American Men of Mind Part 11

Ada Rehan's name was closely a.s.sociated for many years with that of John Drew, also a member of the Daly company, and a son of the famous "Mr.

and Mrs. John Drew," two of the most versatile, charming and popular members of the old school. The elder John Drew was born in Ireland in 1825, but came to America at the age of twenty and spent the remainder of his life here, except for a few absences on tour. He was considered the best Irish comedian on the American stage. His wife, born in London in 1820 of a theatrical family, appeared in child's parts at the age of eight, came to this country at the age of twenty, and made a great success here in high comedy parts. Their son can scarcely be said to have fulfilled the promise of his early years, but seems to be content with an achievement which shows him to be an accomplished and finished, but by no means inspired or imaginative, actor.

Another family as celebrated in American theatrical annals as that of John Drew was E. L. Davenport's. Davenport himself had received his training in the old stock companies, and notably as Junius Brutus Booth's support in a number of plays. He was equally at home in tragedy and comedy. a.s.sociated with him after their marriage in 1849 was his wife, f.a.n.n.y Elizabeth Vining, an actress of considerable ability.

No less than six of their children followed the stage as a career. The most famous of them was f.a.n.n.y Davenport, whose stage career began when she was a mere baby. Her young girlhood was occupied with soubrette parts, but she soon developed unusual emotional powers, and attracted Augustin Daly's notice. He added her to his stock company in 1869, and she soon won a notable success in such parts as Lady Gay Spanker, Lady Teazle and Rosalind.

Perhaps no American actor ever had a more remarkable career than William Warren. Born in 1812, the son of a player of considerable reputation, his first appearance was at the age of twenty. For twelve years his history was that of most other struggling actors, but in 1846 he became connected with the Howard Athenaeum at Boston, where he remained for thirty-five years, retiring permanently from the stage in 1882.

During his career, he had given 13,345 performances and had appeared in 577 characters, a record which has probably never been approached. He was especially notable in his representations of the "fine old English gentleman," and he became to Boston a sort of Conservatory of Acting in himself. That he was appreciated both as man and artist his long residence in Boston proves.

He was a cousin of one of the best loved actors who ever trod the American stage--Joseph Jefferson; but their careers were very different, for Jefferson, in the last quarter century of his life confined himself to a few parts--practically to four, Bob Acres, Rip Van Winkle, Dr.

Pangloss and Cabel Plummer. In these he was inimitable. Something is gained and lost, of course, by either of these methods; one is inclined to think the wiser plan, that making for the greatest achievement, is a wide diversity of parts, and constant creation of new ones. And yet, when one looks back upon Jefferson's delicate and cameo-clear impersonations, one would not have him different.

Joseph Jefferson was the third of his name to challenge American theatre-goers. His grandfather, born in England, in 1774, came to America twenty-three years later and spent the remainder of his life here, gaining some reputation as a comedian. His father is said to have had little ability, and to have been careless and improvident. The third of the name was born in Philadelphia in 1829, and began his stage career at the age of three, appearing as the child in "Pizarro," which must have frightened him nearly to death.

His father died when he was only fourteen, and the lad joined a company of strolling players, who made their way through Texas, and during the war with Mexico, followed the American army into Mexican territory.

American drama was in no great demand, so at Matamoras Jefferson opened a stall for the sale of coffee and other refreshments, making enough money to get back to the United States.

For the next ten years he appeared in stock companies in the larger eastern cities, meeting such players as Edwin Forrest, James E. Murdoch, and Edwin Adams; but the one who influenced him most was his own half-brother, Charles Burke, an unusually accomplished serio-comic.

William Warren also ranked high in his affections.

The turning point of his career came in 1857 when he became a.s.sociated with Laura Keene at her theatre in New York. Here his first part was one with which he was afterwards so closely identified, that of Dr.

Pangloss, and then came "Our American Cousin," in which he gained a notable success as Asa Trenchard, and in which Edward A. Sothern laid the foundation of the fantastic character of Lord Dundreary, which was to make him famous. A year later, he created another of his great characters, Caleb Plummer, in "The Cricket on the Hearth," and soon afterwards, the most famous of all, Rip Van Winkle, which remained to the end his supreme impersonation.

