Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-05-14

81 :: :: !: e: g:
| NJ MN look ahead is uncheery,
| as fine playa little
| bit of human life, with
| its laughter and weep
ing, its love and anger and anxiety-au true to
nature, or as much so as art can make it. in
deed the very acme of high art disguised? To
helad, the youth, the man, at each alternate
phase Of life, to the young and old alike, how
grateful the charn,p how welcome the picture,
now pleasant the memory! Even and ever
more wildly come back impressions of old
plays and players as their times are buried be-
meath successive seasons and the furtive years
steal on the stealther. Hours at the play, mo-
ments bestowed at the shrines of tragedy. COM
| edy, fane, opera, melodrama or on occasions
OF minstrelsy itself are not thrown away il
Kindly afterthought alone is of any worth to
the mind: The stage has its place in the econ
omy OF life, as good wine has, and perhaps
some OF the old actors are quite as genial to the
memory OF the playgoer as old Vine to the
heart. Let us chat together Of few we'll
known play actors of the past.
MEMORIES OF BUTTONS THEArER.
| Who can ever forget Burton, the unctious
king OF comedians, as he played night after
night at his quaint little theater in New York:
1t stood in the middle q the block, facing the
City Hall Park, in Chambers street between
broadway and Center Streets and was under
the managerial ownership and direction Of Mr..
| William F. Burton himself. When Mr. Burton
assumed the reins the building was called
Palmo's Opera House, but its proprietors had
widely departed from their original design as
signifed by its name and had allowed it to be-
come place for the exhibition Of "living stat
1 narv ftor Mr.
character and became invested with the dig
nifty Of hall of justice, appropriated
| to the accommodation Of the district and cir
cult courts Of the United States.
In that dingy little play house once was gath
| cred more dramatic talent than any other
| theater i'll New York had ever collected together
except the Park in its halcyOn days. There, Bur-
ton, Blake and BrOugham (known about town
as the Busy BIS, so active were they in catering
for the public pleasure), Lester (Wallack), Jor-
dan, Dyott. Johnston, Clarke, Holman, Placide,
Levere, Bland, Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. Russell. Mrs.
Skerrett, Miss Chapman. Miss Lizzie Weston,
Miss Hill. that charming actress and vocalist
Miss Agnes Robertson. Miss Fanny Wallack
Miss Mary Taylor and others of lesser note
trod the boards before crowded and well graft
ned audiences. Shakespearean reviyals were not
lnfrequent IN that Thespian temple, and among
TEEN those of 1.-The Tempest, Twelfth Night
and a midsummer Nights Dream made q
palpable hit in the theater-goins world.
SOME OF BUTTONS CHARACTERS.
The "Serious Family" and 1.-The Toodles y
those companion pieces Of broad comedy, first
saw the day Cor rather night at this establish
ment and gained in favor at every successive
repetition. The term ''Serious Family be-
came household word to express self-right-
eOusness and pretended sanctty. and the
worldly minded pronounced the play more ef-
fective than any sermon in showing up Phar-
isaism. The Dickens nights were also genial
occasions. "Dombey and Son." SOLVER
Twist" "Nicholas Nickleby," 1.-The Pickwick
Club" aud David Coppertield'' were quite the
rage at Christmas times, when good cheer, good
| will and good nature abounded on all sides and
inclined the heart to charity. At these festive
seasons Mr.. Burton was wont to get down
| Dickens" from the shelf and arraying himself
in the immortal habiliments of Capt. Cutie
Bundle the Beadle, Squeers Sam Weller OF
| Micawber, reproduce the England of the
novelist for the edification of American play v
| goers.
The man was unapproachable in his way!
Educated for the church, editor in Phila-
delphia with Edgar Allen Poe as his assistant
a comedian OF the raciest type, humorous
| versatile, unctious, both nature and culture
combined to qualify him for his later calling.
| keenly appreciative and with astonishing power
and facility for interpreting the genius Of any
| dramatlst he drew upon his impersonations be-
came the embodiment of satire, absurdity and
| fun. Sir Toby Belch. Bob Acres DOgberrv and
| Tony Lumpkin. in which parts he knew no
equal, served to illustrate the scope and diver
sity OF his administrations. Capt. Cutie
| stepped out of the story thing of flesh and
blood, with hook of wrought iron attached,
and brimful OF wisesaws, honesty and foggy
| well meaning.
1t was the aim of this excellent comedian to
| represent the creation of the author Just as he
designed it. and ever faithful and exact was the
dnh Slaaly ca do
j one pretending to vie with him in affording his
conception Of that hurting. laundering hypo-
crite-a Tartuffee, Stiggins and Chadband
rolled into one. The best drunken scene on
the stage he gave Mr.. Timothy Tcodles,
| where his very neckerchief was maUdlin with
too liberal indulgence in what Mr.. Wrinkle on a
similar occasion called 1.-THE salmon" Con-
VITALITY at all times was his strong point, and
in parts where abject vacuity, pompous preten-
sion, ignorance in the garb of profundity and
imbecile Obstinacy full OF the ludicrous were re-
quired he was all-sufficient and all-sGtisfying
Nor was Mr.. Burton less successful in his rem
dition of the leading characters in popular
farce. now so seldom produced. In John Jones,
the most unfortunate man in the world. Jem
Baggs, the wandering minstrel, and parts of
with laughter not his own. Every movement
was the concentration Of comicality, facial and
bodily. Nature hersef must have given him
the palm of humor at his birth or very soon
thereafter, and well did he improve the gift.
As long the annals Of the stage are passed
down to pOsterity will the name and fame of
Mr.. Burton be preserved in kindly remem-
| brance.
| WIN. RUFUS BLAKE.
OF the tender, sympathetic and pathetic
school none was better than William Rufus
Blake. Rotund, rosy, the perfect picture Of
healthy good humor, delightful and chaste ell
ocutionist, accurate, measured, painstaking and
genial, his Grandfather Whitehead affected the
house to tears, his Malvolio to light laughter
and his Jesse Rural to tears and laughter
mingled. As Old peggotty he was very hlnfY al
first and very heartbroken at last when he Sc,
out in search Of his lost yet loved and hmented
Little Emily. Although, Mr. Blake must have
weighed nearly 800 pounds every feature Of
his face was aglow with the warmth OF
wholesome good nature, and the CHEEKY, kindly
hearty character of his acting in domestic drama
was beyond that Of John Lawrence Toole
The man who could coldly witness such tender
scene as that Of Grandfather Whitehead play.
ing with his children's children and the rapture
OF the dear old gentleman's exuberant glee, OF
the woman who did not weep when the broken
hearted grandsire went forth, cruelty driven BY
misfortune into the night, the snow and The
darkness and silence Of the street, was to be
pitied a. inhuman and ninty Of soul indeed
VIM n thar al hio IL Ia