Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-20

NDAY MAGAZINE FOR SEPTEMBER 20. Il
Beverdge had hand in blowing almost every
field around that place thirty-odd years ago. But
from the beginning ne haa one ne on bo De
railroad worker logger, and teamster, and while
he was at high school, he kept this constantly
before him. Then misfortune overwhelmed his
family and he glad to take the competitive
examination for appointment to the United States
Military Academy. 1t boys joke, it is said,
which at critical moment made Beverdge laugh,
and SO lost him this appointment by the fraction of
per cent. that prevented him from becoming
cadet and gave him an opportunity to prepare
himself for public life When told OF his failure
to win the appointment, he standing in the
street, and the bitter disappointment OF defeat
showed SO plainly in his face that man who knew
him stopped to ask what was the matter when
told his questioner volunteered to lend him enough
money to start in at college, and made good his
promise. Beverage went through what is now De
PAW University, Indiana, with flying coors, though
he had to turn his hand to many things to earn the
money for his tuition.
Beverage probably would have gone ahead in
almost any of the occupations that crcum-
stance forced him, from time to time, to take up
He seems to be of many capacities. 1t is
not thus with most men. So in those careers OF
to which chance gave start or least impetus,
the factors of inheritance, character, temperament
training, environment, never negligible, are seen to
be dominant. In many such cases the measure OF
success achieved could scarcely have been dupl-
Gated in another field of endeavor.
Accident and the Stage
TOHN McCULLOUGHS choice of the stage was
, largely due to accident, though as developments
Indicated it was for the stage that Nature had in
tended him. When he to America from Ire
land in 1S47 he could not write his name and was
apprenticed to an uncle in Philadelphia who
chairmaker by trade Near to McCu1oughs bench
was that of stagestruck workman, and Mccullough,
CHANGING to overhear of this workman's decama-
tons, was struck with wonder. Then curiosity to
learn more of the thing for himself awoke within
him.
He taught himself to read, soon began to study
Shakespeare, and joined dramatic club In
Street Theater in Philadelphia and, before his mind
gave way twentySeven years later, and 1t was neceS
sary to confne him in asylum, he had gained
rank of the most powerful and versatile of
While Edward H. Sothern, unlike Mccullough,
inherited his fitness for the stage it the force of
circumstances beyond parental control that started
him as an actor When boy he made fairly good
sketches of animals, his father, Edward A Sothern
exclaimed with joy, Heaven be thanked! The lad
need not be actor!" But young Sothern s talent
as painter did not develop, and when chance and
his own persistence made small place for him in
one of his fathers plays, he did his best. 1t
very bad best; he had only one line to say and to-
tally forgot that at the critical moment But this
failure in sense, was his making. 1t aroused his
fathers pride; he determined that his should
not prove dscredit to the family, and bent all his
skill and energy to helping the young
Like Sothern another of the most brilliant actors
owed a debt to what is called chance and, like
Sothern it said to have been against the wish of
his parents that he made his entrance the stage
In his early days Richard Mansfield endeavored to
earn his living and to gain distinction painter in
London. He failed By almost actual want he
driven to do turn In a music hall. Some OF his
first attempts the stage were failures and, though
soon he began to make his way as comedian, it was
a chapter of accidents that enabled him to achieve
his first great triumph AT the time Mansfield was
PLAYING a role in 1" Iolanthe" at Baltimore and
twisted his ankle while dancing Barred from par
ticipaton in the comic opera he went to New York,