executant in art--and he sought to obtain an engagement at the California Theatre to play the same “line of parts” (as the phrase goes among old stock company actors) which he had performed in the preceding Spring with Barry Sullivan. Though he failed in that effort--and was keenly disappointed thereby--he was not to be balked in his purpose, and got himself employed, during the Booth engagement, as a super. “I could not give _every_ night to such work,” he has told me; “but I ’walked on’ with him, at least once, in every play he did,--and in ’Hamlet,’ ’Richelieu,’ and ’Julius Cæsar’ I think I went on at every performance. In ’Cæsar’ when Booth played _Cassius_ McCullough was the _Brutus_ and Thomas W. Keene the [Illustration: EDWIN BOOTH AS _HAMLET_ “_There’s something in his soul_ _O’er which his melancholy sits on brood._” --Act III, sc. 1 Photograph by Sarony. Authors’s Collection.] _Antony_; when Booth played _Brutus_ McCullough was _Cassius_; when Booth was _Antony_ Keene was _Cassius_ and McCullough went back to _Brutus_. We used to wish we had Lawrence Barrett there for _Cassius_--but ’Tom’ Keene was a fine actor in his way, and I shall never forget those performances of ’Cæesar,’ nor those of ’Othello,’ in which Booth and McCullough alternated as _Othello_ and _Iago_. Booth was my _great_ idol; the one actor who, for me, could surpass McCullough, Barrett, and Montgomery. I found him very uneven--that is, his performances were not always up to his own standard. But, when he was really ’in the vein,’ there was _nobody_ like him; there never has been, and there never will be! I never heard such a voice,--so full of fire, feeling, and power,--and I never saw such eyes as Booth’s, when he played _King Richard the Third_, _Richelieu_, or _Iago_. At first I used to go to the California to watch his rehearsals, but I soon found out it was little use. The plays were all an old story to him and he wouldn’t rehearse. McCullough had Booth’s prompt books, and Booth left the company pretty much to him and just ’ran through’ the big scenes with the principals. He was very gentle, considerate, and kind to everybody, but he seldom said much unless spoken to. I valued my acquaintance with him greatly; I never missed an opportunity to see him, and I cherish his memory as that of one of the best of men and greatest of actors.”