The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-23

: RICHARD MANSFIELD )
.te.ta. easta.

repeatedly urged him to come to London,
an invitation Mansfield accepted in 1889
During his visit he learned of some
what languid effort being made to secure
funds for a gymnasium for his dear old
Derby school. The proceeds of special
performance in London were Immediately
sent up to Derby, and a handsome BULL
ing stands there in memory of one boys
remembrance of happy days in the Mid
land school.
Those who know Richard Mansfield in
timately recognize as one of his cardiral
virtues his love of young people. He IS
always with them. q may take on years,
but I shall always try to remain young,
he says. When he heard of "Od Hedel-
berg" he said; Il must do that play.
The moral is right. We can do mush
good If we can recall the days of their
youths to fathers and mothers, and liz
fluence them to give to their children
the full measure of happiness which IS
the inalienable right of youth He IS
always eager to have children in tae
plays with him. and THE First Vol :"
will be remembered, if only for the hui
NOR and charm with which Courvois,on
told the story of Granny Wolf to his lit
tie Sigismund. Christmas in the Mans
field company is always a season OF good
cheer and generosity. especially for he
children
This master of so much and so many
| is himself a willing slave of one boy 10
| matter what plans may occupy him, no
| matter what absorption by the conccp-
| ton of a new role, no matter how VAIN
| the efforts of all others to reach HIM
| there is one little knock at the study
| door of the great actor which Is opea
| sesame to the sanctum. Mansfield never
mistakes Gibbs knock, and his sons re-
| quest is command to his father. Ii Is
/ In l,a ,p.
of his life has this boy had one severs
, word spoken to him. Gibbs has eVer4
| opportunity for play and improvement L
and though his father and mother r1nt
| deny him much, 1t is always in the spirit
! of persuasion and never with harshness
or severity.
Those who knew Mansfield as a boy
and knew his mother have tried to 81.
| plain their remarkable devotion somewhlt
| to the exclusion of the other enildreh
E, Perhaps the prophetic eye of the woinIn
! fiattered the mother with the revelation
OF what love saw in the son. Among al
! the celebrated paintings of great masters
/ which adorn his home, it Is TO a quantity
beautiful old portrait of his mother mat
| he always points with affectionate adni-
| ration, calling attention to the patrisian
brow, the deep. lustrous eyes, the Arm
chin, the graceful neck, the womanliness
shining behind the mask of the artist
the eye is caught by "a more than fanei-
full resemblance between the two. Once
caught, the likeness becomes really
marked
1t is said that he inherits from ms
father his executive skill his capacity to
marshal and command; from his me Their
his aesthetic genius and that sensitive
nervous temperament which is supposed
, to be his worst enemy, though artists
/ recognize it as the inspiration of the
actors loftiest flights.
1t was as little more than boy that
Richard Mansfield first returned to Eng
land. The absorbing question of a career
was humming in his restless blood He
had tried commerce, and had made an
excursion into journalism. His mother
believed his talent was all for painting.
She packed him off to England to learn
and to earn. But the agents of another
fate were also at work When he re-
turned to America in 1882 he came as an
actor. He was just on the threshold %
manhood and of the career which is now
history.