The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-03

whom | as a boy had known youue and
beautiful, surrounded by wealth and friends
was now an old lady in the unhappy condi1
ton Of ''gentsel poverty" I am proud to
say we were friends to the last
NACREADY AND BOOTH.
acted with Macready and Booth durino
this season, and an enecdote of each will
serve to illustrate their different Character
lstics. Macready was acting werner
was cast for a minor part. In one scene a
number OF characters had to rush or, bear
ing lighted torches, in search of soms delin-
! quent At rehearsal the tragedian partlcu-
larry requested that we should ali be sure
70 make our exit at night at just the same
time and place, SO that we might not dis
turb the arrangement Of the scene. All
1 went well up to the time for making our
hurried exit. when to my horror
1 found werner standing ex.
aetly in line with the pace of my
exit at rehearsal. presume that when he
had given his directions in the morning he
had not observed me. What was 1 to doq
| The cue was given and there was no time
for argument. l rushed past him, loren in
hand. heard his well-known groan: but
( as flew by an unmistakable odor of burnt
hair filled the atmosphere, and knew that
had singed his wig. When the curtain
fell l turned in horror to see
| the effect. The enraged Werner
had torn his wig from his head and stood
gazing at it for moment in helpless won
der. Suddenly he made a rush in my di-
rectiOn; saw he was on the war-path and
that was his game. And now tho chase
began. | lodged him up and down the
stage; then around the wings and over ''setn
rocks and gauzs waters. He never would
have caught me but that in my excitement
ran head first into the stomach of a fat
stage carpenter. Here was seized. The
enraged Macready was so full of anger and
so out of breath that he could only gasp
and shake bis burnt wig at me. OF course l
was disgraced and not allowed to act again
during his engagement. To make matters
worse, the whole affair got into the papers,
and the next morning one of the critics
remarked that he had never seen Mac
ready act with SO much fire. Now all of
this could have been avoided If he had but
moved six inches farther up the stage when
he saw me coming; but no, be had never
shifted from the spot before, why should he
do so now? believe if I had singed his
very eyebrows he would have stood his
ground.
Booths whole nature was the reverse of
Macready's. He would sauGter into the
theater just few minutes before the play
began; robe himself, sometimes quite care
lessly; converse freely upon local matters in
plain, practical way, or perhaps give some
ioAAAAAASSollCo VI OJBOno Jedt memory
was wonderful-ending with an amusing
anecdote, and the next moment walk upon
the stage in the full assumption of his char
acter, overawing the audience by the fire
of his acting. The following incident will
serve to show the wonderful manner in
which Booth could drop his character and
instantly resume it.
l was acting Sampson" in "The Iron
Chest" to his "Sir Edward Mortimer
During the play he spoke to me of my
grandfather's playing the same part with
him when he BOOTH was a young man.
He used" said he, ''to sing the original
song; it ran thus;n and assuming a comical
expression he began TO sing in an under
tone;
A traveller stopped at widows gate.
At this moment his cue was given aud he
rushed upon the stage, discovering "Wil-
ford" at the chest The scene is here very
powerful, aud never saw him act it with
more power. The audience was most en-
thusiastic, aud as he rushed from the stage
amid storm Of applause he met me at the
wing, and, reassuming the comic expression
Of his face, began the song just where he
had left off, while the appreciation of the
audience was still ringing in his ears.