Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-09-07

and then TO hold your eye whlle jig Is
danced and song is sung, that is what |
| mean by versatility. The old actors |
could all do that. Billy Florence, |
Barney Williams, and my old-time and
dear friend, John L. Owens, each one
knew what it was to entertain people |
for IN entire evening. The modern play
does not demand this. Once teach Il
good looking woman or handsome
man how to go ON and off the stage, TO
dress well and the play is not the thing;
it is only the stage picture. People are
being bored by this, and in desperation
they turn to variety shows, and, thank
Heaven in time they will return to the
melo-drama, where the soubrette sings
because she is happy; where the leading
lady tries to picture what an angel in
the form OF a woman can be, and where
the best of humanity is made most at
tractive. Madam, went to Hoboken
the other day to see play of this kind
rehearsed / was willing, madam, TO
cross the river for that purpose, and l
trust that when it is produced my young
friends here will attend. 1t was called
The District Fair" And while nothing
is absolutely new in this world, it
brought before us our old-time favorites
and il made US all feline, madam, an
old actor, among the rest-that II is
worth while to be good and to do what
is right. The hero had been misled, but
the heroine loved him through all his
trouble, and the villain, who of course
committed his vile acts because of his
love of her, was properly punished.
THE VILLAIN, MADAM, WAS A JEW,
well.drawn and we'll acted, not Shy
lock, but man, who, above his love of
money, held his love for woman. Of
course, madam, as is proper, he was
| given a chance to redeem himself in the
last act, and he threw aside his ill-got-
ten gains for the sake Of the woman,
and, after the curtain was dropped, we
all believed he had become a wiser and
better man. OF course, being up to
date, there was introduced into this a
race scene, with real horses, and i con-
fess, madam, that my heart went out to
the noble jockey who refused to be
bribed by the villain, and who rode
manfully toward fortune and to gain
the love of the soubrette. II is true,
madam, that in the olden times we did
not have real horses, but even l, madam,
enjoyed the excitement of the race.
do not object TO the fine stage sittings of
to-day, though | distinctly remember
when, at the Baltimore Museum we
were playing the Forty Thieves" there
was only room enough for nine Of them
: to come on the stage; so, when the ninth
got there, john Owens used to call out
Let the rest remain in the wood. "
, Nothing remains i'll the wood nowadays;
, but still it is not that, madam, that
object to, it is the narrowness of the
J actor himself. He is not willing to be
: Booth tonight and lago tomorrow
! night; to play Claude the next night
/ and come on in a bowling farce the
! night after; and, madam, the man who
7 calls himself an actor should be able To
do all of these"
THE oLD-TIME ACTOR SANG WELL.
The dear old chap proved that he
{ could, for when we all went to quie
+ little restaurant to get some supper, h,
S gave us recitation from Hamlet" ht
{ sang comic song, he recited the caske
s scene from the "Merchant of Venice
: and then did a funny old monologu,
t which he said had been taught him by
J, the father of the Bateman children
4 Both the boys and l were inclined TO b.
| "
:, some one who had lived and know
!, much of life before and behind the
i, footlights, and somehow, he seemed tn,
e ghost of lost hope. wondered wher,
i was the woman he had loved; l won
i dered where were his old friends, and
4 thought of the quiet cemetery near Bal
d timore where sleeps 80 quietly many o
r, the old actors he talked about, and VIII
It were old on the stage when Edwi
n Booth was boy. | wondered if b
10 weren't tired of living, and it seemed t
If me as II all the actors | he'd ever see
p were coarsened by comparison with hi
is gentle manners.
He told us how, after Owens hal
d bought his country place, he used
z offer his friends champagne and milk
er and beg them to take the chaiapag
G. because il cost him less. And he toll
he us how he had remembered seeing Ed
S, win Booth around his fathers dressin
IS room; he talked of Laura Keene as
r, she were a young girl, but always bt
m fore me there was picture of that qui,
81 graveyard. After our supper was owe
he he walked home with me, aud begge
IN him to come and breakfast with n
lg some day and tell me about some OIL
ly photographs that Ihad--photograph
I'd great actors Of long ago. He bowe
a goodnight to me as if l had been
m queen, and he the prince who recol
ut nized my cnarms.
ol THE CURTAIN FALLS.
After he had gone | thought, "wh
does 1t mean to live beyond yourt time
IT 1t means to see your friends gone, you
ly self forgotten. 1t means to realize tn
to the world is beyond you, and that the
gu seems no place for you" And as
thought, there came before my eyes Il
he picture of a grave stone on which w
nd carved "After life's titful fever he slice
nut WE'LL" and as in vision, heard vol
nd calling out; "What, no there |" And h
Ter old actor, approaching to the centre
be the stage, SAID "Gay and gallant gre,
OF ing, my Lord, l welcome thee ~ Al
're the visitor who came was called Deaf
OF but there is no other SO gladly greet
vi by one who has outliyed his time al
his his generation.
Oh, And thus it will be with the old act
dy who, for one evening, made the whet
lst of life turn back so years, and let o
he woman realize what it meant to be alo
er- in hope, in thought-all alone in t
rls world. That was what the old act
zen taught BAB