The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-02-12
RECoLLECTIoNs OF FORREST.
A Veteran Actor Tells Something Abou. the
Great King Lear.

/ Mr.. c. S. Coon, who arrived in the city
a few days ago TO join the Lyceum com
pany, is one of the old time actors that
/ edited the fathers and mothers OF the
! present generation.
! An EAGLE reporter met him yesterday,
I while he was enjoying a turn with his
, pipe, and hearing that he had been in
/ years gone by, a member OF Edwin For
! rests company interviewed him concern
ing one Of the greatest actors America has
/ produced. At the name of Forrest Mr.
COon's face frightened up and striking
the bowl of his pipe against the nail OF his
thumb emptied the ashes Of the cherished
weed into the CRATE. Yes" said he, re-
fiectively, Il played with Forrest and
tell you he was fine actor but a very
peculiar fellow. He was full of preiudices,
cratic in his disposition and had but very
few friends. He was subject to chalk
govt" and this, coupled with his matri-
monial trouble, made his life miserable.
He was always willing to help any indus
trious member of his company, but was a
terror TO careless, shifCless ones.
Il first met him and first played with
him in 1868 in Buffalo, y. Y, in Eagle hall
in the play of 'RicheIieu" He had then
reached the zenith of his fame
Can you relate any incident of the
Uragedian which has not been published?'
We'll | don't know as to that. | can
say this much, however, that Mr.. Forrest
was man who did not like to be sur
rounded with fine scenery. / remember
one little incident that happened at Hart
ford, Conn. We were booked to play a
number of small towns and the manager
bought of Murray & Ward a set of old
scenery to be used in the towns where the
halls or opera houses had none, and as the
ropes were constantly breaking in the
rolling up and down of the scenes, it SEEM
ed to amuSe Forrest and to please him;
but when we struck Boston with her tine
theaters and fine scenery Forrest was so
ugly we could hardly do anything with
him. l merely relate this to show the
peculiar disposition of one of the great
est, if not the greatest actor America
produced. As an instance of this, during
the winter at some small town in New
Hampshire we had to use this scenery, one
of the rotten ropes broke and one of the
corners of the scene Topped on the stage,
the old man growled out, good" right in
the midst of one of the important scenes
IN ''Richelieu," and farther on in the play
one of the chairs broke down, and the
great Forrest said well we are getting
there" As the drop curtain went down
Forrest went TO his dressing room and I
heard him singing Jordan is a hard road
to travel" l stepped into his room while
he was singing and | asked him. what
made him so good natured and happy
while everything was going so badly,
while at the Boston theater he was so III
natured where everything passed off so
smoothly: to which he replied, Mr.. Coon, l
will tell you: This is the first ''mounte-
banking l have done since l was
young man and it seems like old times. "
Another incident to show his great dislike
for great scenery. There was a movement
on foot to get Mr.. Booth aud Mr.. Forrest
TO play together at Booths theater In New
York. Mr.. Forrest was ia R box aud Booth
was playing ''Richelieu" aud the people
who were interested in this movement
were there also, and the play was ma gniti
Gently mounted and the scenery grand.
Forrest was very attentive-loOked the
thing all over critically and after awhile
one of the gentlemen asked him how be
would like to play "Richelieu'' in that
theater. Forrest looked all around, paused
for a while and growled mot with that
scenery" It seems that Forrest cared
more for the peoples attention to the play
and the acting than to sthe scenery. Mr..
Coon grows enthusiastic as memories of
the peculiarities of the great actor Ats
through his brains.