San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-02-11
AN ACTORS LIFE.
FRED WREN, NOW MAKING BRICK,
GROWS REMINISCENT.
Thirty-three Years Experience Makes q
Young Man a voteran-A Family of
Actors Who Early Utilize Their Talents.
MARKS" and the Bloodhounds.

Actors Who Early Utilize Their Talents.
MARKS" and the BIoodhounds.
"Was ever bit by bloodhoundsr' echoed
Fred Wren, the veteran comedian, as he and a
News reporter chatted together the other day;
look here, and here, see the scarsl | have
marks all over my body from them, and yet
never got a scratch from them in earnest. /
have two big holes in my right leg, but | got
them by interfering In fight between two
bloodhounds One made a grab at the other
dog and caught me- The others are from
snaps made at canes, umbrellas and so on"
YES, " he replied, in answer to question,
81 have quit the show business, and I'm going
to make brick"
Mr.. Wren sat in his Office at eight White
building. Some years ago he bought farm
at Lancaster, and finding that brick clay
bed lay beneath the surface soil, has organized
a company, and the merry Marks promises to
make as much money in brick as he made in
his long theatrical career.
How did you come to buy a farm he
was asked
THE YEARNING FOR HOME.
Because / wanted home Not that
home was any use to me, for / was hardly
ever home. But all actors have the same
longing They all like to speak of home
They say my home with tremor in their
voice when thousands of miles away. 1t is
one of the bright spots in their memory. Joe
jefferson with all his wealth and his beautiful
home finds It no home to him, for he's there
but rarely. What are Booth and Barrett and
all the rest but trampS-wanderers on the face
of the earth9 tell you I'm tired of it all, and
I've settled down here In my home and going
to make brick. I've got a nice home, nice
wife, nice children, nice cook and nurse girl,
and I'm going to enjoy the rest of my life"
How old are youP
About 40" Then falling into reminiscence
Mr.. Wren continued: "It's long time ago
since took to the stage Father had good
business here as vessel painter. Old residents
will remember him. There were nine of us
and all but Will took to the stage My
brother George ran away to Cincinnati and
headed a company with Barney McAuley
he came back in two years and father for
gave him, and then gave him permission to
put up little stage in the barn That was
ON Seventh street, above Maryland; don't
know but the old barn stands there yet Our
first play was 'Bombastes Furioso, then we
played Timothy Toodles,' Burton's old play,
and he afterwards took me and taught me it
well The Swan family were with us, and l
tell you We played to crowded houses, for it
was cheap. That went on for a year; then,
in the winter of 55 and $50, George conceived
the idea Of taking US ON the road. We played
'Toodles,' Loan of a Lover Crossing the
Line MILDLY Ashore Jenny Jones' a
Tinker and Tailor and several other English
comedies Of the day. We went through Can
ada and Michigan, doing well, got back home
and started out again. That company was
the Wren Juvenile comedians, eight Of the
Wren family in it, and we had a good show.
We played before President Buchanan's
cabinet in the winter of 81 and 49,"
HIS LEGITIMATE" CAREER.
Mr. Wren talked away entertainingly
about his theatrical career before the war,
told of his appearance in Barnums museum
that was burned after Lincoln was killed; of
the long run made in Laura Kean'S theatre
with Midsummer Nights Dream, with Fred
as Puck. 1t was run of four months, the
longest then known in this country Then
he told of his enlistment as q drummer boy
on his twelfth birthday in the Sixty-frSt
New York, of how he was disabled at NAL
vern Hill and spent three months at Car
yer hospital, and of how he went into the
navy after he was mustered out
After the war he went to New Orleans, to
Tom Placide's theatre, in which 127 people
afterward found fiery death, the theatre
where Matilda Heron, who made $500, 900 as,
Camille, made her first great hit in thei
character.
Once before he forsook the stage, and went i
into Denton s. Cottier's store to learn to be a
musician, but inside of a year was back in i
theatrical harness. He married Maria Sully, \
whose father then owned the New England l
hotel, now the Fillmore house. He traced
his course in an interesting way until thel
time when he entered the stock" at the
Academy in this city. And here ell theatre
goers in Buffalo take up the history of Fred
Wren and it is no use telling them anything
about it.
Those were the halcyon days, when rare old
Ben Rogers and Fred Wren were the old and
YOU come. ms