VALENTINE'S MANUAL

We may apply to Edwin Booth the praise which was given to
Shakespeare as an actor by one of his contemporaries: he was
excellent in the quality he professed. He was a born actor, in¬
heriting the divine gift from the father whose memory he ever
revered. He was an untiring student of his art, knowing why
and how he got his effects. By his skill and his sincerity he was
able to disguise the artificiality of "Richelieu" and of the "Fool's
Revenge." I can recall the thrill with which—now not so far
from three score years ago—I first heard Richelieu threaten to
launch the curse of Rome; and I shall never forget the shiver
that shook me as I later beheld the demoniac dance of Ber-
tuccio when he believes that he is at last revenged on his enemy.
But like the greatest of his predecessors, with whose achieve¬
ments he had admiringly familiarized himself, he liked best to
act the greatest parts, the characters that Shakespeare has filled
with undying fire—Othello and lago, Brutus and Macbeth, Shy-
lock and Hamlet. - Here in New York more than half a century
ago, he acted Hamlet for one hundred consecutive performances,
a longer run than any Shakespearian play has ever had in any
city in the world.

in founding The Players, Edwin Booth erected a monument
more enduring than bronze; and now we have set up this endur¬
ing bronze to bear witness that Hamlet's command has been
obeyed and that The Players are "well bestowed."
 

The Fortune Teller

Almost where Fourteenth meets Broadway,

The other day,

I came upon an old man, gnarled and gray.

He had a box of printed horoscopes

In little envelopes :

A compact, greasy hoard of threats and hopes.

He had a pair of white and wheezy inice,

A monkey mad with lice,

A parrot ugly as a worn-out vice.

And customers, with dullness on their brows—

The men like cows

At noon, the women angry sows—

Came round him, apprehensive but content

That God had sent

Such things to tell them what the future meant.

—Selected.
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