imitated him (until the veteran gruffly told him to leave off “making a damned fool” of himself by so doing), but he never was Forrest’s servant or lackey. Belasco says that Barrett’s first appearance as _Cassius_, in “Julius Cæsar,” was made in 1870, in San Francisco, and that he “hated” the part and wished to play _Antony_, but could not because it was Walter Montgomery’s part,--the fact being that he played _Cassius_ for the first time about 1855, when he was about seventeen years old, at the Metropolitan Theatre, Detroit; that he _loved_ the part; that his affinity with it was very strong, and that he esteemed it, as what indeed it is, the moving impulse of the whole tragedy. Barrett first played _Cassius_ in San Francisco March 9, 1869, at the California Theatre, Edwards acting _Antony_; that is, about one year before Montgomery visited San Francisco. I have talked with Barrett for hours and hours about acting, and especially about the play of “Julius Cæsar,” but I never heard him speak with enthusiasm about the part of _Marc Antony_, or express any desire to act that part, though he thoroughly understood it and knew its value. Another of Belasco’s mistaken assertions is the assurance that Walter Montgomery,--who acted _Antony_ with Barrett as _Cassius_ and McCullough as _Brutus_,--was enamoured of an actress named Rose Massey; that he (Belasco) witnessed their first encounter, on the stage of the California Theatre, when Montgomery was smitten speechless at the sight of the young woman; that he soon married her; and that, after a quarrel with her, he committed suicide, aboard a ship bound for England. Inquiry would have corrected his memory. Poor Montgomery (a genial fellow and a fine actor) was easily and often enamoured: as was said of the poet Heine, “His heart was a good deal broken in the course of his life.” Rose Massey was an ordinarily pretty woman, one of the many devotees of the Blonde Troupe [Illustration: LAWRENCE BARRETT AS _CAIUS CASSIUS_. IN “JULIUS CAESAR” “_If we do meet again, we’ll smile indeed;_ _If not, ’tis true this parting was well made!_” --Act V. sc. 1 From a steel engraving. Author’s Collection.]