“Walter, bring me some of that damn Christian food.”
Henry E. Dixey and Louis were in a war play together, and I heard the latter pray Harry (who had the part of a New York policeman) to spare him when he gave a long speech about the flag. I was one of the first-night audience, and at that most pathetic climax about Old Glory, etc., the policeman suddenly fell dead.
Many actors have a ready wit. Jack Wendall became quite famous for his excellent portrayal of the dog in Rostand’s “Chanticleer.” One of these silly, satisfied business men was a guest at The Players and, meeting Jack, insisted upon his giving an example of his bark right then and there. After much persuasion and, in order to silence the man, he did so. Whereupon the man proceeded to bark much louder and much better than Jack. The actor was worsted at his own game and by such a fatuous creature, but he turned and said, with the most cunning inference:
“It is fine, but you see, sir, I had to learn.”
Speaking of Rostand, I am proud of a translation of mine of two lines of “Cyrano.” Mark Smith had challenged my statement that it could be done in English verse and gave as a test:
“Qu’est-ce qu’un baiser? C’est le point rose sur l’I du mot aimer.”
I gave him:
“What is a kiss? The rosy dot upon the ‘I’ of bliss.”
Mark was an actor and the son of an actor. I saw him first with Mrs. Leslie Carter. It is told of him that just before his birth his parents were in Paris. His father, being very patriotic, went to the American embassy, got some earth from the cellar, and, filling four saucers with it, placed them under the legs of the bed where his wife lay. With Old Glory over the bed, Mark was ushered into the world as near an American citizen as his father could make him.
One of the most interesting stage families of my time was the group of Hollands. E. S., whom we called “Ned,” was perhaps the best known throughout the country and was a finished actor of the so-called old school. It was the father of these boys who made that immortal remark which named a house of worship and made it famous. Holland, with others, approached the pastor of a large Fifth Avenue church to get him to read the burial service for a dead actor. The minister refused, saying that actors could not be buried from his church. Seeing their despair, he repented a trifle and suggested that they try the little church just around the corner. The elder Holland raised his hat and said: