p. 268

388.
as if an immortal had appeared instead of a
lady of fifty years at least; but such was Son-
tag's success that the public voice called for
a renewed series of concerts which were given
with a continued eclat.

Madame Sontag sang the ballads of Burns
and Moore with great effect. As a vocalist
she had a clear brilliant soprano voice sweet
and round. The middle and lower notes
though not so powerful as the upper ones
were yet full and peculoarly sympathetic.
Her voice was unusually extensive of register.
"It had not the volume of Jenny Lind's nor
the amazing scope of Alboni's but it pos-
sessed greater flexibility and delicacy of exe-
cution than the former and more touching
expression than the latter. She had little of
the singer's trick of dwelling long upon sus-
tained notes suspending the melody until
you are impatient for its finish--a mode of
display in some singers showing their capa-
bilities till true feeling is lost." So says a
sagacious critic.

CHAPTER CXXIV.
Wheatley & Drew's Arch Street Theatre--Season of
1853-'54--The company--A reminiscence--E. N.
Thayer--Wm. Wheatley--John Drew--Frank Drew
--An incident.

Messrs. Wm. Wheatley and John Drew had
now become the lessees of this dramatic temple and
with some changes of its management it has been
successfully conducted under a prosperous regime for
nine years. This new management put forth the
following opening bill:

In assuming the control of the Arch Street The-
atre Messrs. Wheatley & Drew would solicit the at-
tention of their friends and the public to the follow-
ing arrangements:

They will open this popular theatre for the regular
season of 1853-'54 on Saturday evening August
20th, 1853. During the recess the entire premises
have been altered and improved. The comfort of
the audience has been consulted in every respect.
The entrance to the parquet is now effected by new
and convenient staircases from the eastern and west-
ern lobbies of the theatre. No expenses has been
spared in renovating and improving the whole esta-
blishment.

As an earnest of zealous endeavors to entertain
the public with excellent plays well supported by
adequate talent they have selected and engaged the
subjoined list of names which they submit to the
public:

Mr. W. Wheatley Mr. John Drew Mr. Wm. S.
Fredericks Mr. D. P. Bowers (from the Walnut
Street Theatre) Mr. McBride (from the Washington
Theatre) Mr. E. N. Thayer (from the Chesnut
Street Theatre) Mr. F. D. Nelson (from the New
York Theatres) Mr. John Dolman Mr. Fisher Mr.
Bradley Mr. Shewell Mr. Nunan Mr. Purdy Mr.
Hall Mr. Frazer Mr. Everitt Mr. Piersol Mr.
May etc.; Mrs. John Drew Mrs. D. P. Bowers
(from the Walnut Street Theatre) Mrs. Kinlock
(formerly of the Walnut) Miss Georgiana Kinlock
Mrs. F. D. Nelson (from the New York Theatres)
Miss Jane Walsh Mrs. Wilks Miss E. Waldegrave
Miss C. Waldegrave Miss Howard Miss Julia Hud-
dard.
Acting and Stage Manager....Mr. W. S. Fredericks
Prompter and Stage Director....Mr. Wm. Reed
Scenic Artist............Mr. George Wunderlich
Principal Costumer.....Mr. F. Johnson
Assistant Costumer.........Mrs. Thornton
Principal Machinist.......Mr. John Scott
Property Man.................Mr. Alfred King
Treasurer........................J. Ingles Matthias
A full and effective orchestra--Director Mr. Stoll.

The wardrobe is entirely new copied from the
best and most reliable authorities by F. Johnson
and assistant.

The stage furniture of the most elegant descrip-
tion manufactured by Samuel Wallace.

The orchestra seats have been enlarged.

Boxes and Parquet 25 cents; Orchestra Stalls 50
cents; Seats in Private Boxes 75 cents; Gallery
12 1/2 cents; Gallery Boxes for colored persons 37 1/2
cents; other parts of the Gallery for the same per-
sons 25 cents.

