the stage manager that the true credit of the creation belongs,” writes Belasco, himself an author, a director, and a stage manager, and therefore not an altogether impartial witness; forgetful, also, that Jefferson was experienced in all those callings. The author of a play provides _the soul_ of a part, the actor provides _the body_ and vitalizes it with all his being, and shapes and adorns it, _revealing_ the soul, with all his art: “But by the mighty _actor_ brought, Illusion’s _perfect_ triumphs come,-- Verse ceases to be airy thought, And Sculpture to be dumb!” Jefferson used only the skeleton of the story of _Rip Van Winkle_ as told by Washington Irving, in “The Sketch Book” (1819): the character, as he portrayed it, is quite different from the commonplace sot designated by Irving. As to Boucicault’s version of the play--that dramatist disparaged it, did not believe in it, and actually assured Jefferson, just before the curtain rose on its first performance (September 4, 1865, at the Adelphi Theatre, London), that it would _fail_; and after he had seen Jefferson’s performance he said to that comedian, “You are shooting over their heads,” to which Jefferson answered, “I am not even shooting _at_ their heads--I am shooting _at their hearts_.” He hit them. Later, Boucicault discovered what Jefferson meant (he could see a church by daylight as well as another!), and paid him the compliment of devising for himself an Irish _Rip Van Winkle_, under the name of _Conn, the Shaughraun_, which he admirably acted, as nearly as he could, in Jefferson’s spirit and manner. “Jefferson,” writes Belasco, “was the _Yankee_ personating the Dutchman.” Another mistake. “Yankee” is an epithet of disparagement which the British contemptuously applied to the rural inhabitants of New England in the time of the American Revolutionary War. Jefferson did not possess _any_ of either the physical or mental qualities of a New Englander. He was of English, Scotch, and French lineage. His grandfather was a Yorkshire man; his father a Pennsylvanian; his mother a French lady (born in the Island of San Domingo); himself a native of Philadelphia--and no more a “Yankee” than J. A. Herne was, whose lineage was Irish, who was born at Cohoes, New York, and whose performance of _Rip_ (a respectable one) was based in part on Jefferson and in part on Hackett. It is idle to disparage Jefferson as _Rip Van Winkle_. That impersonation will live in theatrical history when all the Hernes, McWades, etc., are lost in oblivion! A LEADING LADY IN A PET. Prior to presentment of “The Millionaire’s Daughter” (May 19, 1879) at the Baldwin Theatre Maguire had made a contract requiring production there, on May 24 and 25, of a play entitled “Cupid’s Lawsuit”: the prosperous though not protracted career of Belasco’s melodrama was, accordingly, interrupted on those dates and resumed on the 26th; it ended on June 1. June 2 was signalized by the