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 ,■!■ 
 
 DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 DENMAN THOMPSON 
 
 (JOSHUA WHITCO^^IB). 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES JAY BRADY. 
 
 E. A. McFARLAND & ALEX. COMSTOCK, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 ACADEMY OF MUSIC, NEW YORK. 
 I/. 
 
h .Z.'^Z'hS] 
 
 Copyright, iS88, 
 By McFARLAND & COMSTOCK. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction, - 7 
 
 New England Homes and Character, - II 
 
 Childhood and Youth of Uncle Joshua, - 17 
 
 Manhood and Professional Struggles, Chapter I., "- 23 
 
 Manhood and Professional Struggles, Chapter II., - 31 
 
 Joshua Whitcomb, . - 37 
 
 The Old Homestead, 47 
 
 Tributes, 67 
 
 " The Old Homestead " a Moral Agent, - 79 
 
 Programme of First Presentation at the Academy, 85 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 t^NCLE JOSHUA needs no introduction to the American 
 public. At every fireside his name is prized and his 
 virtues known. He is, in truth, a fond relative to us 
 M\y all, tenderly considerate, sweetly honest and helpful, 
 and as cheering by his presence and simple story to-day as when 
 in other times we sat in childish delight to hear a dear old uncle 
 tell of the good and kindly heroes who had gone before. 
 
 Who will try to estimate the good this affectionate, homely, 
 manly man has done for his fellow brother ? What a giving 
 out there is of the graces of humanity in his simple dramatic 
 story ! The embroideries of art have no place in the narrative. 
 It is full of the perfume of country fields, freshened by the dew, 
 and beaming with a delicate, exhilarating life from the morning 
 sun. The hardships, trials and disappointments of a driving 
 world are forgotten in the chastened dream of childhood, home 
 and the heart ties of the family altar. What sweet music these 
 impressions make in the soul of all of us ! Uncle Joshua is the 
 kindly spirit that waves them into tender being, as the dews 
 from the skies vivify the sweetest flowers that adorn the earth. 
 
 He must be a queer manner of man who will say that he is 
 not the better for these hallowed emotions, and would spurn 
 their spell. He must be a lonesome person, indeed, at odds with 
 the glorious beauties of the fields, the skies, and the refinements 
 of man's social and spiritual nature — a poor, miserable unit, 
 drawn up and wound round, like a silk worm in his cocoon, and 
 shutting out all sunlight, daylight, and every joy of expanding 
 nature. It is hard to believe there are many such. Dear old 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 Uncle Joshua says there are none. He says human nature at 
 base is all right. We only look at it wrongly, as it were, and 
 take a shunted gleam or reflected surface for the intrinsic metal. 
 Wherever he goes there is living testimony of the verity of this 
 theory. His big, generous, unselfish nature begets an atmos- 
 phere of confidence, purity and rest, and stirs up the deeper, 
 truer nature of every one, just as the radiant sunlight wakes 
 into life and bloom the loveliest buds that grow. 
 
 All hail to such an one ! His gracious influence is needed. 
 The stage, like every department of life's labor, has plenty that 
 is depressing and baneful. The wholesome among players, as 
 among plants, we wish to cherish. It is doubtful if there is any 
 more reaching place for general good. Recreation is a natural 
 want. Let us have it pure and hearty. It is like a sound sleep. 
 In the " Old Homestead " the soothing conditions are perfect. 
 We may rest secure within its comforting arms, with the stars 
 shining brightly without, and balmy breezes blowing gently in 
 at the windows laden with good cheer from the surrounding and 
 beautiful hilltops, and all within calm, trustful and happy, far 
 away from the bartering and wearing spirit of the metropolis 
 and its controlling pulse. 
 
 Talk about your missionaries, philanthropists and other 
 noble friends of humanity ! in this age of savage rush, hardened 
 conscience and unending toil, who is there that administers to 
 the tired and drooping spirit with the same delicious sense and 
 buoyant effect that our homely and loving friends at " The Old 
 Homestead " do? 
 
