The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-30
A VETERAN ACTOR.
RecolIections of Herman vezin.


 Mir. Vezin is seventy years old, and
 looks fifty, in spite of the furroWec
 cheeks and the hair of snow white fall
 ing in typical student fashion over his
 shoulders. His figure is as spare and
 erect, the step as light as in the days
 now so long agone-when at the age of
 twenty-two he made wild assaults upon
 Sir Giles Overreach, Sir Edward Morti-
 mer Meinotte, Young Norval, Richelieu and Shylock.
 "Yes, sir says MT. Vezin, gently re- irrespective, T played these parts on
 what was then the Barnet circuit In 1852, when I had been two years on the stage. Strange to look back upon now
 isn't 1t? And yet as get nearer and nearer the grave those days of golden hope, life and youth seem to be closer to me, as if in gentle smoothing and preparing of the way.
 'oThose were the days of work-when man played ten different parts in as many days, and wplud jump from Jere- my Diddler to Shylock in one night, and display equal facility in both And when he had been ten years in the pro- fession he was an actor in fact as well as in name, completely versed in the standard parts, to which he afterward added the finish born of his later expe- rience.
 s,'Modern day people talk sneeringly of the old school; but the old school pro- duced some pretty good actors and ac- tresses, and I have not yet found any one who can fill their places. In those times men starved in the study of their profession I played the parts that l have named for the stupendous salary of one pound a. week. In these days Of intern1inable runs and little work the young man who can wear dress suit as if it belonged to him and walk grace fully and easily through society" part, needs no other qualification for success and a large salary.
 Tt is a delight to talk of my early days, because, after all, they are the most interesting to me- I am indebted to Charles Kean for my first introduc- tion to the stage. That happened In 1850, year after I had taken my M. A. at the University of Pennsylvania, then. as now, one of the finest institutions of learning in the world.
 Tt was just the old story. had seen Edwin Forrest play 'Richelieu' and King Lear,' and decided that the stage should occupy the rest of my life. My family were Philadelphians of the rigid type, and you can well picture the ef- feet of my announcement. They tried persuasion; they tried cajolery; they tried threats. Finally my father, Charles H. Vezin, a merchant, who is remembered in Philadelphia to this day, packed me off to Berlin.
 1T knew of Charles Kean. I succeed ed in getting letter of introduction to him and started for London.
 Tt was easier in those days to get an opening; any manager was willing to pay twelve or fifteen shillings a week to a beginner, but nevertheless it took Charles Kean, greatest of all stage managers, three months to place me at York, under old Josiah Rundle, one of the leading circuit men of that time, whose fashion it was to pay the compa- ny, in person. on the stage, every Sat- urday night, with little pile of silver and gold in front of him. My salary was ten shillings week. and it was there that suffered my first and last attack from the enemy most dreaded of all others by the actor-stage fright.
 "The part was that of the Bleeding Sergeant in Macbeth I went on with my legs trembling at the knees; I was literally ice cold with fright. And as I opened my lips to speak my voice seemed like the echo of a sound made long and long ago. I stammered out heard a storm of hissing, and when I came back to my senses I was in the street, in my clothes, and only just awakening to the realization of my disaster
 Tt was two years later when I again received the part from Charles Kean, with whom I then served You've not forgotten these lines, l think he said, with c laugh.
 This engagement with Kean began after my successes at Southampton on l the Barnet circuit as Sir Edward Nor | timer, Melnotte, and Sir Giles Over l reach And I had almost forgotten season l It Edinburgh with John Murray, one of | he finest character actors that ever | rod the boards.
 "The first intmation that I had any | lbility at all came from Charles Kean, | who said one day, I wish every actor i spoke blank verse as you do:' and the | second was from Phelps, at Sadlers Wells. The old man had been standing n the wings during one of my scenes, and as l came off he beckoned me to