I am,
Yours sincerely,
J. L. TOOLE.
Besides being a very old and privileged friend of the famous and popular comedian, I have had the pleasure of being associated with him in business, having composed the music for Mr. Guffin's Elopement and The Great Tay-kins, written by Arthur Law, and produced at Toole's theatre.
Toole is fond of stories about other people. Here is one about him. Not being a musician, and not being a quick study, it becomes no easy task to drum a song, or especially duet, into his head. In The Great Tay-kins there was a "one-line-each" duet between him and Mr. E. D. Ward. I could not get Toole to get the rhythm right. He kept saying it was all right, but it was not. This is what it ought to have been:
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This is how Toole first got it:
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After a dozen rehearsals of these few bars, he got it thus:
The company were in roars of laughter; but Toole struggled on perfectly seriously until he got it. He was then as pleased as Punch, and insisted on my lunching with him, an invitation I was not likely to refuse.
The following is from Sir Algernon Borthwick, who was my proposer for the Garrick Club:
Morning Post, February 17th, 1883.