 Such types, such associations, are to honest life what salt is 
 to an egg. They give flavor to our better feelings, and temper 
 the light with which we regard misfortune and uncharity. 
 
 Again let us say welcome to our good friends. Uncle Joshua, 
 Aunt Matilda, Cy Prime, Seth Perkins, Rickety Ann, and the 
 other lovable characters that are brought to our notice in this 
 dramatic poem of simple country life, and the precious " Old 
 Homestead," and secretly pray that they and their kind may be 
 always "with us. 
 
DENMAN THOMPSON'S FATHER AND MOTHER. 
 Still living and enjoying excellent health. 
 
ireW ENGLAND HOMES AND OHAEACTER. 
 
 HERE is a certain dig- 
 nity attaching to the 
 name of New Eng- 
 land, which is due as 
 much to the element 
 of home life as to any 
 other consideration. It has 
 nourished principle and 
 strength in its young 
 which have led to decent 
 and powerful manhood. 
 Brought up to feel the 
 virtue of right living and 
 right doing at a formative 
 period of life, the chances 
 for mature graces and 
 honors are more than 
 promising. 
 
 They are taught early 
 
 self - denial, self - reliance, 
 
 the duty of a conscientious 
 
 regard for the Sabbath 
 
 day, and the function of Study in raising man's lot among his 
 
 fellows. 
 
 The fruit of this home training and association has been 
 made evident in characters that have graced the most beautiful 
 works in our national literature, that have lifted men upward 
 and onward in spiritual and intellectual study, that have inspired 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 writings to charm and better the world, and that have been a 
 leaven of common sense and moral rectitude to balance and 
 chasten every community. 
 
 Thus it is that so many places, humble in themselves, with 
 no bigger concern of commerce than a crumbling flour mill or 
 a fitful shoe factory, are familiar names to the general reader. 
 They have produced what is higher than the wares of traffic. 
 They have marked individuals with traits and habits that have 
 stood them well in the halting and struggling ways of life, and 
 blossomed characters instilled with the juices of a manly 
 nature. Men with a plan of life. Men with an honest faith in a 
 Divine Ruler over all things. Men who sought the right and 
 just in every place and in every affair, and had the moral cour- 
 age to stand by a fair conviction. Men who worked as well as 
 prayed, and hated the idle and profane as they would a thief in 
 the night. Men who prized a home, cherished it, and imbued its 
 young with thoughts of learning and Christian experience. 
 
 Is there not honor enough in this for the restful hamlets 
 high up in the New Hampshire and Vermont hills ? The soil, 
 hard, rocky and ungrateful, is chary enough of its favors, and 
 bread is truly to be won by the sweat of the brow. Its greatest 
 glory is greater than the products of the ground. It is to be 
 read in character. The daily lile of these brave, honest. God- 
 fearing men, who tilled the soil in summer and split rocks in 
 winter, would appear tame if written out. 
 
 But the plain village farmer of those out-of-the-way towns, 
 esteemed for his uprightness, thrift and intelligence, will give 
 good blood and an honest bent to some famous man — a man 
 who will be proud of his ancestor, whom the bad feared and' the 
 good honored ; a man whose nobility of nature gave breadth to 
 the narrowness of his calling. Some woman of more than ordi- 
 nary distinction as a beauty may owe it to some old man who 
 matriculated into a handsome and hardy man in this school of 
 nature, and whose features were hardened by care and exposure 
 into an expression of honest and heroic simplicity. 
 
 Many an Uncle Joshua has gone forth into a larger and 
 
14 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 more selfish world, touched for good by the germs of truth, 
 piety and industry which had flowed into his nature from these 
 heroes of the farm. 
 
