Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-11-23
CHARLES Hovr DEAD.


Popular Playwright, who Had Been
Suffering from Psresls Some Time,
Passed Away at His CharIestovn
Home mOnday---HIs Remarkable Ca
reer.
Charles H. Hoyt, the playwright died
at his home In Charlestown, N. H, early
Tuesday evening After he was brought
back to Charlestown from the asylum at
Hartford, Conn, by a delegation of citi-
zens In August, he seemed to improve
physically for a short time, but since
september his mental alterations have
increased and he has defined physically.
Inc collapse came on Monday evening,
before he passed away.
Mr. Aloyt was born in Concord, N H.,
July g. 1860. He attended the Boston
baJln School two terms, where as he
said, he achieved a record for almost any
thing but scholarship. After passing col
lege examinations, ne was appointed to
west Point, but was barred out by the
physical test. He had a youthful ambi-
tlon TO become stock raiser, but six
months experience on a Colorado sheep
ranch in which his father bought an in
terest effected a cure. lie then returned
10 Boston and haunted the newspaper
ofhces until the city editors gave him as
sisnments to get rid of him. Taking the
ADVICE OF his rather, he went to Charles
town to study law with his fathers old
friend, eX-Chlef Justice Cushing One day
ttoyt asked the Judge How am 1 get
ting along2" The Judge answered, You
Know all my good stories, and know all
yours. That settled the law business
Hoyts next experience was on a daily
paper at st. Adams. 1t was here that he
developed the style of satire which dis
tlngulshes all his plays His work at
tracted the attention OF the editor of the
Boston Post and he was secured to write
an All Sorts column in that paper. He
also wrote some musical and dramatic
criticisms He drifted into play writing
by accident, his first effort being sketch
Whleh ne wrote at the request OF Manager
Harris of the Howard Atheneum. 1t was
fairly successful and fired Hoyt's ambi-
uon SO that he ground out a thrilling
melodrama with the romantic title Ce-
celia. IL was praised by the critics, but
the box office receipts were meagre and
II soon dropped out of sight. lie next
wrote Bunch OF Keys, gathering his
material from the stories told in the
country tavern at Charlestown. He sold
the manuscript for $500. 1t was a fiat
failure when produced in Providence but
Aoyt rehearsed the second company, and
the production made a tremendous hit
IN Lowell. Hoyt was now fairly launched
on his career as "a playwright and a long
series OF successful plays followed.
Nearly all were marked by harmless sa-
TIRE. Hoyt always declared that he was
not retormer, but that he liked to poke
run at anything ludicrous, or at any type
OF individual that struck MIN as being
eccentric, mean, or narrow-minded.
A Rag Baby made fun of would be
sports. A Tin Soldier ridiculed the auto
cratic rule of the plumber. A Hole in
The Ground depicted the amusing incl
dents in country railroad station. A
Brass Monkey poked fun at superstitions
and supersuttous people. A Texas Steer
caricatured the rural Congressman, and
introduced othr eccentric political types
A Temperance Town saterized the Yer
mont liquor law. Mr.. Hoyt sold A Por-
i4r match to Evans q Aoey for 5000, and
regarded Midnight Bell as the best of
his works. Perhaps The Trip to China
town was the most successful from a
financial StaDdnOint brought "a
profit of about $500,O00 up to 1885. Among
the other big money producers wefe A
Milk White Flag, The Black Sheep, A
Stranger in New York and A Contented
Woman. In addition to his voluminous
work as playwright, Hoyt becam inter-
ested in companies producing his plays,
and was also one of the managers of the
Madison Square theatre in New York.
lie was an actor Of ability and several
company who were absent. Hoyts in
come from his plays and companies is
said to have ranged from $4,000 to $780,
wv for several seasons. He spent his
money lavishly, however, and his estate
probably will not represent more than
SSOO,OOO and perhaps much less. He has
Hoyt's first wife was Flora Walsh, a
charming young actress who began her
career In his play A Rag BABY. She died
in Boston in 1898, and the following year
he married Miss Carolina Scales OF Ken
lucky who was acknowledged to be one
of the handsomest women on the Ameri-
can stage. Her stage namo of Misl<sll
came from the pronunciation of her
name, Miss Scale, by the darkey boys
of Kentucky. He wrote for her The Con-
tented Woman. She died in October, 1898.
and from that day Hoyt was never the
same man. He plunged into work with
feVerish haste, and soon broke down in
health. His experience last sumer-his
business associates placing him in the
asylum at Hartford, and his friends at
Charlestown securing his removal from
the Institution claiming that he had
been taken there against his own will
are the events of too recent occurrence
to be told in detail.
The funeral will be held at Charlestown
Saturday, and tn burial will be in the
family mausoleum in that town. The
hour will be so arranged that his New
York friends and others from distance
may arrive and return the same day.