and "Rovers" and the other trifles that he should have dropped as he advanced in years and concentrated his efforts on a repertory of his greatest characters only. When he played this Salt Lake engagement he had declined into "the vale of years." As Hamlet, he looked older than the "Queen" but he possessed all the fire and animation necessary; as "St. Pierre" in the "Wife," he was at his best, and fairly lifted the audience into enthusiastic demonstrations of applause. It was not long after this that Davenport was pitted against the English tragedian Barry Sullivan in New York. An exceedingly interesting and able criticism and comparison of these two great actors appeared in Wilke's "Spirit of the Times," headed "The Two Rossi." This was Davenport's last memorable engagement. He was already an old man and failing fast. He died in 1871. "Ay, but to die and go, we know not where, to lie in cold obstruction and to rot, This sensible warm motion to become a kneaded clod, And the delighted spirit to bathe in fiery floods, Or to reside in chilling regions of thick ribbed ice, To be imprisoned in the viewless winds, And blown with restless violence about the pendant world. 'Tis too horrible! The weariest and most loathed worldly life, That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment can lay on nature, Is paradise to what we fear of death." It will be observed that there was no summer vacation this year of 1868. The Davenport engagement carried us into September, the time for opening the season of '68 and '69. Miss Ince's engagement following the Davenports was really the beginning of the season '68 and '69. CHAPTER XII. SEASON OF '68 AND '69. Davenport's engagement ended, Miss Ince resumed and played from September the 5th to the 17th, then departed for the Golden Shores of the Pacific. Now again, after this brilliant succession of stars, the stock company was left to its own unaided efforts, and from September the 17th to November the 26th they kept the wheel turning with a steady stream of stock pieces, and the old mill grinds, and the box office does business and the actors get their salaries. "Stars may come and stars may go, but the stock keeps on for aye." This was a good long stretch of stock work from September the 17th, through the October Conference and away to nearly the end of November, ten weeks of it; broken only by a rest of three nights, when Perepa Rosa gave us a series of Operatic Concerts, November the 14th, 15th and 16th. Salt Lake even then had a great love of music and turned out large audiences to hear the famous prima donna and her talented support, including her husband, the brilliant violinist and conductor, Carl Rosa.