The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-17

With the features as clean and clear cut as a boy of 21, with hair as white as the driven snow, with voice of ex- qusite, vibrant quality, and 75 years to his credit Mr. James Henry Lewis, who is playing at the Bijou this week Gin the clever dramatization of Harold McGrath' s novel, "The Goose Girl,'') the role of Hans Grunbach, is as delightful and charming raconteur as you would find anywhere.
 An actor of the ''old school" polished, elegant, beautifully educated, and as young in his ideas and thoughts as the youngest actor on the stage today, MT. Lewis has the charm in his "reminiscences of transporting one to other and better days-days when 'They Were Actors Then-with all the grace that REAL acting carries with it-when Forrest and the elder Booth. when Barret and John Mccullough "trod the boards''-in days, now gone and dead these many years.
 Tn 1856 at the National Theatre" said MT. Lewis as he began his story, 'I made my first appearance as an actor. 'CO@N merely small part. Junus Brutus Booth, the younger was then a manager and so my first utilization with stage life came about with the Booth family. The elder Booth, I afterwards played with, and such a man was he. He loved his drink, and many is the time that I have seen him pay his last dollar for one quaff of the cup. I've seen him in the great est role he ever played Richard III-come on the stage in half drunken frenzy. He wasn't a great swordsman and oppo- site him played MT. Golden-'Billy,' we called him, who essayed the part of Rich mond'-a bad actor was he, but a good swordsman. On Bosworth Field they met, and Booths passions and emotions stirred by drink to almost the point of fury, would urge him to charge upon Richmond and fight him to the last, his blood boiling and his emotions playing fast and wild with the excitement of the hcur-and of wine."
 ''In those days" MT. Lewis continued after a pause, "an actor had to be more than an actor. He had to be tinker and tailor, scene painter and costume maker; he might be called upon in a moment, to turn sack coat into a Directoire-a haw- buck into surtout. There was no special izing. The elder Booth was a past grand master of every art in his day, which was the day of stock company by Early in the '4O's and '5O's-even as far in your southern territory as Augusta, the play was the thing, given by Stock Cornpa- intestine great Rachel, Rstori, McCready, Forrest and the elder Booth appearing in repertoire. There were no matinees thcn-in fact until 1867 when the Matinee became a feature of Biblo's Garden, New York; only evening performances were given. The curtain ringing up at 7:30. At 6:30 do recall, the hour was sometime set"
 After playing with the elder Booth, '' MT. Lewis continued, 't was my privi- lege to become identified with Edwin Forrest Booth-whom many regard as the greatest actor that has ever been on the American stage. By the way, he dropped his middle name-whch was given him in honor of the great Forrest, and while Ed win Booth was great actor, there were a few better than John Wilkes Booth. Only the fact that he was a love crazed fool led to his undoing, and drove him to his fearful end. Well might he be ac-