Saturday evening august 20th first night of the
season the "star company" (as it was now called)
appeared in Sir E. Bulwer Lytton's celebrated co-
medy of "Money"--Evelyn Mr. Wheatley; Graves
Mr. John Drew; Sir Frederick Blount D. P. Bow-
ers; Sir John Vesey Mr. E. N. Thayer; Lord Gloss-
more Mr. Dolman; Hon. Dudley Smooth Mr. Shew-

ell; Mr. Stout Mr. Bradley; Sharp Mr. Hall;
Lady Franklin Mrs. Kinlock; Clara Douglas Mrs.
D. P. Bowrs; Georgiana Vesey Miss C. E. Ber-
nard. New scenes were painted for the comedy
with elegant furniture to match.

The farce of "The Widow's Victim" was played
for the purpose of introducing Mr. F. D. Nelson and
Mrs. F. D. Nelson in Byron Tremaine and Jane
Chatterly; Jeremiah Clip (with imitations) Mr.
John Drew.

The comedy of "Money" was very well played.
Wm. Wheatley struck the vein of Evelyn's humor
with much gout. His neat blistering sarcasms on
the moneyed ways of the world and the fashionable
manners of its aping humanity were hit off with
great tact. A more truly laughable Graves quaint
and rich in the vis comica we never saw. John Drew
carried us most deliciously back to the palmy days of
Burton. We sighed with over-laughter and only
feared that we should meet the fate of old Mr. Jos.
Jefferson's mother who died in England of laughter
while looking at a comic dance being rehearsed. The
circumstances were as follows as we heard it related
by Mr. Joseph Jefferson himself and also as given
by the old stage historian Tom Davies. It is not
without interest.

A national piece entitled the "Masque of Bri-
tannia" was produced in 1755 at Drury Lane by
Mallet. Tom Davies says that there was something
in this masque that deserves remembrance. Bri-
tannia was represented by Mrs. Jefferson the mo-
ther of our comedian--the most complete figure in
beauty of countenance and symmetry of form I ever
beheld. This good woman (for she was as virtuous
as fair) was so unaffected and simple in her beha-
vior that she knew no the power of her charms. It
would seem that her beautiful figure and majestic
step in the character of Anna Bullen drew the entire
applause and admiration of the public although
the part was merely one of pantomime. She sud-
denly died in the Plymouth Theatre as she was
looking at the rehearsal of a comic dance for the
night's representation. She was seized with such
a hearty fit of laughter that nothing could abate it
till being stricken with a sudden pain she fell into
the arms of Mr. Moody the actor who was stand-
ing by and instantly expired.

We heard old Mr. Jefferson tell this little morceau
of domestic history one summer's evening in Fre-
dericksburg Virginia in 1825 while sitting with his
family in a large porch of an old-fashioned log house
built in the days of the Colony. Its antiquity its ro-
mantic position and its history impressed us deeply.
This old log house was at one period the property of
George Washington's mother. It was here that
"the Father of his Country" passed many days
with his parent on his visits to the ancient town.
The romantic river Rappahannock could be seen
rippling in gentleness from its porch. It was now a
private boarding-house occupied by an old Vir-
ginia family in reduced circumstances but it was
replete with comforts. When General Lafayette
visited Fredericksburg as the "nation's guest"
he visited during a day's sojourn here the log
mansion of Washington's mother where he had
seen her in the Revolutionary war. He was con-
ducted thither by the committee of reception and
we were told that he was visibly affected. Here old
Mr. Jefferson the comedian lived during our stay
at Fredericksburg enjoying daily his passion for
fishing in the beautiful river ; whiile in the pauses
of a "glorious nibble" he would take pencil
sketches of the surrounding landscape. Actors are
not without a holy feeling of nature and ofits moral
teachings. In the dire event of our army being
compelled to bombard this somewhat hallowed his-
torical place we hope that the primitive Washing-
ton chateau may escape destruction. Thus far it
has our sympathies. This Washington house stood
at the upper end of Fredericksburg above the navi-
gation of vessels of over 130 tons. There was only one
long thickly settled street in the place which ex-
tended along the river front. The rest of the houses
were scattered about on the slopes of the hills in the
rear of this street. This was in 1825 when we sup-
pose the town did not contain over 3000 inhabitants.

