The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1882-06-23
"HAMLETn IN STREET CLOTHES.
How Booths Company Looked When They
Played without Costumes.

Maze Edwards, manager for Edwin Booth
thus describes their appearance at Water
bury, Conn.,, last winter when the troupe
played without costumes:
"When found the baggage, with the cos.
TUNES, had not arrived I was just going to
throw myself into the river, when thought
l would 60 and tell Mr.. Booth about Ii and
bid good bye to some of the people who had
always thought a good deal Of me before
killing myself. To my astonishment, Mr..
Booth took 1t as cool as you would an invi.
tation to drink. He said, inasmuch as the
people were In the hall, he would make q
few remarks to them about the accident, and
then they would 60 OH and play three act.
of Hamlet In the clothes they had on. And
50 1t was fixed up that way. Well, the very
thought of Hamlet In a short-tailed coat and
tight pants almost made me sick, and when
Mr.. Booth came on the stage, looking like an
Episcopal minister, with knight Templar's
cheese-knife that he had borrowed, could
not think of anything but Hamlet. forgot
all about his clothes, and believe If he had
only bad on pair of sailors pants and red
flannel fireman's shirt then the people would
ouly have seen Hamlet. l tell you he is the
greatest actor that ever lived. The people
sat perfectly still, and seemed wrapped up in
Booth. That Is, they were when they did
not look at the other fellows. But when
they looked at Laertes, with short ham fat
coat on, pair of la .de-dah pants and pam
cake hat, it seemed to me could hear them
smile. And the king, Hamlet's step-father,
was sight. Imagine king with cut away
checkered coat, Pullman car blanket
thrown over his shoulder for robe, and a
leg of a chair for a scepter, mashed on a
queen with travelling dress and a gray
woolen basque, with buttoos on 1t. And
think of Polonius with a linen duster and a
straw hat with blue ribbon ON. Oh, 1t
made me tired. Orhelia was all light
enough. She had on some crazy clothes she
had been travelling in, and we got some
straw out of barn and some artificial fow-
ers off of the bonpets, and she pulled through
pretty we'll. But the Ghost. You would
have died to see the Ghost. He had OH
one of those long, hand-me-down ulster
overcoais with buckle In the back as big as
a cury-comb and The belt was hanging down
on both sides. The boys got him green
mosquito bar TO put over it, and, with q
stuffed club for q sceptre, he fell over chair
and then came on. 1 should have laughed
If l had been on my death bed when he said
to Hamlet, Il am thy fathers ghost He
lookel more like drumme. for a wholesale
confectionery house with a sor. of Skinner
on his head, and l believe the audience
would have gone wild with Laughter II 1t had
not been for Booth. ] don't believe You
could get him to laugh on the stage for a
million dollars. He just looked at the ghost
as though twas a genuine one, and the au-
dience looked at Booth, and forgot all about
the ulster and the ghosts pants being rolled
up. II was probably the greatest triumph
that an actor ever had for Mr.. Booth to CON-
pei the vast audience TO forget the ludicrous
surrounding and think ofthe character he was
portrayiug. I wouldn't have missed the
nights performance for thousand dollars,
and when, at ten O'Clock, heard the boys
getting the trunks up stairs, was almost
sorry. The last two acts were played with
the costumes, but they were no better per-
formed than the first. Still, think, on the
whole, had rather the baggage would be
thara n maLas @ rnanaoar faaI hattarn