The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-01-08
AN INTERESTING RELIC.
A silken Play Bill Recalling One of the
Noted Families of the American Stage

When the Boston Grand Opera House
company, which has just concluded a
most successful engagement at Portland
theatre, brought out Rosedale at Ports
mouth, n. H., last Thursday evening,
Mr.. William Mestayer, received a most
graceful note from Mr.. Edwin A. Tilton
of that city enclosing silken play bill.
In the note Mr.. Tilton, says
The enclosed play-bill was found among
the papers of the late DR.. Josiah Dwight
of this city-who died a generation ago
but came to light only few days be-
fore it's seventy-seventh anniversary. It
was in the possession of my wife, DR..
Dwight's granddaughter.
The name Mestayer has long been q
wand to conjure with, and to no one more
than the old Boston boy, whose
pleasantest memories of the theatre, go
back forty or fifty years, consplcuously,
to realities of the Museum stage,
with it's stock company for which the
work-a-day world furnished the dullest
foil imaginable.
The Museum has changed, and SO has
the Boston boy; but the "Deacon's
Theatre" is still a tangible memory. and
the composers power is as potent a ever.
May it continue with you until the end.
The play-bill as we have said is printed
on silk. 1t is dated December End, 1916.
The occasion was the benefit of Mrs.
Mestayer, then connected with a circus
then performing in Portsmouth. The
bill states that " the public are respect
fully informed that the managers have
erected stoves, which will render the
circus warm and comfortable. Mrs.
Messenger respectfully informs the ladies
and gentlemen of this town and it's
vicinity that her benefit will take place
on Monday evening, December 2, 1916,
and she fatters herself that in the selec-
tions of the evening and entertainment
the public will be highly gratified." .
The bill then goes on to say that the
celebrated ode on Perry's Victory,
written by James Fennell, ESQ.,, and re-
ceived at the Olympic, Philadelphia,
with unbounded applause, will be de-
livered by Mrs. Mestayer. Mile. French
will exhibit her skilled horsemanship on
her horse Venus-Master Dyer will per-
form the great feat of Craftsmanship in
leaping over four illuminated galleries
Mrs. Mestayer will perform feats on the
slack wire, discharging two pistols while
on the wire. Mrs. Mestayer and Mrs.
Pelby will sing a duet, and Mrs.
Mestayer, comic song. The perform
ance will conclude with the great panto-
mime 'Adellina, or the robbers of the
Pyrenees.
The Mrs. Mestayer here alluded to, was
an actress of the well known theatrical
family OF the name in America. Harry
Messenger, her husband, was good
violinist, connected with the circus bust
ness. His life was checquered one
Left penniless in New Orleans, he
shipped in an English vessel and landed
at Liverpool with only his valise. Be-
coming destitute he enlisted in the
English army; calling himself an Eng
lishman. He was discovered to be a
Yankee and was SO cruelty treated that
he ran away, was captured and punished.
Finally the American minister inter
fered. and after thirteen years of great
suffering Mestayer was relieved from the
English army. The names of his de-
scendants, Mr.. and Mrs. John Messenger,
Mrs. c. R. Thorne, Emily. Louis, Henry,
Augustus, Charles and William A.
Mestayer, are all identified with the best
IL l.