Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-30

perating as the physical indulgence of
saw sharpener in the street.
School girls, mushy critics and the
great body of theater- goers who never
think of themselves, but say amen to the
utterances of their favorite journal;
have been hurrahing for thirty-fiye years
paSt that Edwin Booth ia the only and
all perfect Hamlet. I have great re-
spsct for Booth. He was to all in:ents
and purposes born on the stage, whose
boards he has trod Tor nearly thirly-five
years, so that every crack and Knot hole
are his old familiar friends. His early
life was clouded, his mature life was ab-
solutely obscured, and il was not until
William Stewart, manager of the Winter
Garden theater in New York city, took
hold of him, utilizing the great event
that made the name of Booth forever
notable, that he arose to the level of
recognition in the metropolitan press.
WHAT Is BOOTH IS CHARM?
Obviously his physical pecuiiarIties. II
he were three inches taller, he would be
worth $3.50 night more to auy manager
than ne is 81 present. He is not natu-
rally sombre fellow; on the contrary,
Il record of his life between the ages of
twenty and forty would show him as
gay and festive cuss in every lane and
highway, road aud byway known
to the votaries of modern pleas
ure. thousand things are
well known to we'll informed people
about MIR. Booth, bis past, his home,
his embarrassment, his laca Of educa-
ton, which are never ailu led to, and
which, being caviare TO the general,
don t have their normal weight when he
IL, n
man of thought, he is not man of
method; he is man with q sombre
mug and graceful figure. with an
exceedingly Yankee nasal tone, with
magnificent eyes and G great
name, that 10 well-known name
made great by his father, and his
brother before he came into prominence.
Now, you take Booth in any part where
flushing eyes, quick, dexterous physical
manipulation and happy knack of pos
ing, and that apt stage effect produced
by long, long years of practice-such as
the speaking of a significant line as he
makes his eyit-and Booth
MUST NECESSARILY RANK WITH THE BEsT.
But, you take him as James L. Field
did in Boston, in a mixed company of
scholarly men of the world, gentlemen
of culture, and ask him why he does
this, or says that, and he will regard
you with the blank amRZement that any
other uniformed person would. ASK
him as he was asked about certain cor
respondeuce that passed between his err
ratio father and some of the best minds
of England when he WAS lad, and he
will tell you if he tells you the truth, as
he did then, that he believed that there
was lot of Cid letters in some trunks in
the garrett but what became of them he
did not know.
Now Mr.. Booth 3 Hamlet is no more
like the Hamlet of Mr.. Booth twenty
years ago than l am like the curly
headed urchin that scudded through the
streets of Gotham thirty years ago. His
Hamlet is not as good as IL was then
because at that time he played IL
with g uaturalness and simple outwork-
ing of al ingenious youth, which, while
il did not satisfy the thoughtful, not
withstanding pleased every body and gave
promise of something great in the fu-
ture. Since that time he has changed
the business many time and oft. He
changes the readings, not because he
thinks this, that or the other, but In the
hope OF producing grenter effect, and
now when in his young old age he finds
himself the possessor of n competence,
he has become careless, forgetful OF his