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Show TARS OFJTHE PAST. Great Actresses Whose Triumphs re but Memories A Woman of Wonderful Talents, giELOTTE OUSHMAN'8 CAEEEE. ,a of the Brightest Lights of ' the ioericaa Stage of Porty Years Ago Charmed Two Continents, fide by side on the wall of room -whose noer has known and admired most of the " celebrities for a half century, are Jrtwitsof Charlotte Cushman and Adah Menken. Two women more differ-. differ-. everything but the largeness of their Md their talents it would be diffl-jt diffl-jt to mention, but this man has put their traits in the wtme frame. "Yes," says , "they were different, but were both onderful-both admirable." The very mention of Charlotte Oush-jn'i Oush-jn'i name in sufficient to recall to the 4er theatre goera their most delightful iy;riences. In whatever character she j'peared she was sure to playjt more per-c(ly per-c(ly than any one who hadgone before, .J truth to tell, those who have come le'r have hardly improved the parts. She first went before the public in Bos-n Bos-n in March, 1S30. At that time she as-re'd as-re'd to be a singer. In 183S she went to ftr Orleans, where an illness nearly de-royed de-royed her voice. To this illness was i(her decision to become an actress in-md in-md of a singer. And what an actress she name! looking back over the printed reviews her work now yellowed by the lapse of De-it seems that the characters in which ewis most admired were Meg Merrillcs id Lady Macbeth. The former part she 4 assumed in rather peculiar circum-saefs. circum-saefs. The illness of Mrs. Chippendale lie it necessary for Miss Cnshman to ap-ar ap-ar in her place with less than twenty-w twenty-w hours notice. Ot her Nancy Sikes Lawrence Barrett id:" but most wonderful of all is the death scene. As she painfully agged herself on to the stage the effect i- simply intense in its realism. She pt her face turned away from the audi-t, audi-t, but the magnificent management of r voice, as she called for Bill and begged him to kiss her, produced a feeling of illy horror. It was as if she spoke rough blood." Clara Erskine Clement, in her life of the tat actress, tells an anecdote which illus-ites illus-ites her character. As she was playing )o to Miss Anderton's Juliet, some e in the audience sneezed in an evidently tibial and derisive manner. - Miss Cnsh-a Cnsh-a instantly stopped the dialogue and IMissAnderton 'the stage as a valier might id a lady from (.lace where an init had been ered her. She eu returned and id: "Some man ust put that peril per-il out, or I shall, obliged to do it' .self." Xhefel-r Xhefel-r was taken ay and the au- ''''' ' Bee rose en CHABL0TTE CUSHMAN. wand gave three cheers for Miss Cush-m, Cush-m, who recalled her companion and pro-sled pro-sled with the play as if nothing had hap-ned. hap-ned. 3andy Dinmont said that in the death Mof Meg Merilleg he had to turn away ihead while supporting her,,"and I have ii ladies in the audience ' cover their flwith their hands, nnable to endure : sight o the dying agonies of that awful Sere still Uvea iu Philadelphia one of a Cushruan's maids, Mrs. Curtis, the iff of Sullie Mercer, the actress' servant 1 confidential companion . The house in ich Mrs. Curtis lives was built by Mi shman for Sallie Mercer; but when her U was read it was fonnd that she had be-tathed be-tathed it to Mrs. Curtis, otherwise pro-M, pro-M, for Sallie. ireyears afterCharlotte Cushman made first appearance on the stage Adah acs Menken was born near New Or-n Or-n Although her career was much rter than that of the great Cushman, 'crated almost as much of a sensation. made her debut when she was only to old as adanseuse, and between that a and the time when she gave up danc-' danc-' br acting she gained remarkable rector re-ctor grace and beauty. It was about Wen she announced her retirement o toe stage. She did soma really good I'M? work during the three years of her wnt, publishing among other things fine of poems of considerable merit, nag the season of 1858 she returned to not as a danseuae, but in "IV one was as successful in the new e she had been in the old, but she o mired again, this tirne . to Btudy we, in which art she showed unusual A bust of ' Rachael, whom she admired, is the only memento of 'Period of her life now known to be in nenoe. ...... . longiug for the stage returned in a ' m she appeared for the first time In iv ' New York. Forthe KrWfci"' nextonryearsu' ' -Hffl ' ppearedinallthe KL-' ' large cities of the Jv will Unifed States .in 11 k j - turn, sailing ior v'AV " England from San . Francisco April 23, X In London she S CTeated furor & MrolaV1! her favorite Amer-3J Amer-3J ican Prt of Ma-ijyffLf Ma-ijyffLf zeppa, and re-"y re-"y mained in Kurope )1B " for a year. Shere-.. Shere-.. KUcs menken. turned toNew ln j 5 "gain t0 England in 1866 toTm her triumPhs p,lri8. where, . 1868, she died. The supposition e was born in the Jewish faith is in-jMongh in-jMongh she embraced it when she wot 17 years old. She was married as, ona of her husbands being Rob-wns Rob-wns well known literary C;mJWas"0rPhausC.Kerr." While n?,slle acquainted with a Uickens, beginning i friendship on, inits lightest bloom at the Jj fn v ath- She showed her admi--,n,"i8 great novelist by naming her khon York home "Bleak House" feil Tz,r-. S1e was a woman of won-i.ham won-i.ham dity of telect of b" Pin' issto and lovable. 001101 40 bM Davis Dkacoks. |