 Swanzey is one of these garden spots for the holier virtues 
 of humanity — just far enough away from Keene to preserve its 
 homely integrity ; a place where Sunday is the Lord's day in 
 truth, a day when the window blinds of the corner store are 
 shut in earnest, and the clatter of the old mill is stopped. 
 Outside the Old Homestead appears Uncle Joshua, his ruddy 
 face set off by a broad collar, and dressed for meeting, waiting 
 for Aunt Matilda to plaster her water curls and arrange her 
 " best gown." Not a worker is to be seen to-day. The instinct 
 of pure devotion pervades the people. All workday pursuits 
 are given up in fact and spirit. If the thoughts of any run in 
 worldly channels, there is no outward sign. The stillness is almost 
 oppressive. The fields are given over to the silent processes of 
 nature. Wives and daughters are bringing out their clean 
 frocks, and with folded kerchief and hymn-book will soon be in 
 procession for the meeting-house. One day in seven, that which 
 is set aside for spiritual duty, is a sacred trust from God to 
 these simple people, and as such they keep it. To-morrow they 
 will have to begin a patient struggle with a stingy soil. 
 
 Their gains come slowly and must be used wisely. They 
 will hold to the pennies tightly, but give you any personal 
 service ungrudgingly. They will plan and work for you in a 
 harvest pinch without a thought of reward. Nothing goes to 
 waste with them. 
 
 The winter nights are given to sober discussion at the 
 country store or serious reading at home. The oldest or bright- 
 est boy is at college, or sure to be — a comforting thought. The 
 other children are bending over the kitchen table, busy with the 
 lessons for to-morrow. 
 
 They are up in the affairs of the township, state and nation, 
 and sift the questions of politics with remarkable scent and 
 wisdom. 
 
 A much-tried race, it has been said, with the sun and wind 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 15 
 
 as often working them ill as good. Severe in mien and manner, 
 perhaps, but softened within by the graces of truth and piety ; 
 not cultivated, yet wise ; nursed by nature and led by bible 
 precepts ; men who pleased you by their simple faith and the 
 healthy content with which they accepted their condition. 
 
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF UNCLE JOSHUA. 
 
 ;ENMAN THOMPSON was born in a hamlet called Beech 
 Wood, about three miles from Girard, Erie County, 
 Penn., October 15, 1833. His father and grandfather 
 were natives of New Hampshire, and in a direct line of 
 descent from one of the original sixty to whom the Township of 
 Swanzey was deeded by the Massachusetts authorities in May, 
 1735- ^ survey was made of sixty-three house lots of three or 
 four acres each. The scheme, in surveying sixty-three lots, was 
 to have sixty proprietors, each entitled to one share, and then 
 to have one share for school lot, one for the first settled minister, 
 and one for the cause of the ministry. 
 
 The terms by which a person could become a proprietor 
 were as follows : He should pay five pounds at the time of 
 admission to such privileges ; he should be located upon his 
 land within three years from the date thereof, and should con- 
 tinue to reside thereon for at least two years. The funds raised 
 by these requirements were to be used in defraying the expenses 
 of the survey, and in building a public house of worship. 
 
 Among the persons who became the original proprietors of 
 the township under these conditions was "John Thompson, lot 
 43," and from this Christian pioneer dates the Thompson family 
 in Swanzey. In the original records, lot No. 16 was inscribed to 
 the school right. No. 48 to the first settled minister, and No. 47 
 to the cause of the ministry. 
 
 From that primitive date to this, Thompson, /^rif, has had 
 some official place in the governing board of the town. 
 
 Captain Rufus Thompson, the father of Denman, and now 
 a hale old man of over four score of years, in the spring of 1831 
 decided to go West, as a field of greater promise for himself 
 and wife. He entered the wilderness of Pennsylvania, and at a 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 distance of about three miles from what is now Girard, Penn., 
 where were clustered the houses of a dozen or more hardy 
 pioneers like himself, he made a clearing and began the erec- 
 tion of a log house. The settlement was called Beech Wood. 
 
 At this primitive place, and in the humble cabin which his 
 father had put up with his own strong arms, Denman Thompson 
 was born. The family remained here until Denman was four- 
 teen years old, and then returned to Swanzey. This was in 1847. 
 
