The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-28

hair was disheleved, and the company
promptly 'sloped."
The men went to the Dodo club at
the House of Lords, on the corner o.
Houston n Crosby streets, to wait
for the clouds to roll by. After the
wreck, when the manageress ha(
Gained down somewhat, she wished to
Know What had become of the COM
pany. She sent me to raid Them" as
she put it. When I appeared, they
greeted me with For She's a Jolly
Good Fellow" and other ditties. Soth-
efn as usual was the leader of the
crowd, and he suggested that c. w.
Couldock go back to the theater &c
gather up the pieces" When T s1vIr
inquired why they had left GenTqee
Jordan replied that they had adjourned
10 nave a rehearsal Of High Life Be
low Stairs" LutZ, the business man
ager, who afterward became the hus-
band OF Miss Keene, cot the truants
started, and Mark Smith Sr., who had
a magnificent voice, marshaIed them
at n stage door. All then struck up.
On, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?"
n marched on. Miss Keene had en-
tfrely recovered from her fit of temper.
n rather seemed to enjoy the ludt-
CrOu5 situation.
n Dion Boucicault left the Win
yer garden to come to us to produce
The Colleen Bawn," Miss Keene was
cast Tor Anne Chute, the part of the
CclIen BaWn being given to Agnes
robertson, the authors wife. Laura
had never liked Dion, and found fault
with everything. Each morning at the
playWr1ShtS residence 1 reported the
most recent objections. He tore up
enough manuscript to make a whole
play, and wrote new matter in it's place
in order to fatten the part of Anne
chute: He was finally almost beside
himself and threatened to abandon the
whole thing. And right here it might
not be amiss to state tina this play
made more money than any upon which
royalty was ever collected. The scene
in the piece in which Anne Chute an
pears in q riding habit was written to
arpease Laura Keene.
THE AMERICAN COUSIN"
The wonderful success Of the "Ameri-
can Cousin" which Laura Keene pro-
duced has often been commented upon
SOthern attained real greatness almost
solely through the medium of this play.
for which no one expected more than
the most ordinary success. His famous
hep, skip and Jump entrance, and the
accidental manner in which he literally
into it, are too familiar to
require reorganization here. The part
OF Lord Dundreary vas one Of the
shortest in he piece, and Sothern was
very IluCl QlSSuSIGQ with IL at the
start. 1t was originally about three
lengths (40 ines to the IeDgth), but he
built this trifie up into about 40 lengths.
In the cast of the American Cousin
at the time Sothern made his big hit
were some Of the best actors in the
country, including Joseph Jefferson,
Laura Keene and C. w. CouldOck.
Jefferson gave a magnificent imper-
sonation of Asa Trenchard, and COul-
docks work was all that could be de-
siTed-in fact, it was exceptionally
good, as was also that Of Laura-but
the Dundreary role gained such a firm
held upOn the public that the other
players and characters were, compare
lively speaking, forgotten, and it soon
became almost a One-part piece, with
SOthern the practical though not the
nominal star.
The inception of this famous play was al
ways shrouted in mystery. Laura Keene
received the manuscript from Tom Taylor.
whose part in the transaction has neve"
been cleared up. From the best data at
hand. however, it would appear that the
play was inspired by Silsbee, the Yankee
comedian, and that the part Of Asa was in
tended to be the principal one. At any
rate, the piece was not regarded as original
for in 1865, when Miss Keene sought to Ob
tain an injunction to restrain John Sleepe
Clarke from producing it the courts decide
against her.
Laura Keene's recognition Of John WiIkea
Booth on the fateful night of April Is. 1866.
has often been commented upon. 1t was no.
in tho least remarkable to those who knew
her, for it was at one time currently reportez
that they were engaged to be married. Ev
erybcdy is familiar with the fact that Miss
Keane's dress, which was, by a remarkable
coincidence, embellished with Embossed pas
sion flowers, was stained with the blood ci
the dying President Lincoln. whose hea4
she supported after the dreadful catastrophe
which threw a nation into mourning. TIL
episode was recalled a snort time ago by tn
doingS of the notorious RawsOn twins in Ney
Jersey. Laura had two daughters who passe
as her nieces. They were Clara, an eXper
harpist, who married Raws0n, and another
who became an indifferent actress. Clara wa
the mother Of tie twins. L John Vincent