The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-22
(Copyright.)

Il DAYS in w mon Ine AcGor Smoked,
smiled and Grew Famous.
(Copyright)
New York, May 20.-Edwin Booth.
living on his back there at the Players
Clnb. is not the Edwin Booth who, thirty
,,oars ago, electrified New York OF
/ course electrified is metaphorical, but
Youth. alertness, newness and personal
/ charm do make up something that can be
called electrical, and he had all these
when he came upon the stage as Hamlet.
II was so far away from the ponderous
Dane of Forrest and the pedagogic Dane
of Murdoch and the mincing Dane of
Nacready that people insisted on being
uotaphorical and said it was u revelation.
Well, it came to stay 1t got to be the
s,Hamletn Of the American public, and
when the American public went to see
imported "Hamlets," Fechter, Barry Sui
livan. Rossi, Salvini, Irving 1T remarked,
as that Boston man did in the Sistine
Chanel: well, as for me, give me
Prang's chickens"
The American public made it a stand
ard and insisted on judging all other
"Hamlets" by it.
In an evolutionary sense they had good
cause Nobody had ever read the poetic
lines of the play so intelligently, so musi-
cally. so unaffectedly, and certainly no
i one had given such an Illusion of intel
lectuaity to Hamlet"
remember a bust of him in that part,
flleted with bay leaves, and / recall all
the phrases that we associated with him
4 in those days-the student actor, the ideal
Hamlet" and the Shakespearean scholar.
1t is not my intention here to write a
criticism of Mr.. Booths acting. ! have
done that elsewhere. l merely wish to
treat of the curious ideality with which
the public invested him, especially in the
part of Hamlet" Sagacious judgments
did not always agree as to that being his
best part. A great many trained and
thoughtful Shal1espearean critics believed
that his 'Iagon evinced more of the
genius of his father, and others invariably
pronounced his "Peseara" and his 'Rich-
ard his greatest roles But criticism
aside, the American public regarded his
Hamlet" as more distinctively his and
more unassailably great than anything
else that he did.
They did, indeed, flock to see him play
"Richelieu," but they insisted on his
Shakespearean superiority.
1t would be curious to follow that popu-
lar idOlatry from its start in the Winter
garden TO its close at the Broadway
theater. But it is doubtful if one could
analyze it in a rapid sketch. 1t is suf-
fcient, perhaps, to say that it received its
great impetus when Mr. Booth opened his
own magnificent Metropolitan theater in
Twenty-third street. Here we see the
status if not the genius Of the actor He
had hOnored New York and New York
hOnored him as it had never honored any
other native actor
The first night at the new theater was
unlike any other that had ever been seen
in New York play house. The whole of
that Pompeiian parquet was given up to
people who were not regular theater-
goers. Ministers, commentators, littera-
tours, statesmen, historians were printed
In the list the next day. They virtually
acknowledged, by their presence. that
this effort was unique in its worthiness
and unlike all the other catch-penny en-
terprises of the play house And the
play, mark you, was Romeo and Juliet"
with Edwin Booth as Romeo"
1t was in this house that Mr.. Booth, in
my opinion, reached the zenith of his dra-
matte power l have never seen him play
Hamlet, f" 'Iago, ""Othellon as he played
those parts there.
Never again did he have the same spur
applied to his ambition. When the venture
proved a failure and he went upon the
subject to the conditions of an itinerary,
let himself down, save on fitful occasions,
to the unexacting demands of provincial
audiences.
But he went out of New York with
social and professional acclaim that the
country recognized as exceptional. He
had become fixed as the Shallespearean
actor and profound consciousness ex-
tended from Bangor to Baton Rouge that
(, i1,,r Il 70 4o1~y
your mother and your daughter to the
theater when Edwin Booth came to town.
1t is to Edwin Booths credit that he
never disturbed that trust in his ideality
and propriety by eccentric experiments or
unworthy plays.
When at his own theater he did for o
time entertain the idea of having a play
made in which he could impersonate Ma
poleOn Bonaparte, and he talked with me
several times about the possibility of
oramatizing one of Muhlbach's novels.
With that single exception / do not
know that he ever in his after career
thought seriously of studying a new role.
The fact is his artistic ambition declined
steadily under the drudgery of an timer
anu HE IN spite of the remuneration, and
heard him say once: what is the use
OF doing anything new when the public
are satisfied to see me in the old roles; let
Barrett do It'll"
no actor that ever knew created such
discreet hallucination in the minds of
,wH,eL-ored and unhysterical young women.
1ney ldealized and idolized him, not in
ueed as the shallow girls idOlize the
handsome stage mather, but as young
ladies idolize rector and impute to him
an the instinct and beatitude which he
utters.
thousands of young women in this
country have grown up with q sort of
sacred respect for Edwin Booth. They
PROBABLY never got nearer to him than the
second seat from the footlights, and as
NE was not a pianist and was generally
projected by gallant stage organization,
Suey could not mob him at the stage
9oor or waylay him on the stairs In
ueed, 1t is very doubtful if they wanted
70 10 anything of that sort. They were
content to take his intellectually home
WIN them and brood over IL.
nave encountered these young women
~ many places outside OF Boston. never
heard them discuss Hamlet or IagO. They
we're content to praise Booth and woe be
70 criticism that tried to adjust him to
any standard.
really believe that the Players Club
20 sort Of Mecca TO which these ideallz-
ing Young ladies make pilgrimages on re
,tepJion nights, and get Mrs. McGonigle
~ snow them Mr.. Booths smoking Jacket
aGu orler-wood pipe and slippers. ] know