The evening world., 1889-04-22
Il. Il. Graham. observations.

l have no recollection myself of my first adj
vent in mimetic business, but from fact
CLEANED from those who were present they tel
me that it was the occasion of my birth, and
that the imitation was that of 4 general baby
bowler, and that it was a success; or, in other
words. that / was u bowler from lIowlerville,
thus initiating many who had come before me.
From that time on / kept in constant practice.
initiating everything that struck me AZ eccentric
or humorous, aud you can imagine how busy l
have been kept, 30 that when / adopted the dra-
matte profession with the ambition of becoming
q great tragedian, the eccentric ideas of the
managers forced me into tho position of n
comedian and imitator. much to my disgust,
anu, ! suppose, very often since then to the dis
comfitnrc of the public.
the T farce Sn Snti fhst f %rh ih' s Satt "s f IN Iu, dnrs mt ut
management Of 7. L. J. Miles, who came 70 me
and i told him that ] had been called II parrot
without wings all my life. possessing, no orlgi-
thing at the above performance. and my iirst
imitation was that of u dog yelping, when one
of the lady participants accidentally stepped on
stage. ~yclping like a dog. or course you can
apprfciat2 tlat NE PM wa 20 great ma !
cS"5u on roS SeiGG Of 'tr rfnE } Il on ,n the Is dog aoS Urn in
Cincinnati.
Though an accident. the imitation was so sue
VIM L SOhClllNltu w "a IN DONtIN III
other directions. Maggie Mitchell had Just been
playing in the city the week before, and | was
so Impressed with her ecccntricities. nv well az
her genius, that | attempted an imitation OF her
az - Fanchun." THIS was my first imitation
which was studied. Meeting with encourage
ment for that, l attempted limitations of some Of
the other artists or stars who appeared from
time to time Mt that theatre. or course, it will
he understood that at that time / was the al
legged ~ comedian of the stock company Of
that house.
The next in order was that of Stuart Robson.
whom | consider the easiest to apparently imi-
tate, yet one Of the most difficult to actually I'M
itate. This met with enthusiastic recognition
others, among them j. X. Emmet, Lawrence
Barrett, i. A. Sothern, Edwin Adams and
Barry Sullivan, and ~latterly Henry Irving.
According to my ideas, the imitation that was
the most successful. or, | might say, the easiest
to me by reason of it being in consonance with
my own individuality, was that of Henry Irving.
The most difficult to me was that of Lawrence
Barrett, and l think fewer attempts have been
made to initiate him than that of any other
actor, except Mr.. Edwin Booth, whom l consider
az inimitable for the reason that he in no ex-
tremely natural and devoid of cccentricities and
mannerisms.- Although Mr.. Jefferson is equally
must admit that | failed to initiate Mr.. Booth,
and l cannot explain why.
Az to the number Of times that / visited the
theatre to study any particular actor. l might
ray that | never male any studied effort, bnt
rather that II came to me without any effort. and
az to what regularity OF the original most I'M
pressed me / cannot say beyond this: In one the
voice, the other the mannerism. or l might say
method he or she employed. r. Z. GRAHAM.