Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-06-19
MARY ANDERSON'S WEDDING
The Clever Actress Will be Married in
London.
On Tuesday Next Mary Will Become
Mrs. Navarro.
The Celebration Will be Quiet and
Simple One.

LONDON, June 14.-Next Tuesday morn
ing Mary Anderson, the charming Ameri-
can actress, will become Mrs. Navarro,
and the stage will lose one of its brightest
stars, and the world of society gain a
brilliant follower.
The wedding will be of the most quiet
kind. Only the members of the brides
family will be present. There will be no
magnificent trosseau, no maids of honor,
40 ushers, no wedding breakfast nor any
grand reception. The bride will wear a
plain travelling dress of gray, brown Or
pearl color. She will 90 to the little
church with DR.. and Mr.. Griffin, whose
adopted daughter she is. At the church
she will meet Mr.. Navarro, and the SIM
ed. They will then take train and go
on a wedding Journey to the South of
Europe. 1t was the desire of Miss Ander-
cathedral in great style, but the bride-to-
be said, Il hate FUSS" and she had her
way.
Mary Anderson was born in Sacra-
mento, CAL, on July %, 1859. Only six
months of her babyhood were passed on
the Western slope. Her parents re-
moved to Kentucky. and her father fell
fighting under the Confederates at Mo
bile, and Dr. Hamilton Griffin, a mem
Der of one of the oldest families in
Kentucky, became her step-father
two years later. The irresistible bent of
her mind was manifested very earl y. She
was both wild and studious, but in the lat
ter quality followed her natural tastes, and
she never would submit to the curb of a
choolmaster. Shakespeare was a passion
with her, aSd she committed long passages
Of his works to memory. Mary was
brought up in the Roman Catholic faith,
and leaving school at IA years of age, her
education was completed at home. She
learned the parts of Hamlet, Romeo and
Richard III. while still extremely young,
and she had even mastered a
standard work on the use Of the voice
before her elders knew what
she was about At the early age of ten
she converted her bed-chamber into min
iture stage, and it was here that she re-
cited her favorite roles. Later on Henry
Wonde, an old American actor, happened
to hear her read, and advised that she be
trained for the stage, but her family re-
fused to sanction her adoption of such a
future.
After seeing Edwin Booth in erich
ard Ill.," Mary Anderson seriously cop
led his acting, and with such faithful ex-
actitude as to astonish everyone who saw
her. 1t is recorded by a minute biog-
rapher that she planned with little
colored kitchen girl to save up some money
and make their escape to New York, where
Booth was then filing the engagement.
When, in later years, Mary Anderson
made the acquaintance of the great TRACE
dian she related to him this childish plot
and asked him what he would have done
if it had been carried out. why, my
dear child. - was the reply, Il should have
simply taken you to the railway station,
bought two tickets for Louisville, and put
you in charge of the conductor.
Charlotte Cushman approved the young
girls dramatic powers, recon- mended her
to study a year under Vanderhoff, and
then to make her debut. This advice was
followed, and Miss Anderson appeared in
public in November, 1875, in Louisville,
when she made her debut as Juliet. In
February, 1876, she appeared as Blanca
in ''Fazio,' Julia in The Hunchback, y
Evadne and again as Julit. In
March of that year Manager Ben De
Bar presented her to the public of
St. Louis and afterwards brought her out
in New Orleans. In August, she played
an engagement at the California theater,
San Francisco, which was then managed
by John Mccullough. Her first remuner-
ative engagement, however, was made
in 1876, when Manager John T. Ford paid
her $500 week to travel throughout the
south, when she drew larger houses than
any star since Edwin Forrest.
Her first appearance in the north was in
Pittsburg. Her ripening accomplish
ments charmed the critics everywhere,
and especially in Boston, where Longfei-
low insisted on her visiting him at Cam
bridge, on which occasion he paid her the
following compliment: Il have been
thinking of Juliet, all night. Last night
you were Juliet.