Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-01-06

THE OLD STOCK DAYS MADE ACTORS" lights is MT. Howe of Henry Irving's com pany. He is slightly older than Couldock, but he is an Englishman, and is conse- quently not nearly so well known here as the American actor.
 Who is there that goes to the theater at all who does not remember with pleasure Couldock's magnificent impersonation of Dunstan Kirke, the stern father of Hazel Kirke? He is now playing the rector in Robert Drouet's play, ''Doris," which Fife Ellsler is presenting this season.
 Naturally MT. Couldock has an interest ing and apparently inexhaustible fund of "reminiscences. After having appeared in England great many years, he came to America in 1849 in Charlotte Cushman's company. He concluded to remain here, I and the rest of it can better be told in his own words:
 1.-The next year became leading man iii a great New York success, The Willow Copse,' just such another play as Hazel 1 Kirke.' I determined to start on a starring tour with it as the feature of my repertory. I opened in St. Louis in 1853 or 1854 at Ben De Bars Opera House.
 "Poor Ben De Bar! What great fellow he was." he went on. Tt was through De Bar that met John Norton. On the street in New York one day De Bar came to me and asked if had seen John At that time I Ihad not learned that De Bars mem ory was about gone. 'JohnT I inquired John whop What John?' Oh, I don't know De Bar answered. He's a good ac- tor and good fellow It wasn't many hours after that until l saw Ben again. He had found 'John,' and then for the first time met Norton.
 1.-The old stock days in this country made actors. Every actor had dozens of things to do in a season, and as result of the training good actors were graduated year in and year out. Then. under that system 1 a poor player had a chance to command some of the comforts of life-now he is hustled from city to city, week after week, all through the season. The average young man who plays one part three or six months | closes his engagement with little learned. That is the reason that the stock system | was better for the players than the plan of today.
 ''How did I happen to give up drinking | liquor? Oh, don't mind telling you. l had been steady drinker for years-not a drunkard, but an absorber of alcohol | When the terrible murder of President Lin- coin was committed, was so completely unnerved that 1 gave myself away to the habit. cancelled engagements, drifting to l Chicago, where 1 drowned my grief in | whisky. Why was I so wrought up over the affair? Well, I knew John Wilkes Booth intimately. He was an actor. Those are the reasons. Our profession had been charged with poverty, but there was no | blood on the escutcheon. vowed at first that wouldn't act again until Booth was | caught. kept my word. Indeed it was some time after the man was dead when I resumed my work. Friends in Chicago | brought a doctor to me and asked him to do something in my behalf. The physician looked me over carefully. Then he report ed that was sure to die if I continued to use whisky, and that if I didn't use it I would die all the sooner from exhaustion. He left prescription for a tonic, which l | began to take that evening
 "When heard the doctors statement of | my case, I resolved to disappoint him. All that night walked in and about the Ire | mont House unable to go to my room. Everybody else had gone to bed, but con | tinued to tramp, a gnawing at my stomach | like the tearing of thousand devils, driv- | ing me almost to madness But l knew that if got through those 24 hours would be the victor. I got through, and for weeks I took the tonic that the doctor had left. Soon after this siege physician suggested | I would do we'll to begin the drinking of beer. After few months I acquired lik- | ing for it, and in a short time it was a source of much satisfaction to me. It was | not many years, however, until I was stricken with gout. The doctors said that the beer did it. Since then I drink only ginger ale, and every day am looking for | that to get some sort of an advantage over me.
 Let me tell you, young man, that be- lieve that the introduction of lager beer, as bad as it is for the liver, has wrought | untold good in the United States. It has curbed whisky drinking I remember the day when all youth that drank at all drank l whisky That day is no more. When you 1 find a young man who takes 8 bit of beer that is usually the end of it. Of course there is deplorable abuse of whisky now, but the world is learning to take better care of itself"
 MT. Couldock is splendid pool and card player. He pushes around billiard cueas | lively as any one, cigar in his mouth, and his Colonel Moberly hat on the back of his head. Occasionally the old gentleman ut | ters swear word, but of late years his tenn | per, which was a vigorous one in days gone | by, is much less violent. Many good sto- ries are told, nearly all of which Mir. Coul- dock denies, about that temper. Several years ago, as one tale goes, the old actor be- came angered at a female member of the company in which he was engaged. She was a veritable virago, and he didn't waste many words in getting at the point of what fae wanted to say to her.
 l Look here, madamel' he shouted. Do you know hades is full of such as youa"
 Then, shamefaced at such speech to woman, he retreated. The lady at once asked the manager to demand an explana- tion of Mr. Couldock. That official did not hesitate.
 s'So she wants an apologyS" the old man said. "Well, get the company together and I'll explain and apologize"
 Ten minutes later the actress, MT. Coul- dock and the company were assembled.
 Madame" the actor began in kindly tone. Il said awhile ago that hades was full of such people as you"
 Then he stopped for an instant. He caught gleam of triumph in the woman's eye. "Yes, said that" he resumed, but I was mistaken. It will not be full until yon get therer'
 With that he stalked out and away from the theater.
 "In my time," Mir. Couldock continued, II have played everything among the great parts in classic drama. I have been Rich ard, Richelieu, Hamlet, Iago, Shylock, 9th I clio and all the rest save Romeo, I never played that part because I was never built for any of those sweet, lover parts. Nature did not put me in that sort of mold. did Mercutio when Cushman played Juliet, but never breathed a line of Romeo. In the old days, before the ffties, and even