Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: YESTERDAYS WITH ACTORS. CHAPTER I. 'I 3 Charlotte Cushman. I was once asked by some philanthropic The theatre as people what I thought of a young lad going ascho1- into a theatre as assistant carpenter. I said I should consider him in the best of schools, and that an apprenticeship so spent could not but serve him well in any condition of life. Many hundred children may be educated in the same building and by the same teachers, and yet few of them may truly profit by their opportunities. I do not say, therefore, that all who spend a few brief years in the theatre come forth reflecting credit and honor on their chosen profession, but I do say they cannot but be the better, if they choose to benefit by the education of a theatre; and here are . some of the lessons taught: Punctuality, industry, self-control,, endurance, concentration, self- self-reliance, silence, patience, obedience and charity. Balzac tells us that man is neither good nor bad, but born with instincts and capacities that self-interest develops. The theatre is a little world within itself, with all the varying phases of good, bad and indifferent, like any . other .and every other condition of life, and : thetftigp, like society and empires, has its days of rise and decline. It has been said of painters -;; : and auors: that they live in their labors, -the standard Why'hot actors? Would it be strange if, of actors' lives, i. ., , i r i t living as they do in an atmosphere of higher and better thoughts, their lives were " tuned to a higher key ?" Certain it is that you find many such. Some, not in the front rank, are never recognized beyond the footlights, scarcely even by those about them. They pass through the various scenes of duty with such delicacy as to leave no trace, until they...