The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-05-23

upon me. You'd think from the way
they sit that they didn't know it costs
ME almost 500 apiece to entertain
them. Look at that fine sample of re-
spectability over there. with the red
whiskers and Edafn cheese head-think
OF spending 500 to entertain him.
"All through the extracts he was in
the liveliest of moods. i have a good,
mind to make Speech he said, after
a first act.
He assumed a mock threatening at
titude. Yes sir, Eve a good mind to
go out and tell them that they don't
know anything about area la Mans
field. What the public wants is
"a talking to-
AT the end of the next act he
came in and said: I've reiented-they
look too Innocent
THE idea of Stuart Robson playing
Hamlet will strike most people as
very ludicrous, and yet frequently,
when he was telling some story of
Forrest or Booth or his most intimate
friend, Lawrence Barrett, he read the
lines with absolutely none of the exag
gerated intonations that made his stage
work so funny, and frequently with a
great deal of beauty. People often
asked about his voiee-if he didn't lisp
off the stage and If there wasn't a
break in it? It would surprise many
to know that in his ordinary CONVEX
sation his voice was rather deep than
otherwise and that when it broke" it
was nearly always, so it seemed to
me, a conscious break, for the accen-
tuation Of the point of SOME funny story
that he was telling.
He early learned the value of his
voice and 1 think it rather hurt him
little that, in all the criticisms OF the
'Gadfiy' nothing was said about the fact
that it was a different voice if not a
different personality. For three acts
he went through part that was most
serious and although this same pub
lie had been accustomed to see him
in parts that were the acme of the
ludicrous accustomed to his sdueaky
voice and jerky gestures, little was
said about the apparent disappearance
of what he knew the public regarded
as an inseparable part of him.
And they came all prepared to
roast he said, which was, in a way,
the truth. There was strong under
current against the play and the
actor. The idea that Stuart Robson
should play anything serious was an
insult and yet, although they came to
mock and stayed to condemn, cannot
remember that there was any one
there who ridicu1ed.
ZIG u LllG ESdSOIS OIL IbODSOIl 3 DODu-
larity was the Difference he paid to
the opinion Of every actor, no matter
how unimportant. His dresser SUR
prised him one night by suggesting a
change in his lines, and whether it was
to please the man, or not, he tried the
change at rehearsal after notifying
those present to whom belonged the
credit for the suggestion.
He was interested, too, in the out
side life of his actors, IAN unfrequent
occurrence among stars of either the
old or the new school. Once, in New
Orleans, a queer little comedian, known
along Broadway as Jimmy received
a fearful letter from his wife in New
York. Evidently he paid no atten-
ton to it, for he received another in
few days, saying that if some money
was not sent to her at once she would
sell his dog, as a man next door has
offered her dollar, probably it's full
value.
Jimmy, now thoroughly aroused to
the seriousness of the situation, came
vance. He was too old an offender, and
he was sternly turned down. In tears
he went to the Guv'nor. He got ten
" A man would be without human
ity,' Robson said afterward, who could
listen to Jimmy talk over the possible
ity of losing that dollar cur and not
shed tears
HE was very fond of telling how
once he 'barked' for the show when he
was playing in Chicago. He was COM
ing over from the hotel to the theater
one night, and as he neared the en-
trance to the theater three people look
ing at the Autographs blocked his way
II wonder If that show is any
good?" said one of the men, evidently
a countryman in town for the night.
I understand 1T is a very good
show said Robson.
Seen It'll" was the inquiry.
Sure" he replied, a dozen times
Guess we'll. CO. was the conclusion.
And the actor left them on his way to
the box office.
Just added Sc to the receipts he ex-
claimed to the treasurer when he
reached his dressing room. There's
business enterprise for you. Stuart
Robson, barker!" how does that
sound?'
mo man loved more to swap stories
of old times, and when he and old Hen
ry Weaver, who played the part of
Samuel Johnson, got together, there
was fund of anecdote let loose that
held for hours those fortunate enough
to hear it. His stories of the times
when he was page in the House of
Representatives, his memories of John
Wilkes Booth, Edwin Booth, Lawrence
Barrett, Forrest, Cushman, all well told
and enlivened by his keen humor,
would make book of the most inter-
esting kind.
1.-THE pleasantest memories that many
have of him is, however, as he appeared
at his summer home at the Highlands
of Navesink. During the three or four
months he spent there he would prob
ably not move of the porch more than
a dozen times. He was there for COM
fort and rest and he took Ii, smoking
big black cigars all day, reading, COPY
ing passages out of favorite books and
sticking them up on the walls of his
library, and what pleased him most,
listening to the specious arguments and
the recital of exciting adventures of his
S-year-old boy.
There was hardly overnight stand
that we played in the West or South
that the audience did not call on him
for speech. He had several in stock
for occasions like this, and the one he
this:
"rWhen 1 was a little boy in Balti-
more 1 was very fond of drawing a
picture of a big house with a large
room, which 1 roughly indicated as in
the front and in which I hoped some
day to play with my boy companions.
That dream was never realized.
"'Time went by and another little
Stuart Robson came and he. too, had
dreams and those were realized. For
the house was built-not quite as big
as I had imagined it--and 1t has the
rooro in tha front down there by the