Mr. White says further that "the next popular negro song was 'The Battle of Plattsburg,' sung by an actor vulgarly known as 'Pig-Pie Herbert,' at a theatre in Albany, in 1815"; but H. D. Stone, in a volume called _The Drama_, published in Albany in 1873, credits "a member of the theatrical company of the name of Hop Robinson" as the singer of the song; while "Sol" Smith, an eye-witness of this performance, gives still another and very different account of it. According to Smith's _Autobiography_ published by Messrs. Harper and Brothers in 1868, Andrew Jackson Allen produced at the Green Street Theatre in Albany, in 1815, a drama called _The Battle of Lake Champlain_, the action taking place on real ships floating in real water. "In this piece," says Smith, "Allen played the character of a negro, and sang a song of many verses (being the first negro song, I verily believe, ever heard on the American stage)." Two verses of this ballad, quoted by Smith "from memory," will give a very fair idea of its claims to popularity: "Backside Albany stan' Lake Champlain-- Little pond half full of water; Plat-te-burg dar too, close 'pon de main: Town small; he grow big, dough, herea'ter. "On Lake Champlain Uncle Sam set he boat, An' Massa Macdonough he sail 'em; While General Macomb make Plat-te-burg he home, Wid de army whose courage nebber fail 'em." Andrew Allen was a very quaint character, and he deserves a paragraph to himself. Born in the city of New York in 1776, he appeared, according to his own statement, as a page in _Romeo and Juliet_ at the theatre in John Street in 1786, on the strength of which, as the oldest living actor, he assumed for years before his death the title of "Father of the American Stage." He was more famous as a cook than as a player, however, and he is the subject of innumerable theatrical anecdotes, none of which are greatly to his credit. He was called "Dummy Allen" because he was very deaf and exceedingly loquacious; he adored the hero of New Orleans, whose name he appropriated when Jackson was elected President of the United States; and he was devoted to Edwin Forrest, whose costumer, dresser, and personal slave he was for many years. He invented and patented a silver leather much used in the decoration of stage dresses; and he kept a restaurant in Dean Street, Albany, and later a similar establishment near the Bowery Theatre, New York, being a very familiar figure in the streets of both cities. Mr. Phelps, in his _Players of a Century_ (Albany, New York, 1880), describes him in his later years as tall and erect in person, with firmly compressed features, an eye like a hawk's, nose slightly Romanesque, and hair mottled gray. He wore a fuzzy white hat, a coat of blue with bright brass buttons, and carried a knobby cane. He spoke in a sharp, decisive manner, often giving wrong answers, and invariably mistaking the drift of the person with whom he was conversing. He died in