p. 151

160.
Hibernian hair-dresser and old Jonas. But the
stocking could not be found. Lopez the prompt-
er called incessantly "Mr. Duff are you
ready ? Everybody is changed and down on
the stage. Scene set. The band rung in. All
ready to begin sir. Only waiting for you to
ring up. Mr. Duff the curtain has been down
an hour ; make haste. The audience are
impatient and making all sorts of noises.
Mr. Wood is highly impatient" &c. &c. In
this exigency one of the attendants was dis-
patched to purchase a pair of stockings at the
nearest store. They were all closed. The he
sent home for another pair about six squares.
The messenger returned bringing a white pair
which did not harmonize with black small-
clothes. Here was another dilemma. White
and black colors would have made the bon ton
costume of Jerry more cockney and ludicrous
than that of Jemmy Green. At length after
the row scene had been nearly transferred to
the audience who in such cases are apt pupils
and sympathizers in passing events a pair of
stocking of sable hue was got ; and in drawing
off the original stocking to draw on the new
pair lo! and behold ! the missing one came off
with the other. So that it would seem the two
original stocking were put on one leg at the
same time. Who executed this feat nobody
knows but the honors were divided between
O'Shaugnessey Jonas and Patrick the call-
boy. Perhaps Duff himself had a finger in the
pie. The Irishman and the Jew both im-
puted it to Duff's interesting anacdote of the
Rev. Paddy Wilson a burly preacher who used
to hold forth in Providence Rhose Island
which he was telling while the stocking was
being put on.

The Rev. Mr. Wilson was a fat luxurious
divine who was fond of ease and comfort in
the progress of his vocation and was even upon
the alert to press into the service of the church
any itinerant preacher of his persuasion who
might be passing his way so that his pastoral
duties might be lightened and his congregation
enlightened. On one occasion a preacher of
some fame traveling down east to the south
passed through Providence and paid his re-
spects to our worthy Falstaff parson. Paddy
Wilson pressed the missionary of good to de-
liver a discourse to his flock which invitation
was duly accepted. The Rev. Mr. Wilson in-
troduced him on the amsuing Sunday to the
congregation in a few appropriate flourishes as
an eloquent divine with whom they would be
delighted. The stranger then preached to them
a sermon of surpassing excellence which ob-
viously made a powerful impression on his
hearers and was far better than anything which
Paddy Wilson had furnished. When he finished
he was taking his seat aside of the Rev. Paddy
Wilson saying to him---

"Now sir you may finish the services of the
day yourself."

"By no means sir" replied the Rev. Paddy
Wilson ; "you have made a most sensible im-
pression upon your hearers. I see it in their
faces. It would be presumption in me to offici-
ate. I can tell you that hey would be de-

lighted if you would conclude the services
of the morning notwithstanding their un-
doubted partiality for me. See! see! sir they
are anxiously looking to you. Do sir finish ;
it will be the making of you."

"But my dear sir won't they deem it tres-
passing upon your rights ?" said the stranger.

"Oh no it is a rule with me and they are
ever prepared for it. I'll give them a gentle
hint of it in order to save your feelings."

The Rev. Paddy Wilson then arose with his
usual self-complacemcy and clerical benignity
and said :

"My beloved brethren I need not here de-
clare to ye what is so clearly depicted in your
beaming countenances which evince so emi-
nently the pleasure the delight that my reve-
rend pious brother has excited in your hearts
through his powerful exposition of the gospel
enforced with an eloquence that it has never
been my lot to have hitherto heard. Moses de-
puted the pious Joshua to yield his ministerial
duties and in consonance with that great and
good virtuous law-giver I now appoint this
brother to perform the remaining ceremonies of
the day."

The brother then arose and finished the cre-
monies.

"There I told ye how it would be" said
Paddy "they are in ecstacies with ye. Come
home with me and dine ; I have some excellent
viands and a drop of the best brown Sherry ; it
will refresh and strengthen ye for the evening
services which I request you will perform for
me. My parishioners will expect it and it will
make your fortune."

Duff had become at an early day imbued with
agricultural notions purchased books on the
subject and indeed seemed quite familiar with
that first of all earthly pursuits which con-
duces to more real content virtue and indepen-
dence than does any other vocation. If all
mankind were agriculturists their happiness
would be more permanent. It would prove a
stronger guarantee to the perpetuation of our
institutions. When a people have a little land
of their own and are their own liego lords they
will be content with their government and all
things else.

