Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-09-04

ofithe. mental activity needed by those who made an indifferent living at the callirg Q quarter of 8 century ago. Then the study of part week was 8 mere nothing John Webster was telling the story the other day of having to study Archibald Carlyle in "East Lynne," the Prince of Wales in "Henry VL," and some terrific long blank verse part in Mary Stuart," all in two days and half, and he got through all right but the ''Mary Stuart' part, when he stuck in a long description of all the attrib- utes of the palace of Queen Elizabeth.
 He came to the sentence, stOh, it was sub
 ime!" He kept repeating sublime eight or ten times, getting redder in the face at each iteration, until the only end that suggested itself was, ''Oh, it was sublime to the ridic- ulousr'
 Mary Gladstone was the star, and threw her scepter at his head for killing her best scene, and went down to the footrlights and made speech to the audience about the 'duffers" Ben Debar had sent to support her in Mobile. Poor Webster, who had
 been cramming at these parts for three days, didn't get any sympathy at all.
 There is probably not an actor in New
 York now who would undertake, for any
 money, to learn these three parts in less
 than three weeks.
 But that was the old style of things, and 1t made many good actor. One week the company would be supporting Booth, the next Lotta, the next Forrest and the next
 Buffalo Bill-the study and variety that has made of many of these people the stars of
 to-day. Very often it wasn't 8 question of defective memory at all then. Actors
 would sometimes have to ask the sense of
 their scenes, and speak what came into
 their heads when they went on the stage, only taking care to follow the drift of tho leader.
 It was season of this sort, with various
 companies in various cities, that sent
 Charles Matthews to his grave. He used
 to come to a town and expect the company to be up in six different plays, one for each night, and would wonder how it was they didn't know it all, when they had proba- ply had six the week before, with the pros pect of six more the week to come. Some
 of the stories they tell of the memorizing of those days seem simply marvellous. There are just as good actors now, but they are out of the habit of that sort of thing, for it IS unusual for travelling companies to have to play more than one part in season. Men seem to be of slower study than women, but they retain longer. Defective memories are now very few, because there is so little to learn.
 It is said of Mary Anderson that the first symptom of her trouble was loss of mem- ory. She found that the familiar lines of "A Winters Tale" passed away from her and she couldn't seize them. She said that even on reading them again they seemed unfamiliar, as if she ihad never said them before, though she had been playing Her mia and Perdita for over year before that. The last one to be chronicled among the list of defective memories IS Christine Nilsson, who, at last reports, was very lame from rheumatism, and forgot names as we'll as transactions. When Mir. Abbey met her on the other side and spoke of an American contract he mentioned the terms that had been given her before, but she per sisted that they were quite different. The defect has been noticed by many and
 is acknowledged by herself. She doesn't know the cause of it, for her brain is per- fcctly clear in all other matters, and is not affected in the least She does not remem- Der things, that Is all.