The San Francisco call., 1896-05-10
AUGUSTIN DAILY.
Career OF Man Who Has Done Much
for the Drama.

Career OF a Man Who Has Done Much
for the Drama.
Born at plymouth, n. c., July 20, 1888,
and educated in Norfolk, Va, with some
finishing touches put on in New York
City, Augustin Daily is claimed as South
ern man, though New York and the Ma
ton now claim him, and is proud of him
Tor what he has done for the stage and
dramatic literature. He became dramatic
editor of the New York Sunday Courier in
1869, and successfully held positions on
the Express, Citizen, Times and Sun un-
til he became q manager of theaters by
opening the old Fifth-avenue Theater.
To him was due the production OF Henry
MosenthaFs Deborah" in America. and
the brilliant success of Miss Kate Bate
man IN the well-remem bered character OF
Leah the Forsaken, thirty-two years
ago. While yet youth he adapted plays
for Mrs. John Wood, Nine. Methua-
Scheller, Rose Ey;inge and Avonia Jones.
He was the earliest adopter OF Charles
Reade's Griffith Gaunt." and he had a
principal hand in converting Henry Ward
Beecher's novel of Norwood" into a
play, in days when the name of Beecher
was a watchword for the public enthu-
siasm. As writer of original dramas he
was very early in the field. His melo-
drama Of "Under the Gaslight," produced
in 1867, containing the rescue from death
upon the railroad track, proved the pre-
cursor of a long line of sensational plays
upon American subjects. His "Flash OF
Lightning" in 1853, was another success
in the same field, and his play of "Pique"
still continues to be the best of American
domestic dramas.
nrin H-c q ma
that of 1S69-70, when he had to contend
against the rivalry of Booths Theater and
of WallacK's, he produced twenty-three
plays, of which three were by Shakespeare,
and every one OF his revivals was consci-
entiously planned and sum ptuously ac-
complished. He presented that fine trage-
dian Z. l.. Davenport when at his best.
He brought out Mrs. Scott-Siddons in
Shakespearean tragedy and comedy at a
time when that lovely woman was in the
prime of her beauty. He managed en-
gagements of John Brougham, George l..
Fox, Edwin Booth, Joseph Jefferson, Il. A.
Sothern, Mile. Aimee, Adelaide Nelson,
Charles Mathews and Fechter. He was
the first to present the noble Spanish play
of "Yorick" in 1874, and he introduced
the first of the comedies of Bronson How
ard. He discovered and fostered the tai
ents OF Clara Morris, Agnes Bethel, Fanny
Davenport, Catherine Lewis, Kate Clax-
ton, Sara Jewett, James Lewis and John
Drew, and it is to his wise guidance and
bold enterprise that the public owes its
enjoyment of the genius and success of
Ada Rehan. His revivals of old comedy
and his presentations of the plays of
Shakespeare are among the most careful,
tasteful and beautiful that have been ac-
complished.
He has started and esta blished three
theaters in New York, has conducted pros
porous performances all across the conti-
nent, on the Pacific Coast and in Germany
and France, and he has performed the
almost incredible feat of establishing a
new theater in the city of London.
This is a remarkable career, and it is a
career honorable to the manager and USE
full and impressive to society, and while
brilliant with good deeds we'll done it is
augury of much benetcent achievement in
the maturity and repose of developed
powers and assured repute.