 Mr. Thompson, senior, had a good deal of mechanical genius, 
 and when anything of a building order was needed he was the 
 neighbor in demand. There was not much pay in these jobs, 
 but there was a world of friendly satisfaction in serving one 
 another at that early day, far removed from the grudging spirit 
 of our time. 
 
 The farmer's life was a stern and hard one, the same as his 
 father's before him, amid the rocky hills of his New England 
 home. It was a warfare with the elements and unyielding nature. 
 But he was a serene, dignified, resolute man, who had no thought 
 of parleying with Providence or the stern necessities of his 
 vocation. 
 
 The love of home, however, that dwelling spot the associa- 
 tion of which clings eternally to the New Englander, born and 
 bred, burned in the rugged farmer's heart and memory like 
 delicious incense, and eventually led him back to the " Old 
 Homestead " and the scenes of early manhood. He is there now, 
 frosted and worn with the weight of years and toil, but as posi- 
 tive, self-assertive and clear of judgment as ever, and amply 
 able to hold his own against the worldly wisdom and skilled 
 logic of his popular son, " Uncle Joshua." 
 
 After the return to Swanzey, in 1847, until 1850, young 
 Denman was sent to Mt. Caesar Seminary during the winter 
 months, and the rest of the year worked with his father at the 
 carpenters' trade. He was a sturdy boy, more fond of sports 
 than books, and kept the feminine part of the household on the 
 verge of dreadful expectancy by his daring pranks. 
 
 The most stirring event of the year in the village was the 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 advent of a circus, and young Thompson always led the drove 
 of boys who went far out the country road to meet the incoming 
 vans; and for weeks after the show had gone, to quote his father, 
 " Denman was walking upside down." 
 
 He was a frank, open, big-hearted boy, full of animal life, 
 ready to share anything with his mates, and join any sport, and 
 therefore liked to an unusual degree. There are many home- 
 spun, hearty men in the village to-day who are fond of telling 
 of the likeable traits of young Denman Thompson, and of the 
 many jolly times they had together as boys. 
 
 This whole-hearted, unselfish disposition of the boy has 
 become one of the most pronounced traits of the man, as we will 
 see later on, and has lifted the spirit and won the esteem of 
 many a comrade actor and business acquaintance. 
 
 Three winter terms at Mt. Caesar Seminary, Swanzey, 
 represents all the time he spent in acquiring a higher education 
 through school mediums. His father was anxious that he should 
 obtain a useful knowledge in this respect, and made sacrifices to 
 that end, but the youth's bent was not toward letters. The 
 charms of an out-door and romping life were nearer to his 
 thoughts and desires, and kept all his energies in the train of a 
 sound and wholesome physical growth. 
 
 He longed for travel, excitement — something out of the dead 
 drift of remote country life. Like most New England youths, 
 he had heard a great deal about Boston. It was to him the sun 
 of another and bigger world, from which went forth the rays 
 that enlivened and enlightened every place else. He longed to 
 see it, and know more of its wonderful life. He had heard of 
 its great people and doings from the elders who were fond of 
 lingering around the church porch, and felt that the Boston 
 paper which found its way into his father's hand was freighted 
 with special interest and power. 
 
 So, a bright morning in the spring of 1850, when he had 
 just turned seventeen, he gathered together a few simple neces- 
 sities, and bade a tearful good-by to the now famous Old Home- 
 stead at Swanzey. 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 The journey was made the subject of private and even 
 public prayer. Neighbors " came in " to talk it over. Mother 
 was sad, but trustful. Father resolutely said, " Thy will and not 
 mine be done, O Lord." 
 
 Plainly dressed, hopeful and strong, young Denman Thomp- 
 son, the envy of the other village boys, started upon his slow- 
 paced journey to Boston. 
 
 Any country-reared person will know what that was to 
 him — how grand and mysterious the town seemed to him, with 
 its confusion of streets, crowds of people, strange noises, myriad 
 lights and numberless wares ; how it impressed and oppressed 
 the stranger, and made him for the first time feel painfully lonely 
 and out of tune. 
 
