New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-02-12
,otable incident of the first of these visits was his


quite i'll and looks wretchedly" Booth wrote at TINS
tune II passed an hour with him. last night, ut
his quarters and reconciled ancient misunder-
standing"
Booths first appearance on the American stage
was made July g. 1921, at Richmond, Va, as h'cn-
ard Ill.,; his last at the ST. Charles Theatre, new
Orleans November 10, 1852. as Sir Edwdra no'
timer and John Lump. Between these two extremes
lies the story of his American career III was onc
| of great brilliancy and great waywardness' az
tended by many stirring triumphs darkeheu w
errors of human frailty but rewarded WIN u ihou-
crate competence of wealth. and rounded DIV hopie
and glorious professional fame. The details OF u
are the details of numerous engagements III 'aiouS
cities. In New-York Booth was conspicuousiV aS-
ISOLATED with the old Park Theatre. the Bowery,
and the National: in Boston, with the fremont, the
Federal Street. and the Museum; III both cities'
and indeed throughout the United States. he was
prndieious favorite He never remained long IN
one place and he seldom assumed business respon-
shtles He was once stage manager for Henry
Waack, at The Chatham Garden, in New-iork'
and once stage manager for Caldwell. at the camp
Street Theatre in New-Orlcans, and he leased and
managed for a while the Adelph Theatre IN Balti-
more In England he had acted with Kean; III
America he acted with Cooper and Forrest; ana III
certain directions he surpassed them all. At New
| Orleans in 1928 be acted Orestes, IN the french
language and with a French company, and he did
this with such briliancy ard such tremendous force
of passion, that he was hailed, by q French audi
ence, as another Talma.
Almost Immediately after his first arrival in
| America he bought large farm at Belair, Harf ri
| County MARYLAND in q wooded and romantic soil
| tude far from all the abodes of men, and this
hermitage he made his headquarters emerging from
| time to time To dazzle and astonish mankind upon
| the stage, and straightway escaping again into his
retreat On this domain he forbade the use OF am
| NAL food and he would permit no living creature
| mt even a yenomous reptile-to be killed Ten
children we're born to Lin, of whom Edwin was the
| seventh, and he loved his family with a passionate
devotion; but his mode of rearing them was as &C.
centric as his management of his own wonderful
faculties. He wished them TO till the ground and
TO learn mechanical trades and he counted educa
ton, such as he had himself received, superhous
and useless He loved 10 work in the earth, to
watch growing plants, to have the companiOnshlp
of trees and to listen to the sounds of the forest.
Al certain periods and especially after death had
bereaved him # two Of his children under very
pqinful circumstances he was the victim OF dark
moods ia which his reason became unsettled, Ill
which he drank deeply, and in which his actions
were strange and fantastic, weird conf
cal or absolutely and palpably H.
sane Hundreds of stories are told OF his vagrant
wanderings in the woods; his long walks from city
to city; bis midnight rides in the dress OF R'chdr@
or Hamlet his caprcioEs treatment of audiences;
his funeral ceremonals dead animals and birds
his compassionate sympathy with vegabonds his
mysterious appearances his moody reveries; his
ine0uality as an actor; his ftful industry; his
strange fluctuations between cosmopolitan
fellowship with mankind and Timon-ke
isolation; his power TO read even the Lords
Prayer in such way as to convulse ms
hearers with pathetic emotion; and his terrific
outbursts of ferocous passion upon the stage, which
made his associates remble for their lives. Once,
after playing CaSsus perfectly during the first three
acts he suddenly entered, for the fourth walking
airy Oh the tips of his toes Once he went through
the whole performance of Pierre in a whisper, only
raising his voice at the last remark, with placid
satisfaction, 1--WE have deceived the Senate" On
st another occasion lie felt it necessary to scrape
the ham ont of some sandwiches that had been
provided for his luncheon inst before he went on TO
act .Shyl0ck There is no end to illustrative incl
dents of this kind. Mrs. Clarke omits TO state many
of them but the "reminiscences of old actors and
play-goers have preserved hundreds of such traits
Booth was a wild and strange being as mysterious
as beautiful and as grand as 1.-The Ancient MARI
ner" which, of all poems lie loved the best, and
which is an apt emblem of his great and mighty
spirit.
Booths dctractors-and, of course, he had them
did not hesitate to accuse him of Stimulating eccen
tricv One of the old theatrical writer's says it, i'll
so many words. No sillier calumny ever
uttered The honesty of his life, the agony of his
suierings and the revelation that he made in his
acting of the depths of human misery answer and
dispose of it forever. No enemy ever ventured to
impute to him. living dead, dishonorable action.
He promoted public scandal. lie brought no dis
grace upon has profession. He had no professional
animosties He prosecuted nobody. He was just
and kind IN the relations of domestic and social
life. He wore the laurels of unique and unpar-
alelled fame with more than the modesty and sim
plicity of a little child. The public loved him, and
when he died the brought tears to the eyes of
thousands. Rufus Choate himself great genius
and most competent to understand such a nature,
spoke the general feeling of that hour" There
no more actors"
Upon the elder Booths acting Mrs Clarkcs most
significant remark is that he was always in the soul
of the character, and never resemhled Boileau's |
writer who inspired 10y self-lOve forms all his |
heroes like himself" We shall not here attempt a
summary of this extraordinary being, in his trans
fguration as an actor. The fact which seems to
gest if not to define him, is that be was needless
and imperfect as an artist but electrical and fasci
mating as a human being He would, for example, |
when acting Macbeth, deliberately go to the wing |
and get a broadsword with which to fight the final
battle and would do this in full view of the audi
ence-just as Ristori, when acting Lady Macbeth, |
would carry her husbands letter to the side and |
throw it away. He was not particular, when acting |
Richard, whether he wore old dressing-gOwn or |
royal robe and he cared very little where other per-
sons entered or stood, that they got on and were
somewhere. His acting had no touch of the finish |
of Macready. But the soul that he poured into it |
was awful and terrible; the face, the hands the
pose the movement all was incarnate eoquencc |
and when the lightning of the blue-gray eyes |
Annhed and the annitcent Xncc CaYc ont lis deem |