It was Duff's desire to have realized a suffi-
ciency by his professional labors to have pur-
chased a snug little homestead ; and eventually
to have retired to it from the stage. This the
first and last aspiration of his heart was never
by him to be accomplished. The early afflic-
tion of the gout many years previous to his
death rendered him beridden and useless with
a broken heart the result of his untoward fate.
He thus died in the prime of life. Most of his
children embraced the theatrical profession---a
business he was most anxious they should not
adopt ; not from any inherent objection to it as
leading to wrong principles and immorality---on
the contrary he thought its influences had an
opposite tendency---but from its precariousness
and the unfounded unconquerable prejudices
that society absurdly and we say wickedly enter-
tain against it.

But a wayward destiny awaits most men. All
his fond wishes were frustrated. He educated

his children in the country in Connecticut far
from cities where they might imbibe opposite
ideas where no latent feeling or taste could be
nourished for the drama. But when the elec-
tion fell upon themselves for choice of business
they nearly all at once as if by an instinctive
impulse took the profession so strenuously
opposed by their father.

Mr. Duff had a little garden in the suburbs of
Baltimore where he indulged in a kind of ama-
teur gardening. We occasionally called to see
him in this retired spot where we were always
received and treated by the family in the most
hospitable manner. We found him one day in
his patch of a garden raking a well-ordered
bed. After he had finished his work that eve-
ning he said :

"My friend I have done all I can and"---point-
ing up with his finger---"I leave the rest to Him!"

We simply record this trifle not as a circum-
stance of any moment to our readers but as in-
dicative of the man's mind as an anecdote of
the poor traduced player "whose profession
perverts the head and heart" according to the
fanatic and zealot.

CHAPTER LXXV.
American plays produced in Philadelphia between 1749
and 1821---Description of the new Chesnut street theatre
erected in 1822---Nmes of the company---Reflections---
Conclusion.

Mr. Dunlap in his History of the American
Stage has fallen into the strange error that the
first original American play ever performed was
"The Contrast" by Royal Tyler played at New
York in 1789. He gives Philadelphia the credit
of having produced the first drama which was
printed in the United States but he did not know
that the same piece was acted at the South
street theatre twenty-four years before "The
Contrast" was written. Nor is this all. Ano-
ther American play "The Conquest of Cana-
da" was acted in this city in 1773 sixteen years
before "Thr Contrast." In order to correct
these errors and to produce a complete list of
American pieces brought out in this city we
have collated from our previous chapters the fol-
lowing catalogue. We may say that some of the
local pantomimes or patriotic sketches were
adaptations of old English pieces made to suit
some holiday contingency or occasion of ex-
citement new language being introduced the
pieces being new constructions on old founda-
tions.

AMERICAN PLAYS PRODUCED IN PHILADELPHIA PRIOR
TO 1822.

The Prince of Parthia. A tragedy. South street the-
atre. April 24, 1767. By Thomas Godrey.

The Conquest of Canada or the Siege of Quebec. A
tragedy. South street theatre. February 17, 1773.

Robinson Crusoe or the Genius of Columbia. A pan-
tomime. South street theatre. 190. An adaptation of
an English piece.

The Father or American Shandyism. A comedy. South
street theatre. January 26, 1791. By William Dunlap.

The Recess or the Masked Apparition. A comedy.
South street theatre. April 25, 1791. By a citizen of Phi-
ladelphia.

The Widow of Malabar or the Tyranny of Custom. A
tragedy. South street theatre. February 9, 1791. By
David Humphries.

Constitutional Follies. A comedy. South street thea-
tre. 1791. By J. Robinson.

The Broom or A New Way of Rubbing Off the Rust of
Care. An interlude. Northern Liberty theatre. July
25, 1791. By Kenna.

The Yorker's Stratagem or Banana's Wedding. A farce.
South street theatre. 1792. By J. Robinson.

Slaves in Algiers. A comedy. Chesnut street theatre.
1794. By Mrs. C. Rowson.

The Embargo or Every Man Has His Opinion. A farce.
Chesnut street theatre. 1794. By a citizen of Philad'a.