After that time, his career was a golden and happy one. He won the affection of the American public as perhaps no recent player has ever done. His art had a peculiarly wide appeal because it was fine and sweet; he won sympathy and inspired affection; and seemed the very embodiment of the tender, artless and lovable characters it was his joy to represent.

Jefferson's death marked the pa.s.sing of the last of the "old school"--that mellow, fluent, and accomplished circle of players who seem so different to their successors. But public taste is different too. We care no longer for the rantings and heroics of Virginius and Spartacus and all the rest of those toga-clothed gentlemen who differed from each other only in their names. We demand something more subtle, more--yes, let us say it!--intellectual. The modern who came nearest to answering this demand, to showing us the complex thing which we know human nature to be, was Richard Mansfield. A great artist, whom no difficulty appalled, he gave the American public, season after season, the most significant procession of worthy dramas that one man ever produced.

Mansfield was born in Heligoland in 1857, and studied for the East Indian civil service, but came to Boston and opened a studio, studied art, and then suddenly abandoned it for the stage. Curiously enough, he began with small parts in comic opera, and a few years later, made one of the funniest Kokos who ever appeared in "The Mikado." But he soon changed to straight drama, and the first great success of his career was as Baron Chevrial in "A Parisian Romance," a part which was given him after other actors had refused to take it, and in which he created a real sensation. His reputation was secure after that, and grew steadily until the swift and complete collapse from over-work, which ended his life at the age of fifty-one.

Are there any great players alive in America to-day? E. H. Sothern, perhaps, comes nearest to greatness, and has at least won respectful attention by a sincerity and earnestness which have accomplished much.

He is the son of Edward Askew Sothern, whose career was a most peculiar one. Intended for the ministry, he chose the stage instead, apparently with no talent for it, and for six or seven years, only the most unimportant of minor parts were entrusted to him.

One of these was that of Lord Dundreary in "Our American Cousin." It consisted of only a few lines and Sothern accepted it under protest, but he made such a hit in it that it was amplified and became the princ.i.p.al part of the play. In fact, the play became, in the end, a series of monologues for Dundreary. It had some remarkable runs, one, for instance, in London, for four hundred and ninety-six consecutive nights.

Sothern continued playing the part until his death. His son is undoubtedly a far greater actor, and may achieve a high and lasting fame.

a.s.sociated with him in many of his later and more ambitious productions has been Julia Marlowe, undoubtedly the most finished and accomplished actress in America. She had a thorough training, having been on the stage since her twelfth year, and devoting herself closely to the study of her art. Her sincerity, too, promises much for the future. After Sothern, Otis Skinner is perhaps the most noteworthy, and after him, well, anyone of a dozen, whom it is needless to name here.

It was Joseph Jefferson who remarked that "all the good actors are dead." He meant, of course, that the present seems always of little worth when compared with the past; and this is the case not only with the theatre, but in some degree with all the arts. It is especially true of the theatre, however, because the player lives only in the memories of those who saw him, and memory sees things, as it were, through a golden glow.

SUMMARY

BOOTH, JUNIUS BRUTUS. Born at London, May 1, 1796; first appearance, 1813; came to America, 1821; died on a Mississippi steamboat, November 30, 1852.

BOOTH, EDWIN. Born at Bel Air, Maryland, November 13, 1833; first appearance, 1849; first appearance as "star," as Sir Giles Overreach, 1857; played under management of Lawrence Barrett, 1886-91, in "Hamlet"; founded "The Players' Club," 1888; died at its club-house, in New York City, June 7, 1893.

FORREST, EDWIN. Born at Philadelphia, March 9, 1806; first appearance, 1820; first notable success as Oth.e.l.lo, 1826; last appearance in March, 1871; died at Philadelphia, December 12, 1872.

CUSHMAN, CHARLOTTE. Born at Boston, July 23, 1816; first appearance, 1835; played with Macready, 1842-44; in London, 1844-48; died at Boston, February 8, 1876.

FLORENCE, WILLIAM JAMES. Born at Albany, New York, July 26, 1831; first appearance, 1849; died at Philadelphia, November 19, 1891.

