Connecticut western news., 1879-05-28
Edmund Kean, the Actor.
SOME INCIDENTS OF HIS EARLY LIFE.


 Research can find no date of birth and no certainty concerning the percentage of Edmund Kean. His reputed mother, however, was disreputable strolling actress named Nance Carey, his reputed father one Kean, supposed to have been a tailor. At three years of age Kean was chosen for his fine black eyes and his animated gestures from among lot of children to personate Cupid upon the stage. He was also one of the imps that danced around the caldron in John Kemble's Macbeth, and by the stately John he was we'll thumped one night for playing some roguish prank. At very early age he mastered the use of the foils, and was all his life renowned as a splendid fencer. He was rascally boy, always in some scrape, ever seeking vile company. His mother, if such Nance Carey was, having abandoned him, he was under the charge of another actress, Miss Tidswel, who was so put about by his eccentric habits in the matter of running away that finally she had brass dog's-collar fastened on his neck, inscribed with the words "Theatre Royal, Drury Lane."
 By far the most powerful picture drawn by MT. Baker in his voluminous records of these extinct lives is that of this cratic genius. At one moment he is found at an inn, tarred and feathered, singing low songs to amuse drunken company; at another he is caught wandering in the fields, where he has subsisted on uncooked turnips and cabbages for days. Proud, impetuous, hot-headed, of incorporate habits and an ungovernable temper, his life for years was one series of untold privations, | in which, in course of time, wife and children shared. How they trudged from town to town on foot, stopped in barns, and played for sixpences to such yokels as cared to listen to them. is 8 story which wrings the heart to read. Years passed thus; and that under such circumstances Kean could have perfected himself to the marvellous ex- tent he did in the art of acting is some thing that exceeds comprehension. But the turning point was at hand. One night he noticed an intelligent face among sparse and stupid set of boobies who had gathered to see him at Doncaster. After the performance the owner of the intelligent face went to him and said, "Come and breakfast with me tomorrow. I have something to say to you. I am the manager of the Drury Lane Theatre. Kean staggered back ward as if he had been shot. An en- gagement was effected the next day for three years, at 98, e9, and 91O per week.
 But, oh, how dark was the hour before the dawn A beloved child who had long been ailing died he fell ill him. self; he had a dispute with the manager about his opening part when he re covered the company at rehearsal jeered at his small figure, his worn shoes, his shabby rough coat. Mean time he was half starved. "I must dine to-day" he said to his wife on the day of his appearance, and for the first time in many days he tasted meat. The night of his first appearance in London was cold and foggy. There had been a heavy snow, and now the streets were almost impossible with slush, which penetrated his worn boots and chilled him to the bone. Taking bundle in his hand containing shoes, stockings, wig, and other trifes, he bade adieu to his wife, telling her that he wished he was going to be shot. eff I succeed, I shall go mad," he said.
 But what 8 fairy tale was his success How instant, how overwhelming In seventy nights the receipts were e20,000. His manager tore up the original agreement, and gave him fair profit.
 He was now the lion of the day; poets, nobles, statesmen, crowded his dressing room, eager to secure him as guest His son Charles is seen playing with heaps of guineas, and bank notes litter the drawing room like waste paper.
 Then rivals began to spring up. The most prominent of these was Junius Brutus Booth,. the father of Edw1r Booth, who had appeared at CoyenI Garden as Richard III., which, it il said, was an imitation of Kean's own, save that it was superior. To decide the question the Drury Lane manage ment engaged Booth to make contest The trial play was to be Othello-Kea1 the Moor, Booth the Iago. The house was crowded, the excitement prodigious
 We have the testimony of Barr, Cornwall and other disinterested ant competent critics that Booths defea was overwhelming and complete. Kean no doubt maddened by wine as we'll al excitement, was wrought up tossuch { fury of passion that it seemed dangerou to cross his path, death to assault him. In 1920 Kean went to America, reap ing g golden harvest by his tour. Re turning to England, he was received again with rapture.
 In thirteen years Edmund Kean earned over million dollars yet he squanderet it all as fast as he got it, lived extrava gantly, died poor.
 His last appearance was tragic. H. and his son Charles were playin,
 Othello and Iago together. The house was crammed. Kean was almost help less before the play began, but he cam' to the words,> Farewell Othello' occupations gone," he fell upon hi sons shoulder, moaning, " I am dying. An hour before he died he sprang ou