 But this New England lad was made of sterner stuff than 
 lamb's wool. He did not take fright at the unfamiliar signs of 
 strange living. His keen senses and naturally bright mind were 
 quickened as never before. There was a taste of life in this 
 whirling scene which made him long for the magic of mind 
 which made all these things seem natural and wise. 
 
 He had begun life with practical tools and no favors. 
 
DENMAN THOMPSON (25 years of age). 
 
MANHOOD AND PROFESSIONAL STRUGaLES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IFT was not long after his arrival in Boston before Tryon's 
 circus was announced, in flaming posters and with all the 
 tinkling cymbal of language to which such shows are given. 
 ^^ It started the boyish fever for circus life, and led to his 
 seeking for and obtaining a place as property boy with this 
 circus. He remained with it to the end of the season, during 
 which time he took a more important part in the bill than 
 handling banners and poles. He rode in the opening pageant, 
 and developed an ability as an acrobat that made him an efficient 
 leaper among some thirty or more performers. 
 
 It was in the winter of this year, 1850, that he made his first 
 appearance upon the professional stage, at the Howard Athe- 
 naeum, Boston. It was simply as a supernumerary, but it brought 
 him his first earned money on the stage. Charlotte Cushman 
 was playing Zady Macbeth at the " Howard " on this occasion, 
 and Mr. A. J. Neafie, a capable and conscientious actor, 
 appeared as Macbeth. 
 
 Shortly after this nondescript d6but, in January, 1851, he 
 went to New York. At that time two men, whose names are 
 forgotten, were exhibiting a collection of paintings of famous 
 Indian chiefs by George Catlin, on lower Broadway, nearly 
 opposite to the then well-kaown Duseldorf art gallery. Young 
 Thompson sought work with them, and was made doorkeeper, 
 lecturer and general factotum. Quick witted, confident and 
 industrious, he gathered enough facts from the catalogue, added 
 to what he had read of Indian life, to make a good story, and 
 became a valuable adjunct to the exhibition. 
 
 That restive spirit so characteristic of the young New 
 Englander was still uppermost in the character growth of oui 
 
24 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 young friend. He soon tired of this position and went to 
 Lowell, Mass., where his uncle, D. D. Baxter, had offered him a 
 place in his dry goods store. 
 
 It was in the old Lowell Museum, Lowell, in 1852, that 
 Denman Thompson had his first speaking part in a jblay. He 
 appeared as Orasman in the military drama, " The French Spy," 
 and did a number of fancy dances between the pieces. His suc- 
 cess in this respect did not help matters at his uncle's store, 
 where he served in the ornate capacity of a ribbon clerk, and 
 soon led to his quitting the town of looms, spindles and factory 
 girls for Worcester, Mass., where he remained one season, dancing 
 his way into the affection of the towns people. Then for another 
 season, and until about 1854, he became an itinerant player, be- 
 longing at different times to wandering companies managed by 
 James Lingard, George Karnes and William Henderson, the 
 latter now manager of the Academy of Music, Jersey City. 
 
 In January, 1854, he went West at the invitation of the man- 
 ager of the Athenasum, Cleveland, and played low comedy in the 
 regular stock of this theatre, appearing with Anna Cora Mouett, 
 Edmon S. Connor and stars of equal dramatic importance. 
 
 In May, 1854, he was engaged by the veteran John Nickin- 
 son as a member of the stock company of the Royal Lyceum 
 Theatre, Toronto, playing small Irish and negro character parts 
 and dancing hornpipes. Highland flings and Irish reels between 
 the pieces. These variety tid-bits of dancing and singing between 
 the plays of the evening were very popular at this date, and the 
 actor who was able to satisfy the taste of the time with even 
 moderate success had an advantage with the public, which 
 pleased the managerial heart and helped the player. 
 
