The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-06-08

OF Iressel is very small one, and young
Booth took 1t quite unexpectedly lie was
acting as his fathers dresser during the
engagement The stage manager had been
cast for Tressel but he was Overworked
tired and almost ill and he begged young
Booth, who finally consented, to play the
part. The arrangement was made without
consulting the father, whose first intiIna-
tlon TINT his son was to make his Drofes-
sional debut that night was when Edwin
appeared in the dressing room costumcd
as Tressel. The father offered to lend the
boy his spurs, and the offer was accepted
When Edwin returned to the dressing
room, after having done his work on the
stage, he was so anxious to know what his
father, who had from the wings closely
watched his brief performance would say in
criticism, but the father merely held out
his foot and said Give me my spurs"
Booths last appearance on any stage WAS
at an afternoon performance of Hamlet ut
the Brooklyn Park theater, Saturday,
April !, 1891. Booths acting was far from
strong--the effects of his advancing age and
failing powers were plainly visiblc-yet he
was given Il veritable ovation by the audi
ence He made Il brief spc ech in acknowl-
edgment, and when he left the thcater the
street was crowded by his admirers, who
cheered wildly as he drove away Between
That evening i'll SostOn and that afternoon
III BROOKLYN great career had stretched
It's years, a career that will he studied with
interest and admiration rs long as records
of the American stage exist.
His Mother Sold Flowers In IL Theatcr.
Edwin Booth was born in Hartford coun-
ty, about 20 miles from Baltimore, Nov. Is.
1873 His father, Junus Brutus Booth
was 81 years old then and in the zenith of
his fame as an actor. The mother had
been, it Is snid, flower girl in Covent
Garden, London. She was n beautiful
woman. There were seven children, of
whom John Wilkes and Edwin were the
only two to achieve fame Oh the stage.
Junius Brutus, the fathers namesake.
passed the best part of his career as Il
hotel keeper at Observation-Disclosures
Mass, where he died. Joseph became a
well known physician mt Long Branch
Mary Asia married John s Clarke the
comedian, and wrote lives of bo til her
rather and her famous brother.
fhwln was more i'll sympathy with his
erratic, morose father than any other OF
the children, and as soon as he became old
enough accompanied him on all his tray
els, attending to his personal comfort and
watching carefully and constantly to keep
MIN from breaking his engagements or
giving way to the intense fits of depression
from which he periodically suffered. Thus
the boys early youth was passed in n the
atrlcal atmosphere and his career marked
out for him by circumstance.
FOR TWO or three years after his almost
accidental debut he acted Internationally
IN his fathers company
Stranded In the Ear West.
In 1852 he went to California. When the
news of his fathers death reached him lii
occurred Nov. 80, 1852 he was stranded
without money or friends and almost with
ont food i'll Il Nevada mining camD He
finally got back to San Francisco ragged
worn and weary. Between 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 tri-
umph out of it, for when he left Frisco
early in 1851 or late in 1856 he was given an
ovation.
Then he returned to the east. and an
peared with success in Boston rs Sir Gilc,
Overreach. In New York Immediately
afterward he was fairly started on the high
road to fame and fortune by his impcrson-
ations of Richard III, Shylock, King Lear,
Hamlet, Brutus and other roles.
1t was about this time that he met Mary
Davlin, southern girl of great beauty
and an actress of extraordinary talent.