All the houses there looked dingy and very old. It
may have improved since then.

August 22d Boucicault's comedy of "Old Heads
and Young Hearts"--Jesse Rural E. N. Thayer;
Littleton Coke Mr. W. Wheatley; Tom Coke Mr.
Dolman; Colonel Rocket Mr. Fisher; Pompion (his
first appearance) Mr. McBride; Lady Alice Haw-
thorn Mrs. D. P. Bowers. John Drew played with
infinte dry melancholy humor Alley Croaker in
"The Miseries of Human Life."

During the summer of 1853 under Mr. T. J.
Hemphill's proprietorship a comic drama of much
merit and interest (taken from a French opera by
Adam) was brought out under the name og "Gi-
raldi the Miller's Wife." It was now again pro-
duced with increased applause. The cast was
changed in one or two parts. Duke Philip Mr. W.
Wheatley; Gil (the miller) Mr. John Drew; Gi-
raldi Mrs. D. P. Bowers.

In the past season when this piece was first pro-
duced Giraldi was played by Mrs. John Drew
who certainly with her vif vim and natural arch
rusticity was a better representative of this comic
sketch than Mrs. D. P. Bowers whose excellence
could almost bear challenging in any role but this
was not exactly in her line of acting. It was a cle-
ver drama of the light French school full of simple
equivoque and agreeable domestic pranks. And
Mr. Drew and William Wheatley a noble pair of
professional brothers were certainly most effective
artists--so we must term them--shedding lustre
ever every drama.

August 23d Buckstone's "Married Life" a very
excellent cast. The Samuel Coddles by Thayer and
Mrs. Kinlock; the Young Husbands by Wheatley and
Mrs. D. P. Bowers; the Dismals by J. Bradley and
Mrs. Wilks; the Doves by John Drew and Mrs. F.
D. Nelson. The new farce of "The Miseries of Hu-
man Life" was again well received being well cast.

The public appreciated this "star company" and
liberally responded to the efforts of the youful
management. It seemed the object of Wheatley &
Drew to restore the useful dignity of the stock players
to their pristine position; to eschew the wretched re-
sort to numerous half "stars;" to carry out a regular
season ; to make again if possible the stock actor an
object of importance and if good to make him or
her "the observed of all observers." This was
once hisposition ere the "star" mania had begun
and unsettled the permaneney of the profession
and to do this was laudable object of Messrs.
Wheatley & Drew.

August 24th the good old comedy of "Speed the
Plough" was played with great applause. There is
little of romance about the plot but it is rationally
entertaining and instructs the young intellect.

Mr. E. N. Thayer was now coming forward with
much excellence in the comedy "old men" of the
first class--a line that had been left almost vacant on
our stage by the deaths of Warren Francis Jones
&c. and by the absence of that Roscius in the
humorous old fathers Thomas Kilner who had re-
tired to his farm. Blake had left us for New York.
E. N. Thayer had only changed the youthful comedy
sock for the older one as he thought time had so ad-
monished. He has done well placing the statue of
the comedy old gentleman on an elevated pedestal
in our dramatic temples. He may at times depart
from the legitimate to suit the taste of his auditors.
As an acctor he "must please to live" but from his
breeding he can never forget the dignity of his pro-
fession or his educational teachings. On this oc-
casion he played Sir Abel Handy with characteristic
vim and point.

Mr. William Wheatley as Bob Handy was vivid
and as sparkling as choice champagne. He is a
comedian of all roles. In this wild eccentric part
more full of whim and nonsense than is consistent
with the freaks of real life he hit off truly and justly
the author's conception. We have seldom seen
it so well thrown off. Truly as a general actor he
may well compare with any great one we ever saw
and we have seen the very best. His juvenile tra-
gedy is ever well conceived and illustrated with ju-
dicious care ; and this is the more strange as he does
not thrust his tragic merits before the public as do
others whose pretensions that way are of smaller
weight. Mr. Wheatley possesses a fine manly
figure a dark complexion of passionate expression
a face of quick mobility a melodious voice and