 Thompson became a great favorite with the old managers 
 and local theatre-goers in Toronto, and with the exception of 
 one whole theatrical season, which was spent professionally in 
 Chicago and New York State, and a few months abroad, he 
 continued to make the Canadian city his home until 1868. It 
 was here he married and where his three children, now living, 
 were born. 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 25 
 
 A curious old play bill, under date of March 19, 1855, in 
 which Mr. Thompson appears in a small Irish part, gives an 
 interesting glance at a popular style of entertainment at that 
 time, and may revive, among many, pleasant recollections of the 
 day when there were lots of good honest amusement and less of 
 the art of stage dressing and lackadaisical play building. 
 
 "Daddy" Rice, "the original Jim Crow," was singularly 
 successful in his delineations of the aged negro, and supplied 
 an evening of humorous entertainment which none of the delli- 
 tanti minstrels of to-day can approach. It had the rugged lines 
 and quaint charms of homely nature, than which, drawing-room 
 models are a barren substitute. 
 
 It was in the role of a "fancy darkey," in the play of 
 "Extremes," during the engagement of Peter Richings and his 
 daughter Carolina Richings, the latter afterward famous as an 
 operatic singer, that Mr. Thompson made his first marked hit 
 at the Royal Lyceum Theatre. 
 
 In August, 1855, Mr. Thompson went to Chicago under an 
 engagement to John Rice, manager of the Chicago Theatre, to 
 play second low comedy. The season was a prosperous one, and 
 due mainly to the success of the sensational drama, " A Glance 
 at New York," in which the popular Frank Chanfrau appeared 
 as Maze ; and Mme. Albertine, a widely celebrated and bril- 
 liant danseuse. Mme. Albertine is now a resident of New 
 Bedford, Mass., and totally blind. Her case has been peculiarly 
 unfortunate. A more beautiful, graceful and accomplished 
 premier danseuse than she it would be hard to name, indeed, if 
 the thing not impossible. The afifliction came to her suddenly 
 and at a time of superlative success and health. She is almost 
 forgotten now by the admiring world that in other days was 
 proud to worship at the shrine of her professional triumphs. 
 Almost alone, unable to follow her profession, and deprived of 
 the greatest personal blessing in human life, her days would 
 have been bitterly, cruelly dreary but for a few noble friends, of 
 whom Denman Thompson is glad to be considered one. 
 
 At the close of the Chicago season, for a short time during 
 
TORONTO. 
 
 INDtTSTBY. INTEGRITY. INTELLIGENTCE. 
 
 JOHN NICKINSOW ----- LESSEE AND MANAGER 
 
 J. KICKINSON, 
 
 Emboldened by the success attending his efforts to amuse the public of Toronto during the last 
 
 Two Years, and being- determined to merit a continuance of patronage, begs to announce 
 
 that he has (at great expense and with considerable difficulty) effected an 
 
 Engagement for Six Hights Only-Positively I And No Re-Engagement I 
 
 With the Distinguislied Artists well known throughout Europe and America as the "First" in their 
 peculiar and wonderful performances I 
 
 THIS oxiiGi-i3sr_A.L Ji 3vi: cuno t^ , 
 
 MR. T. D. RICE! 
 
 H£RR CLINE! 
 
 Who will appear with the regular company of the Royal Lyceum. 
 
 IvlR. T. D. RICE 
 
 As " JUMBO JUi " ana " GIK&ER BLUE " ; or, Tie Tireinla Inmniy ! 
 THIS EVENING-, MONDAY, MARCH 19th, 1855. 
 
 The Performances will commence with (for the first time in Canada) the Laughable Comedietta, written 
 in London expresbly for MR. T. D. RICE (the original Jim Crow), entitled 
 
 a-xj3M::oo j"xj3mc! 
 
 JUMBO JTTM MR. T, O. RICE 
 
 Solomon Sligo Mr. Petrie I Deborah Miss Phillips 
 
 Mr. Grub Mr. Johnson Arabella Miss Cook 
 
 Captain Seymour Mr. Chester | Lady Mrs. Brink 
 
 Laborers, etc., by Company, 
 
 AFTER WHICH THE CELEBRATED ARTIST, 
 WILL APPEAR AND 
 
 Dance tie EIGHLAM) FLIIS in costnie on tie Tiglt Eope or corde Eiastiane 
 
 Together with his astonishing Metamorphosis and Feats of Daring, received each night with dec ded marks of 
 approval and delight. 
 
