McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-08-07
The Younger and the Elder Booth.

From an early age Edwin Booth was
associated with his father in all the wan
behring's and strange and often sad ad-
ventures of that hayward man OF gen.
ius, 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 iveliness,
and that he sympathizes keenly and cor
daily with the joys and sorrcws of 9th
ers, yet that the whole man seems satu-
rated with sadness, isolated from COM
partnership, lonely and alone. It is this
temperament, combined with a somber
and melancholy aspect of countenance,
that has helped to make him SO admira-
BILE in the character of Hamlet. Of his
fitness for that part his father was the
first to speak, when on night many
years ago, in Sacramento, they had
dressed for st. Pierre and Jaffier, in
"Venice Preserved" Edwin, as Jaf-
fer, had put on a close-ftting robe of
black velvet. "You look like Hamlet"
the father said; "why don't you play
Liz GlIu6 WIS OtStlucu W COIuC
when Edwin Booth would be accepted
all over America as the greatest Hamlet
of the century. In the season of 1864
IS, at the Winter Garden Theater, New
York, he acted that part for hundred
nights in succession, accomplishing thus
a feat unprecedented in theatrical an
nails. Since that time Henry Irving, in
London, has acted Hamlet 200 consecu-
tive times in one season but this latter
achievement, in the present day and in
the capital city of the world, seems less
remarkable than Edwin Booths exploit
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,
symmetrical Greek head, pale counten-
ance, voice of wonderful compass and
thrilling power, dark hair, and blue eyes.
Edwin's resemblance to him is chiefly
obvious in the shape of the head and
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 celebrity of move
ment. Edwin's eyes are dark brown,
and seem to turn black in moments of
excitement, and they are capable of con-
veying, with electrical effect, the most
diverse meaning-the solemnity of lofty
thought, the tenderness Of affection, the
piteousness of forlorn sorrow, the awful
sense of spiritual surroundings, the
woful WEAKNESS of despair, the hooking
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 fathers
was, and to all that tradition tells us of
Garrick. The present writer saw the
elder Booth but once, and that in COM
paratively inferior part-Pescara, in
Shells ferocious tragedy OF "The Apos-
tate" He was terrible presence. He
was the incarnation of smooth, specious,
malignant, hellish rapacity. His exul-
the ground. He hoated rather than
walked. His glance was deadly. His
clear, high, cutting, measured tone was
the exasperating note of hideous cruelty.
He was acting fend then, and making
the monster not only possible but actual.
He certainly gave a greater impression
of overwhelming power than is given by
Edwin Booth, and seemed more for
midabIe and tremendous man. But his
face was not more brilliant than that of
his renowned son; and in fact it was, if
anything, somewhat less splendid in
power Of the eye William Winter, in
Haapers Magazine.