The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-06-07


The evening of Monday, Sept. 10, 1s49,
saw Edwin Booths first appearance on the
stage It was at the Boston Museum, and
he played the part of Tressel In Richard
Ill" his father, the great Junius Brutus
Booth. taking the leading role. The par.
of Tressel Is a very small one, and young
Booth took IL quite unexpectedly. He was
acting as his fathers dresser during the en-
gagement. The stage manager had bean
cast for Tressel, but he was overworked,
tired and almost iii, and he begged young
Booth, who finally consented to play the
part. The arrangement was made without
consulting the father, whose first intima-
tion that his son was to make his profess
sional debut that night was when Edwin
appeared in the dressing room costumed
as Tressel.
was at an afternoon perform ince Of
sHamlet' at the Brooklyn Park theater,
April 4, 1891. Booths acting was far
from strong-tbe effects Of his advancing
age and failing powers were plainly visible
yet he was given a veritable ovation by
the audience.
Z Edwin Booth was born in Hartford
county, about 20 miles from Baltimore,
Booth, was 81 years old then and in the
zenith Of his fame as an actor. The mother
had been, il is said, flower girl in Covent
Garden, London. She was beautiful
woman.
There Were Seven Children,
of whom John Wilkes and Edwin were
the only two to achieve fame on the stage.
Edwin was more in sympathy with his
erratic, morose father than any other Of
the children, and as soon as he became old
enough he accompanied him on all his
travels, attending to his personal comfort
and watching carefully and constantly to
keep him from breaking his engagements
or giving way to the intense fits Of depres-
sion from which no periodically suffered
Thus the boys early youth was passed In
. theatrical atmosphere and his career
marked out for him by circumstance.
For two or three years after his almost
accidental debut he acted intermitently
In his fathers company.
In 1852 he went to California. When
the news of his fathers death reached him
(it occurred Nov 30, 1852 he was stranded
without money or friends and almost
without food in a Nevada mining camp.
He finally got back to San Francisco,
ragged, worn and weary. Between that
time and 1855 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 peform-
ances. He went hungry often. His road
was almost incredibly hard, but he made
triumph out of IL, for when he left Frisco
early In 1857 or late in 1856 he was given
m ovation.
Then a.. returned To the east ana ap-
peared with success i'm Boston as Sir Giles
Overreach. In New York Immediately
afterward he was fairly started on the
High Road to PANE and Fortune
by his representations of Richard Ill,
Shylock, King Lear, Hamlet and other
roles
IL was about this time that he met Mary
Devlin. a southern girl of great beauty and
an actress Of extraordinary talent They
were married in New York July Z. 1860
She Immediately retired from the stage.
they were ideally happy. Booth next es-
sayed n season In London without great
success and returned to New York in 1862
TO begin his series of representations at the
Winter Garden theater, which established
him as 1be greatest living American actor
His Hamlet" ran for more than 100 nights
"a measure OF success at that time un-
heard Of In 1888 his young wife died. Fos
q time he abandoned his profession.
In lS6+5 Booth again appeared In New
York as Hamlet. April IL Of the latter
year the assassination OF President Lin.
coin by John Wilkes, his brother, startled
the world and engulfed him in sea of
grief and wretchedness. He quit the stage
on the very night Of the tragedy, intending
never to return TO 10, but the importuni-
ties Of his friends were so earnest that
Jan. 30, 1860, he
Again stepped Upon the stage.
But never since that fatal 18th OF April
has be played a professional engagement
In Washington.
After his re-entry into public life in is6e
Booth was the central figure Of a series Of
magnificent productions at the Winter
Garden. When that theater was destroyed
BY fire be erected the famous Booths the
ster. The rsvivas Of "Bomeo end Juliet"