MCCULLOUGH, JOHN. Born at Coleraine, Ireland, November 2, 1837; came to America, 1853; first appearance, 1855; broke down mentally and physically, 1884; died in insane asylum at Philadelphia, November 8, 1885.

BARRETT, LAWRENCE. Born at Paterson, New Jersey, April 4, 1838; first appearance, 1853; enlisted in 28th Ma.s.sachusetts Volunteers, 1861; from 1887 until his death closely a.s.sociated with Edwin Booth; died at New York City, March 21, 1891.

MORRIS, CLARA. Born at Toronto, Canada, 1849; first appearance, 1861; leading lady, 1869; joined Daly's company, 1870; married Frederick C.

Harriott, 1874.

MODJESKA, HELENA. Born at Cracow, Poland, October 12, 1844; first appearance, 1861; first appearance in English at San Francisco, 1877; died in California, April 8, 1909.

ANDERSON, MARY. Born at Sacramento, California, July 28, 1859; first appearance, 1875; married Antonio de Navarro, 1889, and retired from the stage.

REHAN, ADA. Born at Limerick, Ireland, April 22, 1860; came to America in childhood; first appearance, 1874; joined Daly's company, 1879; leading lady there until his death in 1899.

DREW, JOHN. Born at Philadelphia, in 1853; first appearance, 1873; leading man in Daly's company, 1879-99.

DREW, JOHN, SR. Born at Dublin, Ireland, September 3, 1825; first appearance in New York, 1845; died at Philadelphia, May 21, 1862.

DREW, MRS. JOHN, SR. (LOUISA LANE). Born at London, January 10, 1820; first appearance when mere child; came to America, 1828; married John Drew, 1850; died at Larchmont, New York, August 31, 1897.

DAVENPORT, EDWARD LOOMIS. Born at Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts, November 15, 1814; first appearance, 1836; played in England, 1847-54; died at Canton, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1877.

DAVENPORT, f.a.n.n.y ELIZABETH VINING. Born at London, July 6, 1829; began playing baby parts at age of three; made first appearance, 1847, as Juliet; married E. L. Davenport, January 8, 1849; first appearance in New York, 1854.

DAVENPORT, f.a.n.n.y LILY GIPSY. Born in London, April 10, 1850; first American appearance, 1862; died at Danbury, Ma.s.sachusetts, September 26, 1898.

WARREN, WILLIAM. Born at Philadelphia, November 17, 1812; first appearance, 1832; died at Boston, September 21, 1888.

JEFFERSON, JOSEPH. Born at Philadelphia, February 20, 1829; first appearance on stage as child; first became prominent as Asa Trenchard, in "Our American Cousin," 1858; died at West Palm Beach, Florida, April 23, 1905.

SOTHERN, EDWARD ASKEW. Born at Liverpool, England, April 1, 1826; first appearance, 1849; first American appearance, 1852; made his mark as Lord Dundreary, 1858; died at London, January 20, 1881.

SOTHERN, EDWARD H. Born in London; appeared as child; first took leading part, 1887.

CHAPTER VII

SCIENTISTS AND EDUCATORS

To give even the briefest account, within the limits of a single chapter, of the lives of noteworthy American scientists and educators is, of course, quite beyond the bounds of possibility. All that can be done, even at best, is to mention a few of the greatest names and to indicate in outline the particular achievements with which they are a.s.sociated. That is all that has been attempted here. There are at least a hundred men, in addition to those mentioned in this chapter, whose work is of consequence in the development of American science and education. The record of their achievements is an inspiring one which, if properly told, would occupy many volumes.

In the annals of American science, two names stand out with peculiar l.u.s.tre--John James Audubon and Louis Aga.s.siz. Neither was, strictly speaking, American, for Aga.s.siz was born in Switzerland and did not come to this country until he was nearly forty years of age; while Audubon was born in French territory, the son of a French naval officer, and was educated in France. But the work of both men was distinctively American, for Audubon devoted his life to the study of American birds, and Aga.s.siz the latter part of his to the study and cla.s.sification of American fishes--as well as to services of the most valuable kind in the field of geology and paleontology.