 To Conclude with the Original Farce of the 
 
 GIiVGBK BLUE.... 
 
 
 
 . . . MR. T. D. RIC£ 
 
 Captain Rifle 
 
 Dr. Galen 
 
 Charles 
 
 O' Leary 
 
 Mr. Chester 
 
 Mr. Petrie 
 
 Mr. Brink 
 
 Mr. Thompson 
 
 Servant 
 
 Porter 
 
 Lucy 
 
 Susan 
 
 Mr. Johnson 
 
 Mr. Barker 
 
 Miss Cook 
 
 Miss (-hillips 
 
 The Celebrated Dancers, MONS. and MADAME liOUXARY, are engaged for a limited period. 
 
 BOXES, 2s. 6(1.; Pit, Is. Sd.; UPPER DOXES, Is. lOJ^d.; TICKETS for UPPER BOXES, admitting Lady and 
 
 Gentleman, 2s. 6d. Doors ope n at 7H, commence at 8. 
 
 (E7=T)ic undersigned will not be responsible for any debts contracted for this establislimcnt, OR BY MEMBERS 
 THEREOF, unless under written order. JOHN NICKINSON. Lessee and Manager. 
 
 GOD SATE THE QPEEN 1 TITE LT:nPEfREPR PES FEAKCAIS ! 
 
 Lovell & Gibson, Printers.l [Yonge Street, Toronto. 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 2^ 
 
 the summer and fall of 1856 he played at Rochester and Syra- 
 cuse, under the management of Brown & Biddle. George 
 Brown, of this firm, subsequently entered the restaurant busi- 
 ness in New York, and became widely known as the proprietor 
 of " Brown's Chop House," a favorite up-town resort for journal- 
 ists and actors. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Thompson returned to the stock company of 
 the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Toronto, and remained there through 
 the successive managements of Mr. Marlowe, Miss De Cdurcey, 
 J. C. Myers, C. T. Smith, Little & Flemming, and Henry 
 Linden. 
 
 A peculiarity of the actor at this time was his extreme reck- 
 lessness with regard to money, and an ingenuous disregard for 
 serious study and rehearsals. No matter how much money he 
 earned, he was never able to keep any. He had little idea of 
 the value of dollars. Money in his hands was a good deal like 
 water in a sieve. He was strictly temperate, and always of plain 
 tastes. But his heart was as soft as a woman's, and always in 
 commotion for some unfortunate brother. 
 
 This sympathetic quality has always been a dominant trait 
 in his character, and is stronger to-day than ever. And it is of 
 that honest origin which makes his acting such a natural, living 
 thing, free from any vain display, and throbbing with the in- 
 stincts of rugged human nature. 
 
 If the hosts of people alive to-day, who have found a timely 
 and kindly friend in Denman Thompson at some darkened or 
 helpless period in their careers, were to raise their voices in a 
 chorus of praise, it would ring to the skies, and echo back again 
 in resonant sounds as deep and full of joyous melody as the 
 greatest organ that mortal hands have ever touched. 
 
 This moving quality of manhood, which leads to helpful 
 deeds for the inherent joy of doing, and not the report, is a grace 
 of heart that adds more dignity and sweetness to life than all 
 the other virtues, and sheds over all a light that reflects of heaven. 
 There is a principle of strength in it, too, which is bound to 
 make a natural man, and this man, endowed with a good moral 
 
28 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 constitution, is sure to attract the worthy wherever his lot may 
 be cast. 
 
 "Uncle Joshua" is such a character, off the stage as well 
 as on, and in the changing scenes of the dramatic story, 
 the homely manner, honest deeds and kindly nature of the 
 Swanzey farmer are the natural expressions of the actual man, 
 stirred into a vivid showing by the circumstances of stage. 
 
