At half-past three Mr. Irving and Miss Terry were found in opposite corners of the room, each surrounded by an animated group. Miss Terry, over whom some of the younger ladies were mad with curiosity, was completely hemmed in, and was given no opportunity to move about, as Irving did. She sat during intervals in an old arm-chair, covered with red plush. She wore an artistic gown, with a Watteau plait. Her fair hair curled from beneath a round French hat, covered with brown velvet, and with a dark feather. At her neck was an eccentric scarf of orange-colored satin. Prior to the reception Mr. Irving and Miss Terry lunched with Mr. Samuel McLean, President of the club, at his residence, 47 Pierrepoint street; among his fourteen guests being Mrs. Buckstone (his sister), Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher, and Mr. and Mrs. John Foord. Those present at the club reception included Mr. and Mrs. Bryan H. Smith, Mrs. George Prentiss, Mr. and Mrs. Crowell Hadden, Mrs. S. C. Lynes, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Ide, Mr. and Mrs. S. B. Chittenden, Captain McKenzie, Alex. Forman, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Turner, Mr. and Mrs. Alex. Cameron, Mrs. F. P. Bellamy, Mr. and Mrs. William C. De Witt, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Yeoman, Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Robbins, Mrs. Hattie Otis, Amos Robbins, A. F. Goodnow, Mr. and Mrs. John T. Howard, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Sheldon, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Phelps, Mrs. Washington A. Roebling, Mrs. Packer, Mr. and Mrs. J. S. T. Stranahan, Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Low, John Winslow, Mrs. P. Lynch, Mrs. Callender, Adrian Van Sinderen, John N. Peet, Mr. Bram Stoker and Mr. H. J. Loveday (of Mr. Irving’s company), Mrs. Joseph Hatton and Miss Helen H. Hatton (of London), Miss Abbie O. Nichols, Mrs. John A. Buckingham, Mrs. Birch, Mr. and Mrs. N. W. C. Hatch, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon L. Ford, the Rev. Dr. Hutton, Mr. and Mrs. Geo. W. Mead and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. McKean, Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Morse, Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Turle, Mr. and Mrs. Mackie, Charles Bill, Mrs. Ropes, Mr. and Mrs. John Foord, Mr. Samuel McLean, and Mr. and Mrs. Rodman.—Brooklyn Times, and Brooklyn Union, March 30.
[58] When Henry Irving was here, in December last, the “Clover Club” tendered him a breakfast, and at that time he stated that when he returned to the city he hoped again to meet his genial hosts. Last night he kept his promise. Upwards of sixty gentlemen, members of the club, and friends whom he had met elsewhere, were invited to take supper with him at the Bellevue, after the performance at the Chestnut-street Opera House, and the occasion was a most delightful one. The celebrated table of the club, in the shape of a four-leaved clover, was spread in the banqueting-hall. On it were two lofty forms of flowers, in the midst of which rose two fountains, throwing up crystal streams of water, which fell in spray over the blossoms. There were also several little plots of growing clover, shaped in the form of the quadrifoliate. The company did not assemble until after the performance of “Much Ado About Nothing.” It was 11.30 when they were seated at the table, with Mr. Irving at the head. Among the many present were Ex-Gov. Hoyt, Dion Boucicault, Attorney-General Cassidy, Col. A. Loudon Snowden, A. K. McClure, M. P. Handy, J. H. Heverin, Mr. Joseph Hatton and Mr. Montague Marks, from New York. The occasion was one long to be remembered. Mr. Irving, in proposing the toast of the “Clover Club,” thanked the members for their hospitality, and Philadelphia for its welcome of him, and, with characteristic modesty, spoke of his tour through the country, the welcome which he had everywhere received, and the love of dramatic art which he found among the people. Mr. Handy replied for the “Clover Club,” with his customary felicitous eloquence, and concluded by informing Mr. Irving of his election as an honorary member of the club. While Mr. Irving was bowing his thanks Mr. Handy decorated him with the jewelled badge of membership. Dion Boucicault told how Mr. Irving, to his mind, had banished the pedestal actor from the stage, and presented Shakespeare as the dramatist himself would have wished to see his works given. Mr. A. K. McClure pointed out how the dramatic art had knit the Anglo-Saxon race in a close bond of union. Mr. Howe, the “old man” of Mr. Irving’s company, gave some interesting reminiscences of how he, as a Quaker boy, and dressed in a Quaker garb, applied to Edmund Kean to be allowed to go on the stage. Mr. Terriss, the leading man, gave a recitation. Dr. Bedloe offered a new version of Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages,” and before the close Miss Terry was toasted in a bumper of three times three. Seldom has such a merry party sat down to supper, and the evening, when it is brought to mind, will never call up any but the most delightful recollections.—The Day, Baltimore, and The Call, Philadelphia, March 20, 1884.
