The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1893-06-09
was very peaceful,

ADl0 10 CuO duA1OuS WdGC11S1o ut LIS W.
side.
The evening of Monday, Sept. 10, 1849,
saw Edwin Booths first appearance on
the stage. It was at the Boston museum,
and he played the part of Tressel in
Orchard ILL.," his father, the great
Junius Brutus Booth, taking the leading
role.
Booths last appearance on any stage
was at an afternoon performance OF
! Hamlet at the Brooklyn Park theater,
Saturday, April 4, 1891. Booths acting
was far from strong-the effects of his
advancing age and failing powers were
plainly visible-yet he was given a
veritabie ovation by the audience. He
made brief speech in acknowledgment,
and when he left the theater the street
was crowded by his admirers, who
cheered him wildly as he drove away.
Between that evening in Boston and that
afternoon in Brooklyn great career had
stretched its years, a career that will be
studied with interest and admiration as
long as records of the American stage
exist.
Edwin Booth was born in Hartford
county, about 90 miles from Baltimore,
Nov. is, 1888. His father, Junius
Brutus Booth, was 81 years old then and
in the zenith of his fame as an actor.
The mother had been, it is said, flower
girl in Covent Garden, London. She
was a beautiful woman. There were
seven children, of whom John Wilkes
and Edwin were the only two to achieve
fame on the stage.
In 1852 he went to California. When
the news of his fathers death reached
him Git occurred Nov. so, 1859 he was
stranded without money or friends and
almost without food in Nevada mining
camp. He finally got back to San
Francisco ragged, worn and weary. Be-
tween that time and 1856 he visited
Australia and the Sandwich Islands.
This whole period was one of misery,
many of his journeys being made on foot.
! He was himself obliged to post the bills
; that announced his performances. He
went hungry often. His road was al
, most incredibly hard, but he made a
triumph out of it, for when he left Frisco
} early in 1857 or late in 1856 he was given
an ovation.
Then he returned to the east, and ap
: peared with success in Boston as Sil
) Giles Overreach. In New York imme
! diately afterward he was fairly started
ON the high road to fame and fortune By
/ his impersonations of Richard III, Shy
lock, King Lear, Hamlet, Brutus ant
3 other roles.
D 1t was about this time that he me
Mary Devlin, a southern girl of grea
beauty and an actress of extrordinar!
n talent. They were married in New
York July Z, 1850. She Immediate.
/ retired from the stage. They wer
L ideally happy Booth next essayed
= season in London without great success
a and returned to New York in 1862 t
p begin his series of representations at tn
p Winter Garden theater, which estat
ished him as the greatest living Amer
can actor. His "Hamlet" ran for NOR
4 than 100 nights-a measure of success a
that time unheard of. In 1868 his youn
! wife died. For a time he abandoned hi
# profession.
lie In 1S64-5 Booth again appeared i
a New York as Hamlet. April II of tn
latter year the assassination of PresideT
t. Lincoln by John Wilkes, his brothe,
u startled the world and engulfed him In
sea of grief and wrecthedness. He gu
a the stage on the very night of the. ira:
A. edy, intending never to return to it, bI
the opportunities of his friends were {
q earnst that Jan. 80, 1865, he agai
Of stepped upon the stage. His appearant
p behind the footlights was the signal fl
nine great cheers which fairly shook Il
at theater. But never since that fatal III
1e of April has he played a professional e
= gagement In Washington.
az After his re-entry into public life
= 1866 Booth was the central figure
of a series Of magnificent productio
:. at the Winter Garden. When tn
m theater was destroyed by fire
he erected the famous Booths theater. Il
nj revivals of Romeo and Juliet, Rich
lieu" Julius Caesar" and other gre
. tragedies on its stage mark an epoch
y y the history of the American drama. b
y they bankrupted the man who ga
= them to the public. After his failu
Mr.. Booth found himself nearly 81 ,e9
- 600 in debt. The vast indebtedness
lln has SINGS paid, SinlrE< for fa5llar, vzita