The sun., 1905-10-01
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! rnrt~s, would moi b~ appreciated to-day
why, n would H. a delIsh, ~ any std'rnce
Ia revel In the i-au,y ofhis reading.
often I played With Boo,b, alternating
Oiheiio and Iago With him and play ina
various PARTS 10 his Hdmist fis vas q very
srea, Hamlet perhaps the brut ~ had.
although James Murdoch vas much moro
sohotarly, and I believe be had devoted
much more study 10 the part than Booth
had. But everything combined 70 make
Booth wonderful In tho roic-bis voicc. his
appearance and hia grace of movement,
Il have often acted Maebeh with Char
lotto Cushman. played Dandy Dfnmont
with her too, and most Of the other leading g
rolos In her repertoire. There Ia another
who would he a. great to-day a. she ever
was'
Mr.. Bonifaoe was born AZ the corner Of
Lispenard street and Broadway and be-
catne an amateur actor a. soon as he was
old enough. His brother Charles. who
was ten years hi. senior. was an enthusiast
tic member OF the old Forrestoneans. a
dramatic club with It's quarters at :he
corner Of Canal and Elm streets and having
among It's leading members Dan Marble and
W. j. Florence. Mr.. Boniface's club was
the Murdoch and he acted there until 1851.
when he went to Baltimore and az Captain
Blenheim in The Rough Diamond made
his professional beginning
when ] went to Richmond the next
season." Mr.. Boniface told the reporter,
Joe jefferson was the stage mana ger and
had the low comedy roles. He was there
for several years and gave evidence Of all
the talent that made him a great actor
later.
"He had less to do there than stage man.
ayers do nowadays, for an actors COM
potency was assumed as fact in those
| days. When man or woman was engaged
! for a company he or she was supposed to
| be able to read lines intelligently. to know
where to stand and how to walk. Nova
| days all the actors are taught those things
for every play.
! MARY Devlin, who was the first wife Of
| Edwin Booth and who died soon after her
marriage; John Jack, Daniel Harkins and
Edwin Adams were all members OF the
company, which was as good an organiZa- :
| ton as an actor could care to belong to.
Richmond was in those days a prosperous,
important city, and the actors we're very
| cordially received by the Southern families.
They could go wherever they wanted to
so long as they behaved themselves, and
behave themselves. So life was very
pleasant for us.
There were few combinations in those
days The stars travelled around and
found companies in the various theaters
waiting to support them in the repertoires
was not so difficult for the actors to get
their plays ready, for most Of the visitors
appeared in the same pieces.
With the women 1t was The hunch-
london Assurance, ".Venice Preserved , or
aThe Lady of Lyons in addition to the
ST akespearean PLAYS The men acted in
aThe Iron Chest'-E: L. Davenport always
bad to play that" elieu, The Dukes
Motto" and the Shakespeare plays: So
the work Of the company was not 80 difficult
as it might seem except in the case Of Edwin
Forrest, who would, as Mr.. Boniface says
insist upon new play or two every time
he came to act in Rio mond.
lotte Cushman, Nick Of the Woods Proc
tor. who died only year or two ago in Bos-
ton, the two Rateman sisters who used to
play in The Fire in Hague street. in which
little child was supposed to be confined
under an iron grating; Julia Dean. James
Murdoch and Edwin Booth were some OF
the stars that used to come along during the
season." said Mr.. Boniface. They never
stayed more tr an a week and We changed
sWe did that even during the weeks the
stock company played. Once we acted
The Sea Of Ice,' and that was so elaborately
put on that it ran a week. Then we had
play intended to counteract the influence
|
piness OF the slave under the conditions
that existed then.
at was called Cabin and Parlor' and ran
for six weeks to large audiences. We
took it to Petersburg and it made az great
q success there. Such run was unpre-
oedented in those days and was due chiefly
the great interest in the subject.
1Our seasons in Richmond usual lly began
in September. A popular play was Sc
lected and all the company appeared in IT..
When the curtain rose We were standing
In a row and sang The Star Spangled Ban
ner.' Then the curtain fell for a minute
and the play began"
Mr.. Boniface played in Baltimore after
he left Richmond, and then in Cleveland
with Honest John Fllsler," whose memory
arouses in him the same admiration it oes
in all old Ella yers. After coming to New York
he became In 1885, a star.
He was for long time the stock star at
Maguires Theater in San Francisco, and
he played in New York at Horace Lingard's
Theater. The beautiful Alice Dmning
Lingard, who was barmaid in England,
had never acted in any drama until Mr.
Bonifaoe put her into @The Captain Of the
Watch and similar pieces which were played
at Lingard's Theater. He finally produced
there 4Don Cesar. de Bazan. and Mrs: