And so he joked and smoked his way into a popularity which no stage monarch has enjoyed before or since. _Pocahontas_ ran for many weeks, and was frequently repeated for many years. The story of the sudden departure of the original Pocahontas one night without a word of warning, and the successful performance of the piece by Brougham and Walcot, with no one to play the titular part at all, is as familiar in the theatrical annals as the sadder stories of Woffington's last appearance, and the death of Palmer on the stage; and no doubt it will be remembered long after _Pocahontas_ itself, despite its cleverness, is quite forgotten. "_Columbus el Filibustero_, a New and Audaciously Original, Historico-plagiaristic, Ante-national, Pre-patriotic, and Omni-local Confusion of Circumstances. Running through Two Acts and Four Centuries," was first performed at Burton's Theatre (Broadway, opposite Bond Street, afterwards the Winter Garden) on the 31st of December, 1857; Mark Smith playing Ferdinand, Lawrence Barrett Talavera, Miss Lizzie Weston Davenport Columbia, and Mr. Brougham himself Columbus. It is a more serious production than _Pocahontas_; the satire is more subtle, and the thought more delicate. It contains no play upon words, is not filled with startling absurdities, and is pathetic rather than uproariously funny. While _Pocahontas_ inspires nothing but laughter, _Columbus_ excites sympathy, and oftentimes he has moved his audiences to the verge of tears. He is a much-abused, simple, honest old man, full of sublime ideas, and long ahead of his times. He dreams prophetic dreams, and in his visions he "sees a land Where Nature seems to frame with practised hand Her last most wondrous work. Before him rise Mountains of solid rock that rift the skies, Imperial valleys with rich verdure crowned For leagues illimitable smile around, While through them subject seas for rivers run From ice-bound tracks to where the tropic sun Breeds in the teeming ooze strange monstrous things. He sees, upswelling from exhaustless springs, Great lakes appear, upon whose surface wide The banded navies of the earth may ride. He sees tremendous cataracts emerge From cloud-aspiring heights, whose slippery verge Tremendous oceans momently roll o'er, Assaulting with unmitigated roar The stunned and shattered ear of trembling day, That, wounded, weeps in glistening tears of spray." [Illustration: JAMES LEWIS AS SYNTAX, IN "CINDERELLA AT SCHOOL."] In short, he sees so much that is beyond the comprehension of the ordinary play-goer, that for thirty years he has been left in absolute retirement in that Forrest Home for good old plays which is styled _French's Minor Drama_.