There lies before us a bill (elsewhere reproduced) of the above theatre, dated Wednesday, September 10, 1834, being the fourth night of Burton's first engagement in this country. The plays on the occasion were Sheridan's comedy of "The Rivals" and the farce of "The Lottery Ticket,"--which last seems to have met with great favor, as the bill states it to be a repetition, owing to "numerous enquiries having been made at the box-office"; thus beginning the train of similar "numerous enquiries" with which, in the years to come, his own box-office became familiar. Burton was the _Bob Acres_ of the comedy and _Wormwood_ in the farce. Then at the age of thirty, we can believe that the comedian's unfolding genius gave full promise of the delightful humor which clothed his _Acres_ at a later day; and that in the _Wormwood_ of the farce he afforded glimpses of that wealth of comic power which thereafter, and for so long, he lavished for the amusement of the public. Miss Pelham was the _Lydia Languish_ and Miss Elphinstone the _Julia_, English actresses of no special distinction; but it is interesting to note that Miss Elphinstone became the second wife of Sheridan Knowles, the author of a celebrated and far more popular _Julia_ than the lady of "The Rivals," and who appeared on the Philadelphia stage of that year. Something akin to his reception by the audiences at the Haymarket in London, was for a time Burton's experience in Philadelphia. [Illustration: MR. BURTON AS BOB ACRES.] As the recollection of Liston by the London audience dwarfed the efforts of the youthful aspirant, so the memory of Joseph Jefferson, senior, (who played in the city as late as 1830,[4]) diluted the interest felt in the new actor by the Philadelphia benches.[5] But the native force and humorous capability of the comedian were destined to conquer indifference; and, although the creative genius which informed his subsequent delineations was yet to be made clearly manifest, he soon had a secure footing; and a belief was strengthening in the public mind that an actor of rare endowments and promise had come from the land of Munden, Elliston, and Liston, and one who might, it was not too much to say, worthily perpetuate the traditions of Jefferson. [4] He died in 1832. [5] So the memory of Burton in New York to-day may still be a warning ofthe danger of inviting comparison.