[H] Madame Celeste, who came here under the name of Mademoiselle Celeste, in June, 1827, and bounded at once into the affections of young New York, claimed to be but fourteen years of age when she appeared at the Bowery, then called the American Theatre. The next year the precocious beauty became the wife of Henry Elliott, of Baltimore, but remained on the stage the only première danseuse and pantomimist in the country. After two years of immense success in our cities she returned home to Paris, then to London, and became a star on the English stage. Every few years she would make her "last appearance in America," and her farewell benefits outnumbered Miss Cushman's. Much as she played in English-speaking lands she was unable to learn the language until late in her career, and her attractions were confined to her wonderfully expressive pantomime and her exquisite dancing; she created _Mathilde_ in the "French Spy," _Miami_ in the "Green Bushes," _Fenella_ in "Masaniello," _Miriam_ in "The Woman in Red" and the _Bayadère_ in Auber's beautiful ballet-opera. [I] Charlotte Saunders Cushman, descendant of the Puritan Cushmans of Mayflower days, fought down the ill-success attending her first essay in opera, and after years of struggling as a poorly paid stock actress at the Bowery and Park Theatres, by sheer merit rose to the position of the Queen of Tragedy, and maintained it for twenty years. From 1845 to 1849, and again from 1852 to 1857, she was so recognized in England and divided the applause with Macready at the Princess's Theatre in London on her first visit. Her forcible and almost masculine manner and face prevented success in comedy, but made her _Meg Merrilies_, _Nancy Sykes_, and _Helen McGregor_, as well as _Lady Macbeth_, _Alicia_, _Queen Catherine_, and _Bianca_ world renowned. In heavy tragedy and melodrama no one has filled her place. She was acceptable as _Romeo_, which she often played, and passable as _Hamlet_, _Wolsey_, and even _Claude Melnotte_. During the war she performed several times for the sanitary commissions, and gave liberally of her large fortune. She contented herself with giving readings, which were uniformly successful, from 1870 to 1875, and died, in her native city of Boston, February 18, 1876, in her sixtieth year. [J] Thomas Apthorpe Cooper left unappreciative London in his twentieth year to try his fortune with Manager Thomas Wignell at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia in 1796. There, as afterward in New York, his handsome face and figure, fine voice, and unquestioned ability made him the popular favorite in leading parts both of tragedy and genteel comedy.