“I had scarcely time to give an affirmative reply to Lee’s whispered inquiry. ‘Is that really William Cullen Bryant?’ when there ensued the most remarkable scene which I ever witnessed in my life. I cannot, even after many years have elapsed, think of it without the tears of laughter coming to my eyes. Seymour was a man over six feet in height, and with legs the length of which were absurdly out of proportion to the rest of his body. He appeared to be split up almost to his neck. One of his most famous feats upon the minstrel stage was to suddenly throw one of his feet about a man’s neck and draw the other fellow toward him. Upon this occasion Bryant, in obedience to Gaylor’s summons, had reached forth his right hand, when Seymour suddenly threw that dreadful right leg of his across the table, caught his friend and fellow-minstrel by the back of the neck, drew him toward him and hit him squarely between the eyes. In another instant both men were on top of the table amid the soup dishes, and were snarling and biting and tearing at one another like a pair of bulldogs. Cooper and Dickinson, who were not in the secret, became so alarmed that they got under the table, while I could only hold Lee in his chair by main force. In the midst of the contest the table upset and the poor Englishman was almost drowned in soup. While Bryant and Seymour were making a mockery of struggling beneath the debris, Seymour, by wetting his fingers of one hand, secured a quantity of blacking from one of his shoes, and with this gave himself the semblance of a black eye. When some appearance of order had been obtained a truce was patched up between the combatants, and, after Seymour’s blackened eye had been bandaged, they were induced to shake hands, whereupon the other members of the company, who were in the secret, exclaimed admiringly, ‘Once a gentleman, always a gentleman!’ and declared that ‘a true American gentleman can always be told by his willingness to settle a little difference amicably.’ “Lee whispered to me in tremulous indignation, ‘This is most shameful!’ to which I replied, ‘I don’t see how you say that. There was no one killed.’ Thereupon he amended his remark by saying, ‘At least, it was most unfortunate. I am dreadfully sorry it occurred.’ [Illustration: MATT. WHEELER DAVE WILSON WILL COX CLARK GIBBS HARRY W. SMITH WILL LAVAKE “Wheeler & Wilson,” “Will Cox & Gibbs,” and some “Singers”; nearly all “Domestics.” Try to play this on the machine.] * * * * *