[59] The head-quarters of the Fire-Insurance Patrol, are eighty-five feet wide and one hundred feet long. The first floor or room is sixteen feet eight inches high, with black walnut and maple wainscoting. In the front of the room there are two pairs of stairs, one each side. Under these are the horses’ stalls. Between the stairs and stalls is the patrol-wagon, the pole of which is ten feet from the front doors, which open out in a vestibule by electricity, and are held by weights. On the right of the room, as you enter, are all the telegraphic instruments connected with the patrol, with no wires visible; a raised panelled black-walnut wall, consisting of the Electric Mercurial Fire-Alarm, which is connected with seventy different business buildings, concealing the wires. This is a system which gives the alarm automatically, giving the exact location of the fire in any building. Over this annunciator is a large clock. On panels, on the right and left of the above, are two gongs, one giving the fire-alarms from the city, the other connected with the Mercurial Fire-Alarm Annunciator. Under one gong there are three small gongs, one connecting directly with the Western Union Telegraph Office, one with Marshall, Field, & Co.’s retail store, and the other with the City Fire Department. In another panel are the American District Telegraph connections. In the ceiling over the wagon is a large reflecting gas-light, which shines directly over the horses when hitching. Just in the rear of the reflector are three traps, that work automatically when an alarm is received, opening the floors on the second story, and ceiling of the first, to enable the driver and assistants to have easy access to their seats; two other members, who sleep on the second floor, make use of the same means of ready exit. The same telegraphic instrument sets in motion appliances which take off the bed-clothing from ten beds on the second floor, and four berths on the first, relieving the men from all incumbrances in an instant. On the second floor is the dormitory for the men, which is carpeted with English body Brussels. There are heavy black-walnut bedsteads, with F. I. P. carved in headboard, inlaid with gold. The front part of this room is partitioned off and used as Captain Bulwinkle’s room, which is carpeted with Wilton carpet, bordered with white, papered and frescoed on all sides in handsome style. Conspicuous here are white marble mantels and grates. On a table in the centre of this room is an album, with autographs of noted people from all parts of the world who have been visitors, and left their names as a testimonial of the excellent qualities of this department. The time required by this patrol to get out of bed, dress, hitch the horses, and get out of the building, is four and one-half seconds.—Stranger’s Guide to the Garden City.
[60] William Winter is probably best known in America and England as the accomplished and scholarly critic of the “New York Tribune.” As an authority on the drama he holds in New York a similar position to that which the late John Oxenford held on the “Times.” While there are other professional critics in the Empire city who write admirably, and with the authority of knowledge and experience about the stage, William Winter is the only one among them who has made for himself a prominent name apart from the paper with which he is associated. There is no other critic sufficiently well-known to be entitled to have his name mentioned in news cables or telegrams aside from the journal which engages his pen. Winter has broken through the anonymous character of his journalistic work as successfully as Oxenford and Sala. He is the author of several volumes of lyrics; he is the biographer of the Jeffersons; and since Washington Irving nothing more charming has been written about “the old country” than his “Trip to England.”
[61] Among the cablegrams that cast English shadows upon the tour was the announcement of Charles Reade’s death. This had already been preceded by obituary notices of Blanchard Jerrold. It was followed, at a later date, by the chronicle that Henry J. Byron had also “joined the majority.” The sudden death of the Duke of Albany was chronicled by the leading American newspapers, with touching sentiments of sympathy for the Queen of England.
[62] “Much Ado” did “grow,” and was played for three weeks, a “mixed bill” closing the last six nights. The receipts during Lent were unprecedentedly large in the history of New York theatres. These pages go to press before the financial returns are completely made up; but it is known to-day (April 25), that the receipts for the entire tour will be more than $400,000. The social hospitalities in honor of Irving and Miss Terry, which characterized their first visit to New York, were continued on their return. Among the notable breakfasts of the time was one given to Irving by Edwin Booth, at Delmonico’s, on April 14. The “Times,” in chronicling it, says: “Mr. Booth sat at the head of the table, with Mr. Irving on his right, and Chief-Justice Charles P. Daly on his left. John McCullough knocked elbows with Parke Godwin. The other guests included Jervis McEntee, Launt Thompson, Charles E. Carryl, Richard Henry Stoddard, William Bispham, Eastman Johnson, William Winter, Bram Stoker, Lawrence Hutton, Frank P. Millett, Junius Henri Browne, H. J. Loveday, and E. C. Benedict. No speeches were made, but in the course of an informal chat Mr. Irving was asked about ‘Hamlet.’ He said that he hardly thought it policy to produce the play for three or four nights at the end of a season, and on the eve of his departure, particularly as he contemplated so speedy a return.”
[63] The excitement of that cheerful October evening, last year, when Henry Irving made his first appearance in New York, was repeated last night, at the Star Theatre, where “Much Ado About Nothing” was presented, and where Mr. Irving and Miss Terry effected their reëntrance, and were welcomed by a great and brilliant company, with acclamations, with floral tributes, and in a charmingly manifest spirit of the heartiest admiration and good-will. The scene, indeed, was one of unusual brightness, kindliness, and enjoyment, both before the curtain and upon the stage. The applause, upon the entrance of Beatrice,—a rare vision of imperial yet gentle beauty!—broke forth impetuously and continued long; and, upon the subsequent entrance of Benedick, it rose into a storm of gladness and welcome.—Tribune.—The performance at the Star Theatre last evening was one of remarkable interest. “Much Ado About Nothing” was produced, and Mr. Irving and his company furnished a dramatic representation more complete and artistic, and in every way more admirable, than any that has been seen upon our stage. The audience was large and brilliant, and the reappearance of Mr. Irving and Miss Ellen Terry was greeted with every demonstration of pleasure.—Sun.