Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-18
OLD HOME OF BOOTH

Il
| while resting recently on farm In
Hartford county, Maryland" observed a
man who only gets away from his work
very far away. 81 came upon something
| that seemed both odd and interesting to
me.
The farm where I stayed was beauti-
full old place of rolling meadows near the
little village called Fountain Green.
which is a couple of miles from Har-
fords county seat, Bel Air. With Robert
Hanna, one Of the prominent farmers Of
that district, I drove one, afternoon into
Bel Air. Bel Air is a quiet. almost sleepy
| little place. with the inevitable Main
| street. Rather neat county courthouse
| was recently built around the old struc-
ma took me inside the courthouse to
! show me the interior. The main court
room found to be big. handsome and In
no respect inferior In equipment and in,-
pressiveness to any court room I'd over
Visited in any large city.
Ranged around the walls OF this court
room arc bust portraits In oil of most OF
the prominent citizens, some OF them dat
4 forth into the world from Hartford county
and did things. They were good. we'll
painted portraits. Mr.. Hanna, who Is q
man about sixty-six years OF age. knew
all about them, and he told me the his
tory of these noted personages Of Har-
ford county, the great majority of them
long dead. as we went along.
| I'VE had all but completed the tour OF
these paintings in the court room whom
my eye suddenly fell upon the painted
lineaments OF most familiar coun-
tenance. 1t was the finest painting In the
room and was by noted Baltimore ar
tist 1t was a portrait of Edwin Booth,
the greatest of all American tragedians.
have seen many portraits in oil OF Ed.
n - tx~D lox yaYss
and the Lambs Club in New York; but
this instantly struck me as being the
most natural picture of the great ira
gedian had ever seem
| Il looked at Mr.. Hanna in surprise. ]
couldn't understand 1t at all. Here.
strung along the line with local Hartford
county notables-soldiers, sailors, law
yers. preachers and such like. who ha :,
oil Of Edwin Booth, an actor, and In q
court room. too? Mr. Hanna saw the
question in nay face.
| Nothing strange about 1t, he said.
I Edwin Booth and most Of his brothers
were born and brought up within hai1ing
distance OF the farm near Fountain
Green where you are staying.
Then Mr.. Hanna told me good many
curious things about the Booth family as
they were known away back yonder In
the mist Of years when their home was
in Harfcrd county. On the drive back ne
pointed out to me the old Booth home
stead. when the Booths had 1t very
small and humble place indeed. but now
largely added to and held and occupied
by a family named Mahoney. Away back
in the forties Mr.. Hanna's father had
built with his own hands little school-
house not far from the Booth place. and
! the man who was driving me went %
school in those early days at this little
schoolhouse, now long swept away, with
some of the younger Booths. notably
John Wilkes Booth. whom he well re-
membered as wild and fmpetuous youth
l fol u
I'm the old wing of the very courthouse
| in which Edwin Booths portrait now hangs
Edwin Booth, when a mere boy, had maze
| his first appearance as an actor. 1t was
| some local entertainment gotten up by tne
Booths, and. as there was no other place
in Bel Air to hold such an affair, the court
house was given over for the purpose by an
| agreeable Judge of that period, early In the
forties.. Some Of the Bel Air people possess
| and cherish highly playbil:s Of that mrs
entertainment in which Edwin Booth made
his appearance as an actor Edwin Booth
! throughout his life, preserved the most ten
der feeling for his old Hartford county home
and when in Baltimore he rarely failed
| down to the final years of his life, to take
| a hurried trip out to Hartford county to lool
over the old scenes. 1t was only three years
before his death that he commissioned the
Baltimore artist to paint the portrait which
he gave to Bel Air to be placed In the
court room. gift which was highly appre
! ciated.
"The Hartford county old folk well remem
! Der the Booths as an extremely gifted anc
unusual family. Junius Brutus Booth, the
elder, particularly astonished the staid farm
ers of his neighborhood by his extraordi.
nary actions at times. During his wilC
periods. when he dissipated to excess. he
| would often return most Unexpectedly tt
Bel Air and thence out to the old Bootf
farm. When he had a Baltimore engage
Of his periods of Responsibility. and his
first impulse would be to desert his en-
gagement and get out to the old place. HI
would mount fleet horse and ride sway.
his manager, who knew his peculiarities
would send messengers mounted on fee
horses to overtake Junius Brutus on the
road. They would generally get him on the
| pike and fetch him back to the theater
where the assembled audiences would b<
manifesting their impatience over the Ions
in his bad condition, the fiery Junius Bru
tus would get into his makeup and cos
tune and make his appearance, and before
five minutes had elapsed the hostility Of hi.
audience over the delay to which he hac
subjected them would give way to wilc
cheers Of acclaim. for he. as we'll as his sor
Edwin. ranked high among the tragedian:
| of all time.
Mr.. Hanna well remembered seeing the
elder Junius Brutus dashing through the
streets Of Bel Air and along the countr,
roads on foaming and overweight stall
lion, casting. as he went. handfuls Of sill
yer change for the children to scramble for
MIR. Hanna told me that there is a curl.
GUS though not well vouched for story
among the old folks In Hartford county t.
the effect that when one of the Booth chill
dren died Of scarlet fever on the old home.
stead the elder Booth was away playing ar
engagement. He rushed home, however, a.
soon as he heard of his childs death, ane
the story Is that he was SO grief-stricker
| and so wild to have just one more look al
| his beloved baby's face that he started t,
dig open the grave in which the child wa.
buried, and had to be restrained by forcs
, from doing so.
ION the night after the ASSASSINATION o,
Lincoln the farmers sleeping in their bed.
. up around Fountain Green were awakened
| by the clanking Of many sabers, and wher
, | they looked out Of their windows thew saw
the shadowy figures of many mounted sol
diers stretched all over the roads The sol
diers were hunting for John Wilkes Booth
| It was thought that, after the great crime
in Washington. he might have made for bf.
old home. But Of course their quest was IL
| vain.
ut seemed strange to come upon the ole
! home and relics of so brilliant, storu1-des
tined and fate-fung family as the Booth.
| amid the quiet. pastoral. almost dreamfu
surroundings of old Fountain Green in Har
4 ,x~v