The daily state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 188?-1891, 1890-03-08
BOOTH IN HAMLET.
HOPKINS THINKS HIM INFERI.
OR TO SALvINI,
A Cumberland County Boy on the Stage
as SuDpOrt-.A Day in Washinston..
A Greensboro Mans Promotion.

| as SuDpOrt--A Day in Washington.
A Greensboro Mans Promotion.
Especial Cor. to STATE CHRoNICLE.l
BALTIMORE, Nd. March All hail
to the newborn DAILY STATE CHRONICLE.
May the glory of Lebanon be given unto
it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon!
But what can l, lean and slippered
student, contribute to its value or inter
est? Nevertheless, I'll try to stand YOU
one or two rounds, Marquis of Queens
bury rules.
l have just returned from Holiday
street theatre, where it was my pleasure
for the first time to hear Edwin Booth
and Helena Modjeska play Hamlet. We
inpecunious Hopkins students only
''take in' the best performances, and
sit, moreover, in the gallery, thus get
ting excellent views of the scalps of the
actors. Occasionally, when, in apos-
trophe to heaven, Booth would turn his
face upward, we could catch glimpses of
the lower features, such as forehead,
eyes, and nose, but rarely. 1t is no un-
usual thing for the Hopkins boys to ap-
pear on the stage in the high-toned
performances, taking the part of
attendants, officers, soldiers, &c. Ham
| let was no exception, even staid old
Cumberland county being present on
the stage in the person of student
| whose ease and grace almost took the
palm from Booth. Ia my opinion Booth
is far inferior to Salvini, simply because
the Italian nature is more passionate
and emotional than the American. Add
to this nature years of study, patient
discipline and training in expression,
gesture, pose, and general bearing and
! you have sum total which no other
nation, save exceptionally, can reach.
Booth is the embodiment and acme of
polish, scholarship, of utmost refinement,
but he does not and cannot lose himself,
merge himself in the characters which
he lmpersonates. "a genuine thrill, ;"
said Goethe, ''is in itself culture" s"
Under the sway of Salvini one is
thrilled to the last fibre of his being ):
not so with Booth.
| About ten days ago it was my pleas
ant privilege to spend day or two at
the shome of a North Carolinian in
Washington D. c., Mr.. r. G. Callum.
Few men deserve greater credit than
he from a telegraph operator in Colds
boro, N. c., he has steadily climbed, by
riot attention to business, till now he
Is General Superintendent of the Mu-
tual District Messenger Company and
superintendent of the Mutual Union
Telegraph Company, having full control
OF the Washington offices. Mr.. Callum
is son of DR.. Callum, of Greensboro,
and brother of Mr. James .Callum,
of High Point. With his charming wife
(nee Miss Dixon, of Savannah), and the
only original ''Preston Dixon" they
make a household which all North Car
olina emigrants would do we'll to mode
after. Tom Evans, of Reidsvile (this
Is the real brand, all others are base i'm
} ilations), was also there. If there is g
single family in North Carolina with
, whose history and traditions Mr.. Evans
is not familiar, they will confer favor
| W uOUiI iuS u4O. ~ ilCdI ulu
a tale with some sage quotation from
t old Burton's ANATOMY of Melancholy,
would make one think that Sir Oracl,
e himself had the floor
4 Of course | visited the Senate ant
= House. According to my notion, Ran
! som is the handsomest, most stately ant
:. imposing Senator in the whole body; AM
. Vance the Hest, but "a man, for a
that and a that" In the House hear,
i Carlisle make some palpabie hits in re
: gard to revising the code of rules. l re
J. cognized him by the instantaneous hus
that fell upon the House whenever h
rose to speak and by the punctuations Q
applause with which his ringing para
= graphs were rounded off.
- passed Secretary Tracy's house an
. found it hard to realize that it was th
scene of so late and terrible a tragedy
The window from which Mr.. Tracy fe
:. is very near the surface of the ground
and this surface is not hard pavemer
= but grassy plot. The window an
'f house were but slightly scathed by tn
ct fire, so slightly indeed, that in passins
SO | uuItSS JOuI dtUcuIlou were Olr0CCe
q thereto you would notice nothing ul
A. usual. Crowds visit the premises ever
day and carry off some relic. Isn't th
a. sort of vandalism peculiar to American
X or at least more inordinately develo
I'd ed in them than in persons of ar
or other nations confess to it, for mysel
at not, however, to the indiscriminate sor
Ill such as the American believes in who,
ne a memento of me, shelters himself und
of my umbrella, with my name lookir
IS, longingly down On him; this is the cor
Id mon, everyday, neighborly sort of va
it dalism. Mine is more fastidious, conf
rd ing itself chiefly to tombs, halowed
I'd genius. A little relic of this sort fro
We Washington Irving's grave at Tarrytoy
ng is valuable to me not only as a memeu
ey of Irving, but as memento also of t
Tar heel sleight of-hand which cou
chip such souvenir from marble 81
while four cemetery wardens stood qua
not farther than a stones throw frC
on the grave.
Bat enough rounds for the present.
must seek the tender ministrations
Oh of sponge and smelling bottle, so
op- be able to meet you again.
ap- G. ALPHONSO SMITH