The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-07
BOOTHS EXIT FROM LIFE.
Death Rings Down the Curtain on the
Great PLAYERS Career.

Barrett's Story Of Booths Life.
New York, June Z. . o. m.-Edwir
Booth, the great trarediau, quietly
passed away at his apartments IN the
Players Club. at lis o'clock this morn
inc. Al his bedside at the time were
Mr.. and Mrs Grossman, his son-in-law
and daughter, his physician, DR..
St. Clair Smith, Supt McGonigle,
William Bispham, an intimate friend,
and Charles FarryelL The death OF the
renowned actor which had been expected
at any time during the past ten days, was
very peaceful, being scarcely noticeable
10 the anxious watchers at his bedside.
Mr. Booths first serious illness cameon
April 3, 1889. when he was stricken with
incipieut paralysis while playing in
"OthellO" in the Lycoum theatcr in
Rochester The last four years Of his
life have been passed at the Players
Club in comparative retirement. During
the summer months of 1881 and 1892, he
speut considerable time with his daughter
at Narragansett. 1t was in the latter year
while making his annual visit, that
he was so seriously i'll at her house His
friends were very sOlicitous for his health
al that time and had grave apprehension
that he would not have sufficient strength
IL " LLIaDN attempting W ANIul il ~ ANNff
York But with cooler weather came an
improved condition and he returned 10
the Players Club in October Those who
knew him most intimately remarked
steady decline in his health.
The following sketch of Mr.. Booths
career is from the pen of the late Law
renee Barrett, the tragedian, with whom
he was professionally associated during
the years preceding his retirement from
the stage:
Edwin Thomas Booth was born on his
fathers farm in Hartford county, Mary
land, Nov Il, 1893. The care of a grow
ing family keeping his mother at home,
young Edwin was sent forth while almost
child himself to act as guide, compan
ion and friend to the most erratic genius
that ever illumined the theater in any
age AS mentor, dresser, companion, the
boy lived almost a servants life in the
hotels, dressing rooms among the wings,
in constant and affectiOnate attendance
upon him TO whom the early drama Of
America owes so much of its glory. The
applause received by the father rang in
the lads ear as a sweet prelude TO that
which was ere long destined to be his
own. Indeed, he seemed already TO par
ticipate in the glory of his father by the
close and anomalous relation,
Thus the theater was Edwin Booths
school room, the greatest living master Of
passion his tutor, and the actors his fell
low pupils, divided from him only by the
disparity of years Constantly ignoring
any question of Edwins ever becoming
an actor, his father acquiesced willingly in
the boys amateurish requirement of the
violin and of u negroes mastery of the
banjo. These tmeful accomplishments,
aided by the voice of the young musician
in some of the familiar plantation melo-
dies. amused the leisure and gratitied the
patcrnal pride Of fond and sometimes
Overindulgent father
On Sept. TO- 1S49, Edwin Booth APP
peared as ."Tressel" to his fathers
"Richard III. " on the stage of the Boston
Museum No trumpet or herald an
nOuuced this important event; its neces-
sity arose from the somewhat insignif-
cant fact that the duties of prompter made
IL necessary that some one should tighten
the shoulders Of that official of double
burden, and the obscure was replaced by
one who that night entered upon a career,
the consequence of which win affect the
American stage more profoundly than any
other event connected with it. The sue
cess of this maiden effort did not seem
to win the father to the lads side
Without openly condemning the
step, the elder Booth tacitly
showed that he did not approve of it
"
ayers of other cities to request that
father and son should appear together on
occasions This was stubbornly resisted
On one occasion an old friend, then man
aging a western theater, asked Mr. Booth
TO allow him to bill Edwin with his
father. He was met by the usual curt re
fusal, but after a moments pause, and
without any sense of the humOr of the
suggestion, Booth said that Edwin was a
good banjo player and he could be an
nounced for a solo between the acts.
BOOTH AND HIS FATHER
Mr.. Booth, in a sketch of his father,
gave the following interesting account of
his own first appearance as Richard III
'While not my fathers favorite. my pres
ence seemed necessary to him when at his
work, although at other times he almost
ignored me perhaps because his other
children were more vivacious and amused
him. His reception Of me, when he sum
moned me on one occasion, was not very
cordial, Did you bring your school boolzsl,
They were in my trunk, but We're seldom
looked at His play books were my more
congenial studies. This was his only
greeting, yet throughout my long assOCia-
ton with him a mOther-liSe sOlicitude for
me tempered his most irrational moods
He wished none of his children to follow
his calling. Not that he considered it un-
NOIllN. Dub uCCdUSe IT'S eUCCb upon his
nervous system caused him so much dis
tress that he preferred they should en-
gage in some more healthful work-anv-
thing that was true, rather than that
they should be of that unreal world.
where nothing is but what's not Accord
ing to his programme, my vocation should
have been that of a cabinetmaker Ga
notion suggested by the lease of his farm
70 one of that trade), bat, much to his
chagrin, accident ordained for me diff
ferent pursuit.
strange as it may seem, chance, not
prediction for the stage. determined my
way of life After my debut in the very
small part of Tressel he 'coddled' me,
gave me Cruel (his usual meal at night
when acting and made me don his worst
ed night cap, which, when his work was
ended, he always wore as a protection for
his heated head, TO prevent me from tax
ing cold after my labors, which were
doubtless very eXhausting on that occa-
sion, being confined to the brief scene at
the beginning of the play. At that time
there seemed to be a touch Of irony in this
overcare Of me, but now, recalling the
many acts of his large sympathy, it ap-
pears in Its true character Of genuine
solicitude for the needless boy who had
drifted into that troublous sea.
where without talent he would
sink. or, buoyed perhaps by vanity alone,
merely founder in its uncertain waves
During my second season on the stage he
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