The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-06-07

The Eminent Actors First Appearan
the Result of an Accident.

The Eminent Actors First Appearance
tho Result of an Accident.
The evening of Monday, Sept. 10, 1910,
saw Edwin Booths first appearance on the
stagc. 1t was at the Boston museum, and
he played the part of Tresscl in Richard
III, his father, the great Junius Brutus
Booth, taking the leading role. The part
of Tressel is very small one, and young
Booth took it quite Unexpectedly. He was
acting as his fathers dresser during the en-
gagemcnt. The stage manager had been
cast for Tressel, but he was overworked,
tired and almost i'll, and he begged young
Booth, who finally consented, to play tho
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. 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 anxious to know what his
father, who had from the wings closely
watched his brief performance, would say
in criticism, but tho father merely held
out his foot aud said, Give me my spurs"
Booths last appearance on any stage
vas at an afternoon performance of Ham,
let at the Brooklyn Park theater, Satur-
day, April 4, 1891 Booths acting was far
from strong-the effects of his advancing
ago and failing powers were plainly yis-
fble-yct he was given n yeritable ovation
by tho audience. He made n brief speech
in Acknowledgements, and when he left the
theater the street was crowded by his ad-
mirers, who cheered him wildly as he drove
away. Between that evening in Boston
and that afternoon in Brooklyn a great
career had stretched its years, career
that will be studied with interest and ad-
mlration as long as records of the Ameri-
can stage exist.
Edwin Booth was born in Hartford couu-
ty, about twenty miles from Baltimore,
Nov. Is, 1888. His father. Junius Brutus
Boot, was 81 years old then and in the
zenith of his fame as an actor. The mother
had been, it is said, flower girl in Covcnt
Garden, London. She was a beautiful
oman. There were seven children, of
whom John Wilkes and Edwin were the
only two to achieve fame on the stage.
Junius Brutus, the fathers namesake
passed the best part of his years as a hotel
keeper Mt NJ lnchester- -by-the-Sea, Mass,
where he died. Joseph became q well
known physician at Long Branch Mary
Asia married John S. Clarke, the comedian,
and wrote lives of both her father and her
famous brother.
Edwin was more in sympathy with his
the children. and as soon as he became old
enough accompanied him on all his trav-
els, attending to his personal comfort and
watching carefully and constantly to keen
him from breaking his engagements or
giving way to the intense fits of dcpres-
sion from which he periodically suffered
Thus the boys early youth was passed in
a theatrical atmosphere and his career
marked out for him by circumstance.
n fbran .ft l.
accidental debut he acted internationally
in bis fathers company.
In 1852 he went to California. When the
news of his fathers death reached him lit
occurred Nov. 30 1859 he was strand
ed without money or friends and almost
without food in Nevada mining camp.
He finally got back to San Francisco
ragged, worn and weary. Between that
time aud 1858 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 perform
ances He went hungry often. His road
was almost incredibly hard but he made
a triumph out of it, for when he left Frisco
early in 1857 or late In 1856 he was given
an ovation.
Then he returned to the east and ap-
peared with success in Boston as Sir Giles
tJNeIEtdCu. III NEW 1bTh
afterward he was fairly started on the
high road to fame and fortune by his i'm
presentations of Richard III, Shylock, King
Lear, llamls, Brutus and other roles.
1t was about this time that he met Mary
Deylin, southern girl of great beauty
and an actress of extraordinary talent
They We're married in New York July /
1860 She Immediately retired from the
stage. They were ideally happy. Booth
next assayed season in London without
great success. and returned to New York
In 1862 to begin his series of representa-
tions at the Winter Garden theater, which
established him as the greatest living
American actor. His Hamlet" ran for
moro than 100 nishts-a measure of sue.
cess at that time unhearl of. In 1868 his
young wife died, and for time he sban.
doned his profession.
In lS84-65 Booth again appeared in NeiY
York as Hamlet. April II of the lattsI
year the assassination of President Lin.
coin by John Wilkes. his brot her, startled
the world and engulfed him in a sea of
grief and wretchedness lie quit the stage
on the very night Of the tragedy, intending
never to return toit, but the opportunities
of his friends were SO earnest that jan. So,
1885, he again stepped on the stage His
appearance behind the footlights was the