Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-11-07

drive" He said to me: "Of an
Shakespeare's characters | like sru.
tus the best, excepting only lear"
There is no doubtthat his studyof anu
meditation upon those characters had
much to do with shaping that mental
condition which induced his murder of
President Lincoln.
was talking with Edwin Booth at
The Players one day, when | remarked
to him: Mr.. Booth, there is an In
cident in the nations history to which
would like to allude." He promptly
comprehended, and replied with flash
ing eye and construction of the lius
You mean that affair at Washington
could not approve what he did-but
he was my brother" The last words
were uttered with intense emotion.
1t is an interesting fact that Edwin
Booth never desisted from his patient
and quiet endeavor to recover the
body of John Wilkes Booth until he
delivered 1t through friends to his
mother IN Maryland. Of John Wilkes
Booths death there can be no doubt
John t. Ford, the Baltimore theatrical
manager, and Charles B. Bishop. the
comedian, both told me that they wit
messed for Edwin Booth the exhumins
OF the body, identified it and sent it to
his mother. This should set at rest
the persistent rumor that he is still
alive.
As TO the dramatic genius of John
Wilkes Booth, can write with pro-
tessional authority. 1t was OF the
highest order, and had he, lived his
fame and success would have eoualed
his fathers. The father never saw
but nearly every great actor from Ed.
win Forrest down to the present dcy
| have seen and known, and excepting
Forrest and that brilliant cratic gen
ius, Edwin Adams, John w. Booths
genius exceeded them all. AS have
written, he was great admirer Of
King Lear" | don't think his genius
would have ever made his rendition of
the part equal to Forests, but he was
an uneQualed Richard Ill, and would
have made the greatest Iago, Hamlet,
Cassius, Othello, Macbeth, Coriolanus
and Charles de MfOr and similar PARTS.
In plays like The Tanning of the Shrew
he had achieved distinction before he
died. He acted with a brilliant dash
and sweep that was irresistible. To
women in such parts he was an i'm
perious fascination. They idoliZed
him. King Lear and his genius were
not quite in harmony. He did not
have the large physical proportions
essential to performance of the sub
finest of ShakeSpeare's characters.
- win Forrest did, and was the great
est King Lear the stage has ever
seen. Once in Philadelphia when go
ing over with Mr. Forrest his 1923
first folio) edition of Shakespeare,
expressed to him my admiration of his
King Lear. Forests eyes flashed.
and he said in reply, Sir, act Hamlet,
but by am Lear!"
1t is lamentable that through the In
sanity which led to that dark deed In
Washington the genius of John Wilkes
Booth was lost to the American stage.
His star went out in the darkest night,
and through a deed that cost the
stricken south its best friend in the
north, Abraham Lincoln. He alone
could have stood at the end Of the war
between the north and the south,
the great pacificator, and the bullet of
John Wilkes Booth robbed the south
of his genius, his influence, his noble
and kindly heart. l believe that If the
truth could be known John Wilkes
Booth in his insanity lost his identity
in the delirious fancy that he was
enacting the role of Brutus and that
Lincoln was his julius Caesar