Arizona weekly enterprise., 1882-02-18
The Younger and the Elder Booth.


 From an early age Edwin Booth was associated with his father in all the wan derings and strange and often sad ad- ventures of that wayward man of gen jus, and no doubt the many sorrowful ex- periences of his youth deepened the gloom of his inherited temperament. Those who know him well are aware that he has great tenderness of heart and abundant playful humor that his mind is one of extraordinary hveliness, and that he sympai hizes keenly and cor dially with the joys and sorrows of oth- CTS, yet that the whole man seems satu- rated with sadness, isolated from com panionship. lonely and alone. It is this temperament, combined with a somber and melancholy aspect of countenance, that has helped to make him so admira- ble in the character of Hamlet. Of his fitness for that part his father was the first to speak, when on a night many years ago, in Sacramento, they had dressed for St. Pierre and Jaffier, in ." Venice Preserved" Edwn, as Jaf- fer, had put on a close-ftting robe of black velvet. "You look like Hamlet" the father said 1; "why don't you play
 
 when Edwin Booth would be accepted all over America as the greatest Hamlet ot the century. In the ss son of 1864 65, at the Winter Garden Theater, New York, he acted that part for a hundred nights in succession, accomplishing thus a feat unprecedented in theatrical an- nals. Since that time Henry Irving, i1i London, has acted Hamlet 200. coAsecu- tive times in one season but this latter achievement, in the present day and in the capital city of the world, seems le, 8 remarkable than Edwin Booths exploil was, performed in turbulent New York in the closing months of our terrible civil war.
 The elder Booth was a short, spare, muscular man, with splendid chest, a symmetrical Greek head, a pale counten ance, voice of wonderful compass ano thrilling power, dark hair, and blue eyes. Edwin's resemblance to him Is chiefly obvious in the shape of the head anu face, the arch and twist of the heavy eyebrows, the radiant and constantly shifting light of expression which ami mates the countenance, the natural grace of carriage, and the celerity of move ment Edwin's eyes are dark brown, and seem to turn black in moments of excitement, and they are capableof con veying, with electrical effect, the most diverse meanino-the so e1 nity of lofty thought, the tenderness of affection, the piteousness of forlorn sorrow, tEe awful sense of spiritual surroundings, the woful weariness of despair, the mocking glee of wicked sarcasm, the vindictive menace of sinister purpose, and the lightning glare of baleful wrath. In range of facial expressiveness his countenance Is thus fully equal to what his father $ was, and to all that tradition tells us of l Garrick. The present writer saw the elder Booth but once, and that in com paratively inferior part-Pescara, in Shiels ferocious tragedy of "1he Apos- tate" He was terrible presence. He WAS the IIcarna ton of s111orJtt1; sif1eef6Hs, malignant, heilish rapacity. His exul- tInt malice seemed 10 buoy him above tue ground. He foated rather than walked Ais glance was deadly. His clear, bigh, cutting, measured tone wa: ths exasperating note sf hideous cruelty He was acting tiend then, and making the monster not only possible but actual He certainly gave greater impression of ovt rwhelming power than Is gwen by Edwin Booth, and seemed a more for midabie and tremendous man. But his face was not more brilliant than that Q his renowned son; and in fact it was, i anything, somewhat less splendid il power of the eye.- William Winter, i' Hdrper's Ma9Gzine.