The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-04-05
BOOTH IN GERMANY.

An English traveller, writing from
Hamburg, sends the following account
OF tho reception accorded to Edwin
Booth in that city:
Edwin Booth began his engagement
here last Friday, the 10th, as Hamlet"
to q crowded house. Indeed all the
seats for the three performances were
sold nearly q fortnight ago, and the
prices might have been trebled. The
press reviews are cordial, even TO en-
thusiasm; but it is the enthusiasm and
admiration of the actors engaged to sup
port the star that now are more espec-
tally striking. The actors are really
wild with delight. Kissing is a Cont
mental custom (abominatIon, / might
almost say,) and Booth has had to take
considerably more than his share.
The men fall upon his shoulders and
kiss him upon both cheeks. The WON
en- weep and sob as they shake him by
the hands. think he got out of pa
thence at being kissed by the men. 1t
was in vain that he cried out, mind the
paintl" So at last, in q sort of comic
desperation, he exclaimed, III kissing
is the correct thing, please stand aside,
gentlemen, and let the ladies advance"
The stage manager of this theater, a
venerable gentleman, seveDty-five years
of age, was pupil of Davrient; but he
says that he has never till now seen
Hamlet or Lear. Herr Maurice, the
manager, also an actor of great expert
ence and observation, says that he has
seen no actor comparable with Edwin
Booth since Talma. Last Saturday
night when Booth was playing King
Lear, it was truly q most pathetic sight
tO See the people, at the wings, weeping.
When the curtain fell he was repeat
edly recalled and vociferously cheered.
and after that he was embraced by all
the dramatic company-except poor lit
tie extra girls who acted as pages.
These are not "supsrs" here, in our ex-
ceptation of the word, hut young ladies
who are at the foot of the ladder, and
studying to become actresses. AS he
left the theatre these girls were waiting
for him In the hall, and, in a perfectly
altless and modest manner, one of them
approached him, and in broken English
said through her tears: "Mr. Booth, you
make US cry-we do want so much TO
kiss you" After the oscillations of q
number of enthusiastic German gentle
men, this surely was no bad change
and / observed that the tragedian was
enabled to endure, with quite a becom-
ing resignation, the caresses of these
charming little devotees. Upon my
word / envied him. He had to take
home a number of floral contributions,
and as he passed to his carriage sew.
eral hundred persons were in waiting to
catch q glimpse of him, and to say good
night. This evening he repeated Ham
let Not q vacant seat in the house.
Spectators got as much as twenty
marks apiece for the four-mark seats.
He received seven beautiful wreaths,
two or three bouquets, and q great bas-
ket of flowers from the girls Of the bal
let. All these little things are signs OF
tremendous feeling in favor of the
American tragedian. have never be-
fore witnessed anything like the enthu
siasm that Booth has aroused in this
country. At Berlin his Othetlo was O
great hit At Hamburg his Lear has
carried all before It. Scholars like
Werdsr and Leo. who have seen the
best that the stage OF Europe has known
for sixty years, extol both his acting and
his scholarship, and by the dramatic
profession he Is hailed and habitually
addressed as "Meister."