Nat Goodwin's BookGoodwin, Nat. C. (Nathaniel Carll)
General
Nat Goodwin's Book
Goodwin, Nat. C. (Nathaniel Carll)
Actors -- Correspondence
Barry was chided by one of his friends for not going to see Sothern's
"Hamlet" which he was playing for the first time at the Garden Theatre
with mediocre success.
"Why don't you go and witness a performance?" asked a friend. "Go and
sit out only one act."
Barrymore replied, "My boy, I never encourage vice."
Dear old Frank Mayo who was passionately fond of argument, after
exchanging the usual greetings with Barrymore one afternoon, soon
became engaged in a very heated controversy. Mayo would project an idea
and before Barrymore could get breath enough to answer would spring
another. Mayo had put several vital questions to Barry to his own
entire satisfaction and answered them with equal satisfaction before
Barry had a chance even to offer a reply.
"My dear Barry," said Mayo; "it is a pleasure indeed to meet a man of
your calibre--to interchange thoughts and ideas with one so brilliantly
gifted as yourself."
"How do you know anything about my mental capacity?" asked Barry. "I
never get any further with you than 'Yes, but'!"
Barry went home late, or rather early, one Sunday morning after a long
session at the club. He met his wife on the stoop of their dwelling.
She evidently was on her way to church. As Barry said afterwards, "She
was made up for the part perfectly and had a prompt book with her."
She simply bowed haughtily and was about to pass on when he apologized
for being away all night, finishing with, "Oh, by the way, Georgie,
dear, I was with Geoff Hawley last evening." "Indeed," said his wife,
"I thought Hawley was a man!" This was a body blow to Barry but he
took his punishment smilingly and as she disappeared down the steps
shouted after her, "Where are you bound for, dearie?" To which, without
turning, she replied, "I'm going to mass; you can go to ----!"
"Summer isn't as bad as it is painted," remarked Barrymore as he
calmly contemplated a landscape picture, painted by Joseph Jefferson,
hanging on the walls of the Lambs Club. This criticism came from one
who knew whereof he spoke concerning the climatic conditions of the
Rialto during the hot months when the thespian is prone to talk about
the summer's adversity. Barrymore was equally conversant with the
value of paintings. His remark fell like a bomb among the sycophants
who were ever ready to praise even a chromo were it oiled over by the
illustrious player they were pleased to call "The Dean of the Drama."
The adulation paid to Jefferson's landscape was but a reflex of the
homage paid to this player by all those not "in the know."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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