gave the message with which he had been charged. Eagerly the distracted manager seized upon the substitute, hurried him into the garments of the part, and without making any explanation to the audience, sent him on in his father's place. Naturally, the crowd which had turned out to see a famous tragedian in his most characteristic rôle were disappointed at the substitution of a stripling and showed it, but soon perceiving who was playing in old Booth's place, they became considerate and appreciative — and at the end of the play Edwin was called out amid hearty applause. Whether the elder Booth, who had meanwhile taken a place in the auditorium to witness the outcome of the experiment to which he had capriciously subjected his son, was more pleased or pained at this result, does not appear.

In California, where young Booth soon found himself and where the news of his father's sudden death was brought to him in 1852, all the vicissitudes of a pioneer actor in a new country were cheerfully undergone. Once the company came very near starving, and many of them had to trudge back to the nearest town through the deep snow. On another occasion Booth was obliged to travel from place to place on horseback, followed by wagons containing the stage properties and the other members of the company.

Junius Booth, Edwin's brother, was acting as stage manager of this little group of Thespians, and he had the enterprise to take a San Francisco hall and announce Edwin in a series of the great characters of the English

drama. Most of these characters were familiar to the young actor from reading and from watching his father act; the kindness of the press in reviewing him in these rôles encouraged him to undertake a few parts which he had not seen so often and so did not know so well. One of these characters was Hamlet, not at all the Hamlet of his maturity, but still an interesting and a praiseworthy performance.

Then intervened an adventurous trip to the islands of the Pacific and to Australia, where he was supported by Laura Keene. Returning to San Francisco he was offered an engagement at the Metropolitan Theatre, recently opened there by Mrs. Catherine Sinclair, with James E. Murdoch as first star. Later, Booth and this lady formed a partnership to travel; for this he was never forgiven by Forrest.

Booth now turned eastward, playing first at the Front Street Theatre, Baltimore, and then setting out for a tour of the South. Washington, Richmond, Charleston, New Orleans, Mobile, and Memphis were among the capitals which received him cordially; and in Boston, where in April, 1857, he first played Sir Giles Overreach at the Howard Athenaeum, he demonstrated conclusively that he was to be a great actor even as his father had been before him. Of course a New York success was now a foregone conclusion.

Lawrence Barrett was in the company when, on May 4, 1857, Booth, now announced as Duke of Gloster, made his bow at the Metropolitan Theatre. He describes the star of this occasion as "a slight, pale youth, with black,

flowing hair, soft brown eyes full of tenderness and gentle timidity, and a manner mixed with shyness and quiet repose." It had been very distressing to Booth to find that he had been heralded in the papers and on the New York billboards as the "Hope of the Living Drama; " yet it was precisely this, in very truth, that he proved himself to be. For Forrest was just beginning to lose his grasp upon the sceptre which he had wielded so long, the elder Wallack was now playing his farewell engagements, and Davenport was spending his fine energies in parts not of the first rank. Thus there was a place ready and waiting for a man of strong and original power. Booth was recognized as that man.

Having now definitely "arrived," Booth could afford the luxury of a wife and the happiness of a home. On July 7, 1860, at the New York home of Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D., he was married to Miss Mary Devlin, daughter of a Troy merchant. Mary Devlin was an exquisite creature who, though trained for the profession of music, had attained considerable success as an actress; she it was who played Juliet in New York to the Romeo of Charlotte Cushman on June 22, 1858. Shortly after her marriage to Booth, the two sailed for England, and she never again appeared on the stage.

The Booths remained in England until September, 1862, and at Fulham, London, their only daughter, Edwina (Mrs. Ignatius Grossman), was born. The object of Booth's English visit was to play his leading characters in London and the Provinces, and this he did

with considerable success; but owing to the outbreak of the Civil War, a lively dislike of "Yankees" was then prevalent in England, and this tended to hasten the actor's return to America. Moreover, Mrs. Booth's health was no longer good. Scarcely had her husband established her in their home at Dorchester, Massachusetts, and set out to fulfil his engagement at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York, when the gentle Mary he so deeply loved left him forever. The shock and sorrow of this sweet woman's death was a terrible experience for Booth; yet this very blow cured him for all time of the intermittent craze for drink which he had inherited from his erratic father. From the day his Mary died he was a changed man. Tobacco, however, he continued to use to excess, thus impairing his health.

With what nobleness of spirit Booth bore the great affliction which had come to him may be seen in a letter which he sent at this time to the Dr. Osgood who had married him, and which I am here permitted to print through the kindness of Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, daughter of that esteemed and lamented clergyman:

'Dorchester, March 7, 1863.

"REV. SAMUEL OSGOOD:

My dear Sir, In acknowledgment of your kind letter of condolence and advice I can only offer you my poor thanks.

"I was not aware, until it was too late, that you were in Boston, or I should have begged of you, who blessed us in the wedding of our hopes, a prayer on that sad day when they all withered: need I tell you how sincerely I regretted your absence?