohasset without knowing how my
room was frescoed and carpeted,
and Of what kind of wood my door
was made; for the family monopo.
Lies my thought and regard. Mr..
Barrett is star with four satel-
lites-Mrs. Barrett Gpd three
daughters, and in all the ppiFerse
no group moves in more perfect
harmony. The eldest daughter is
near twenty, the second RbQut six
teen, the youngest about nine. MIS-.
Barrett seems az young as her chill
dren. The affection that binds
these Eve is so strong as to be beau
tiful to behold, The Oldest daugh-
ter has already acquired quite an
acquaintance with the German and
French languages. She has tFsps-
lated and written out the 'p9n
Carlos of Schiller, and is busy all
hours with books, music or ram
bles.
"The popular Barrett does not
make his home stage, There are
clergymen who seem always preach
ing, and so there are actors who
always seem tFeaIing the boards,
but DIR. Barrett packs his art away
in vacation with has wardrobe. Il
was with ditiiclty that we could in
duce him to read alond a few
verses, g night or two SINCE, and
then he read With tho modesty Of
a parlor instead of With the enthu-
siasm Of the stage.
81 find that the mind of such an
actor ip its relations inclines to his
tory and Biography. The library
in this cottage is ROB with the re.
cords of the past. AS the Lawyer is
partial to work in the jurisprpdence
and philosophy, and as the natural.
iGt delights in Button and Audubon,
so nationally, the true actor loves
most that history in which parade
the men and woman whom he must
recall to life. Mr.. BarEett's shelves
are laden With the best accounts Oj
the worlds yesterday from the mep
Of Shakespeare to the non of Sopho-
clts. All these volumes have beer
read, for the speech Of the owner
shows that he is not one of those
mental beings who buy wooded
books by the square foo.
"This fact | learned in the COO
air of Cohasset: That the actor
profession eompasses the preachers
calling in developing the memory