Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1878-12-25
AUSTIN CORRESPONDENCE.
AUSTIN, Dec. %, 1873.

| Using uO0Ee since Bdrnum INTRODUCED 'bnat
angel Jenny Lind) calls up whole crowd
of memories connected with the stage dating
hack to the days of Fanny Kemble, (poor
| Fanny, and the Elder Booth, Burton and
| Placide, the Woods, and Tyrone Power, the
only Irishman who has ever trod our boards !;
| a gentleman and scholar as was also w. E.
| Burton, whom | met at his office of the Gen.
hemanS Magazi,e, in company with poor
| Poe, who was his partner In editing and pub
fishing | can see Power scratch his head as
no other man ever scratched, and his droll
Irish songs are ringing in my ears while l
write. God help us! How many generations
have passed since then! Power went down
with the "President;" Barton is dead, years
ago; and Fanny kemble, who married Pierce
| Butler, (whose name was Macs, the son of a
drunken Irish doctor, which he and $
brother had changed in order to inherit their
uncle fortune, Pierce Butler of South Car
| olina) is an old gray haired widow now, and
divorced wife years age. She could
not stand slavery, (see her daryl, and there
was quarrel and separation. These all flour
ished long before the days of melodrama, bnr-
Iesque operas, varieties and minstrels; days
in which Jim Crow Rice held the stage in
that line a man who has never had success
sor. On the heels of these sprang up the
young Roscius, Forrest, originally tun2bler
i'll the ring, possessing a splendid physique
and finer voice Along with him, or close on
lis heels, came Murdoch, still living and
Davenport, the most universal genius of his
day. We have seen him dance hornpipes,
and heard him sing sea- songs in sailor char
acters, in which he was very celebrated, and
we have seen him play Hamlet, as only one
other man of his day could play it-Mur
dock. In genteel comedy, and the whole
line of tragedy, Davenport had but few
peers, even among those who adopted special
ties. We saw him last in Macbeth, in Al
hany, N, Y, and supported badly that We
pitied the man who had borne first class posi-
ton even in England, where his pluck, versa
tility and genuine talent conquered that most
bigoted of all races. Forrest WAS a marked
man. and his physical peculiarities gave him
a prominent position from the first. Some
gentlemen who took an interest in the young
man, helped him into place among the act
ors, which did not really belong to him, but
which By force Of character and favor with
the masses, he held to the last Several
characters created expressly for him, and ad |
mirably adapted to his physical powers, he |
excelled i'll, such as Metamora and the Glad |
iator, but his rant was excessive until toned |
Gown by study and advice. Some forty |
years ago he had a formidable rival in J. R. |
Scott, man of nearly the same physique |
and with talents superior to Forests, but |
Scott neglected study and never attained to
greatness. | have seen him play Phasarius
in the Gladiator when lie fairly carried off |
the honors, and Pythlas to Forests Damon,
which was by far the best sustained character
of the two. This sort of rivalry Forrest
never allowed in latter years, always select
ing for his support, in his tours, men who
formed stronger weak contrast to him
self, and, for this very reason, he
selected John Mccullough. and carried him
around foil for many years. After 3
long interval saw John in San Francisco,
play, or attempt to play Richelieu, as poor
an attempt as one could see in decade.
Whatever may be said of Forrest as an ut
terry selfish man, and unequal actor, there
could 8carcely be doubt as to his being the
greatest Richelieu, and the grsndest Lear on
the boards for at least twenty years of his
life, and to class John Mccullough IA his sue
lessor in any one of his characteristics is
sheer nonsel.se. Edwin Booth, | have al
ways considered the most overrated man on
he stage, but that is the fault of the public
John Mccullough, ''out Herods Rerod," and
y splendid system of advertising, in which
Blaine and others, he has raised his name
o pitch equal tc the circus actor who car
led himself around the ring in tub. For -
ests long life on the stage, his inordinate
rnbitiun, and really hard study, gave him
tatus rot readily attained on the boards,
nd, but for his habits of life, he might be
tar to-day. In one of his own plays, The I
'roker of Bogota, written for him by Judge
onrad, author of Jack Cade, | once saw him
keel himself, but for all his efforts the play
'as failure, and the title is almost forgot
en-, except by some old friends like myself,
lis Jack Cade was master piece of phys
al force, and required just such magnif
snt animal as Forrest, and l can recall his 81
oriolanus as companion piece of acting; CT
l. VI Va