p. 94

23.
A dandy was then called a maccaroni--a term
used by Sheridan in "The School for Scandal."

The actors' diversions during their sojourn at
New York were various. Not having to act
more than twice or thrice a week and being
never pressed with study they had a great
deal of leisure. On such occasions they would
hunt and fish on Long Island or the other
numerous sporting resorts with which the
vicinity of Manhattan Island abounds ; and in
the winter season they would skate on the fresh
water ponds up the Bowery and with which the
now upper part of that city then abounded.
There is no skating in those parts now "my
masters." No doubt some modern theatre
circus hotel or church covers those once aqueous
spots.

It was on the 21st of November 1785 that the
New York theatre was opened in due form
under the management of Hallam & Henry the
performers being associated under the cognomen
of "The Old American Company"--a name that
subsequently bore a talismanic power in theatri-
cal affairs and inspired a reverence for those
who had been associated with it individually
and collectively. It may not prove uninterest-
ing to our readers to subjoin a sketch of the dif-
ferent members who composed this early stock
corps. It is made up principally from traditional
report and the brief notes that I have on the
subject.

Let us begin with the so-called Father of the
American Stage Mr. Lewis Hallam. He was a
very excellent general actor in tragedy and
comedy. His forte however might be deemed
high comedy albeit his delineations were of
the rather formal school of the day and like
the costume then worn stiff and prim. His
Ranger Marplot and characters of that kind
were clever. He was very piquant in the de-
livery of prologues and epilogues which were
then indispensable adjuncts or exponents of the
play. They constituted the grace before and
the thanks after a dramatic banquet. As a
pantomimist Hallam was au fait. He displayed
much activity and grace as a ground harlequin.
The modes of then executing that agile parti-
colored cavalier's movements are now entirely
obsolete and unpracticed by the modern repre-
sentative of his antics. The style of the mime
has changed as well as that of the actor in
dialogue ; of the opera artiste in the modulations
of the voice ; and of the ballet dancer ; all have
been subjected to great modifications in ac-
cordance with varying taste. I remember old
Mr. Hallam as very active in mind and body to
a very advanced age. He was a various and
an elegant actor and enjoyed the distinction of
being the first youthful star of the American
stage ; but his brilliant rays were soon doomed
to be eclipsed by the powerful variety of Hodg-
kinson's greater genius.

Mr. John Henry was an inimitable Sir Peter
Teazle or was so deemed by the audiences of
that day. He was a highly polished gentleman
and a most finished actor in the role of hig-
toned Irishmen. His Major O'Flaherty was con-
sidered an admirable specimen of that charac-
ter. He was also truly excellent in Patrick in
"The Poor Soldier." He gave the old ballads

in that character with much effect and applause.
It is fair to say that opinions in relation to this
gentleman greatly differed. I have given those
of his admirers. Some persons assigned to m
the position of a fair actor and a capital singer.
He had a splendid figure and a face which helped
him wonderfully. Hallam used to say that
"Henry was a splendid amateur actor" and
left him (Hallam) to do all the stage manage-
ment. Henry had made his debut in London
under the auspices of the elder Sheridan the
father of Richard Brinsly Sheridan and the
on dit was that in that attempt he had failed.
The failing of an actor at London was no certain
criterion of his quality. Mrs. Siddons failed
there and many others who subsequently be-
came favorites.

Mr. Harper was a sound and useful actor in
a range of parts from Charles Surface to the fa-
cetious Falstaff and Puff. In the middle walks
of tragedy and as a sentimental father he
acquitted himself respectably although such
delineations were not in his proper line. When
he was advanced in life he yet retained a large
share of his native humor. He possessed much
dignity of person.

