We sometimes speak and often hear of an instantaneous success, but in reality there is no such thing as success or failure being immediate. Every real achievement is the culmination of weeks and months, and even years, of earnest and unremitting toil. The popular actor and well-known author, William Hooker Gillette, furnishes a case in point. The structure of his reputation bids fair to last indefinitely, but it rests on foundations of preparatory work of which the public knows but little. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, July 24, 1855, being the son of Francis G. (late United States senator from Connecticut), and Elizabeth Daggett (Hooker) Gillette. Graduating from the Hartford high school at the age of twenty, he afterward attended the New York university for two years. From a lad he had given evidence of his love for the stage. While at the university he obtained a minor position in one of the theaters. In 1876, becoming a student in the Boston university, he followed the same plan of studying by day and playing in small parts at night. In this way he made himself thoroughly acquainted with the “business” of the stage, as well as the first principles of acting. Mr. Gillette made his first palpable hit in the title rôle of A Private Secretary by playing a part which required a particular delicacy of treatment. NATHANIEL C. GOODWIN. Even as a schoolboy the famous comedian, Nat. C. Goodwin, by his clever imitations of leading actors, displayed signs of his future greatness. He was born in Boston, July 25, 1857, and educated in the public schools of that city. His parents intended that he should follow a commercial career, but he early decided for the stage as against a business life. His mirth-provoking powers were finally recognized by Stuart Robson, who engaged young Goodwin at a salary of $5 a week to play the part of the Bootblack, in Law in New York. Mr. Goodwin’s reputation was quickly established, and the next season he contracted with Josh Hart to appear in the Eagle theater in New York city, at a salary of $150 a week. In 1876 he played Captain Dietrich in Evangeline, and three years later entered upon his career as a star, a practically unbroken line of successes having followed both here and abroad, for when, in 1890, he filled a long engagement in London, he was received with every manifestation of approval. Mr. Goodwin has been married three times, the last wife being Maxine Elliott. JAMES KETELTAS HACKETT.