Daily globe., 1882-09-11
The Elder Booth.

George Alfred Townsend relates. a con-
versation had in New York with John T..
Owens. the well-known actor, in which
the following occurs
"Mr. Owens, has Booth been exag-
gerated by the old men witnesses of his
acting? Suppose he was to play at the
present day beside his son, Edwin
Rooth-or suppose we could bring old
Booth out Of the grave and put HIM to
play beside his son, Edwin Booth, when
Ned was in the vigor Of his health
which could excel ?"
Thinking a moment, Mr.. Owens said :
)" L rather think old man Booth would
hold his own against any of these new
corners. / have seen nina play, though
it is rather faint recollection to me
now. He was small man, not much
over five feet high. and have been In
the theater when he was surrounded with
men like John E. Scott-tal1, splendid
looking men-and he playing a promi-
nent part in the middle of them would
rather inspire smile; but as the play
proceeded he seemed to rise up, and
they corespondingly to sink down, un-
til he looked to be the largest man on
the stage. He owed much Of his
strength to his remarkable countenance.
On that small, low body he had large,
complete head, in which the lines and
character seemed to lie in chunks. He
had even power over the texture of his
skin, and his eyes were glorious and
black, and would shoot fire. His soc
Edwin has very fine head, and the
Booth boys generally get a good, large
head from their father"
"Do you remember Mrs. Booth, the
mother of these boys?"
"My recollection of her is that she
was ruddy-cheeked, English looking
woman; but I cannot recollect the color
Of her hair. Booth bought farm north
OF Baltimore, and il Is said that he
thought he was buying another farm
when he got lawyer to prepare the
deeds, and moved his effects into a
house, where man carried them off.
Many of the stories told about him are
Inventions or legendary. There is one
thing about him have not seen print
ed. He held to every dollar he made
with tenacity. Peculiar and extravagant
as he was under certain conditions, he
put his hand on the dollar and hung to
it, and SO he brought up his family much
better than might have been expected of
a man apparently so careless"
Was there not little vein OF lunacy
in him ?"
81 think there was. His son, John
Wilkes Booth, who killed President Lin
coin, had that vein pretty strongly
marked. / never had much doubt but
that his insane streak affected bis de-
signs on the President. He was with
me in Boston during the war, and his
conversation at that time was about
making money in oil, and the two or
three points which he stuck to down to
the time OF the murder. Although he
is dead, and died under these repre-
hensible circumstances, ! can say of
John Wilkes Booth that he was one of
the most mature boys I ever knew.
From his childhood up he was manly,
matured, grown. His father had
brother in Baltimore who kept an anti
quarian BOOKSTORE think at the COR
ner of Elbow lane and Calvert street.
He was one of those cranky men, also,
and was now and then sending to Pater-
nOster row for books for some old book
worm OF Baltimore; and he was book
worm, too, and was always screwing his
black eyes down at some old letter-text.
Booth left son named Joseph, who has
the business instinct. You never see
him on the stage, but he is very attent-
i've around the box-office."