Mr. Thomas Wignell was gifted with a great
variety of talent yet it may be said that his
personations were of limited power. How-
ever his contemporaries qualified their praises
of his merits he stood unrivalled in broad
comedy for several years in the United States
being a great favorite in his various roles. He
was ever chastely observant in not "o'erstepping
the modesty of nature" in his comic delineations.
His Josep Surface and Darby were deemed
models of acting by judicious audiences the
only mode of testing such mooted points where
a difference of opinion exists. His amenity of
manners rendered him on or off the stage as a
manager or as a benevolent man popular
universally beloved and respected. His efforts
in establishing the first Chesnut street theatre
in a style of completeness that made it a twin
Drury Lane in compression only as to size of
structure will be more fully noticed hereafter.
In talent and organization the old Chesnut was
equal to its English model. The enterprize was
carried out with a style of success at that early
day that should garner the name of Wignell as
an heir-loom in the theatrical household to be
forever reverenced by the professin as a memory
of one of the first founders on a durable basis
of the American stage. His remains lie in St.
Peter's churchyard without a single stone to
mark his last resting place. It was at one
time determined by his immediate friends and
the members of his company to have erected a
monument to his memory ; but like most worldly
matters projected by the generous hearts of
actors the design was not accomplished. This
result was mainly owing to the untoward vicis-
situdes that seem to attend a theatrical career--
the consequence probably of the migratory
habits of the profession which often defeat their
best wishes for god.

"Old Mr. Morris"--for so he was always
designated and acknowledged during his pro-
fessional life in America--was considered one of
the fathers of the American stage. It is said

that he sustained the serious fathers and friends
very cleverly. But one notes bear out the as-
sertion that his versatility extended with excel-
lence to the humorous and eccentric old men as
Sir Francis Gripe etc. In his pristine days he
was called a clever actor of the old school of
London. It is said that he was excellent in
smart parts as Lissardo Snap Sharp etc. but
this we are not inclined to credit. In his latter
days after he had retired from the stage at a
very advanced age he might be seen every
fine morning in old-fashioned habiliments
with a crutched ivory-headed cane in hand
taking his walks through the winding avenues
of our old State House yard and occasionally
resting himself on the huge high-backed benches
wc were then scattered around and under
the forest trees. The yard was then enclosed by
a high parti-colored brick wall. I never enter
this time-honored enclosure consecrated to
"Virtue Liberty and Independence" by our fore-
fathers but I think that I see the bent form of
Old Morris as I did in my boyhood busy in his
aged shuffling gait taking exercise and snuff.
All the historical associations of the place flash
vividly o'er my thoughts bringing before my
"mind's eye" the statemen leaders and sages of
our revolution like the peripatetics of old Greece
receiving the lectures of Aristotle and again
disseminating their sentiments among the peo-
ple. Imagination may easily picture the leading
spirits of the old Congress walking or discuss-
ing in groups under the foliage of the venerable
trees the exciting events of the day that made
us a nation. This enclosure should ever be held
by our citizens as the hallowed shrine of Ame-
rican liberty--as the academic grove of the
patriotic men who gave that priceless boon to
mankind--the Declaration of Independence !--
theeee mot of the Constitution of the Union. May
the old State House and its grounds remain to
the latest posterity untouched unpolluted and
in all its primitive state as a simple monument
of our origin and institutions so that future
generations of freemen shall have the gratifying
opportunity of performing a pilgrimage to the
first political representative temple and grove
ever instituted by Americans for the religious
and social toleration of free opinion.

It would be in good taste and commendable
patriotism to dot the grounds with sculptured
cenotaphs graved with appropriate inscriptions
surmounted with statues of each signer of the
great Declaration--or to erect a temple of co-
lossal proportions under whose "cloud-cap'd"
dome the effigies of those patriots might be
placed. At all events the original features of
the grounds and old edifice should be preserved
as much as circumstances will permit. This
truly sacred spot should be immortalized by a
national monument. These were my views in
1848 when the paragraph above was written.
I suggested the same idea to General George M.
Keim then the United States Marshal. Since
that time Mr. Waterman's resolution for the In-
dependence Monument has been sanctioned by
Councils and by several of the States of the
Union. May the classic and patriotic memorial
soon rise in ststely majesty.