 He was cast for a variety of " low and eccentric " comedy 
 parts in the range of managerial changes, and became enor- 
 mously-popular with the local patrons and newspapers. His 
 favorite characters were Salem Scudder in "The Octoroon," 
 M\les na Coppaleen in the "Colleen Bawn," Barney in the 
 Falconers' drama, "Peep O'Day," and Uncle Tom in "Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin." 
 
 A programme of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, February 6, 
 1857, in which "Mr. Thompson" appears in an Irish character 
 part, and as the hero of Mrs. Stowe's famous story, is here 
 printed, as a likely matter of interest to the casual as well as 
 special reader. 
 
 He was equally good and infectious as a rollicking Irishman, 
 the homespun Yankee, with an unctuous Down-East air and dia- 
 lect, or the ignorant negro. 
 
 It is a curious fact that he never could be induced to make 
 much serious preparation for a performance. He had a good 
 memory and a rare genius for emergency, but no application. 
 Time and again when the text of the piece had gone from him 
 because of a superficial study, and it looked as if he might 
 flounder and ruin a situation, a ready wit and perfect ease saved 
 him, and provoked the audience into the heartiest good humor. 
 
 He was always borrowing articles of stage dress, and it was 
 a frequent remark that Thompson never owned a pair of "sand 
 shoes," which he required for fancy dancing, then popular be- 
 tween the pieces. When the performance came, if he couldn't 
 get them of one, he got them of another in the company, and so 
 great was his good nature and so well was he liked, that it always 
 created merriment, and never annoyance. The manager, John 
 
TORONTO. " 
 
 INDUSTRY. INTEGRITY. INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 JOHN WICKINSON ----- LESSEE AND MAWACER 
 
 ____ isroTioE. 
 
 ^7 THE DRAMA OF "DRED," having been received with great gratification by a 
 Full and Fashionable Audience, induces the Manager to announce for repetition this evening, 
 Mark Lemon and Tom Taylor's celebrated London Version of Mrs. Beecher Stowe's work, 
 
 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, 
 
 OR SLAVE LIFE. 
 
 Produced with due regard to effecLive Scenery, Properties, Dresses, Decorations, Negro 
 Melodies. Etc., Etc. 
 
 Miss C NICKINSON as "ELIZA," 
 
 Mr. Petrie, as Legree ; Mr. D. Thompson, as Uncle Tom ; Mr. H. Cook, as George Harris j Miss Phillips, as 
 Cassy; Miss v. NJckinson. as Topsey. All the Company and Numerous Auxiliaries. Negro Minstrels. Etc. 
 
 Th; Performance will commence with the Laughable Farce of 
 
 IRISH ASSURANCE; OR, YANKEE MODESTY. 
 
 Pat, Mr. D. Thompson. | Nancy, Miss I. NJckinson. 
 
 THIS EVENING, FRIDAY, FEB. 6th, 1857. 
 
 The Perlormancc will commence with the Laughable Comedietta, entitled 
 
 IRISH ASSURANCE; OR, YANKEE MODESTY. 
 
 Pat Mr. Den Thompson I Mr. Clifton Mr. Johnson 
 
 Mr. Buffer Mr. Petrie Nancy Miss J. Nickinson 
 
 Capt. Herbert Mr. Hill | Miss Buffer Miss Phillips 
 
 Susan Miss S. Lyon 
 
 I3.A^]SrOE:, - - B'Sr - - 3VC^^I3'I-,I-.Ei E1I-.ISE 
 
 To Conclude with a Revival, witli all its Original scenic effects, machinery, etc. , entitled 
 
 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN ; op, Slave Life. 
 
 NOTICE.— It should be stated, alike injustice to Mrs. Stowh, and in explanation of the liberties taken with 
 her admirable story in this Drama, that it does not profess to be a mere Stage version of the tale, but a Play in 
 which free use has been made of many of her chief personages and most striking incidents! Tlie interest of Mrs. 
 Stowe's story runs in three distinct channels, following successfully tue fortunes of Eliza and George, of Uncle 
 Tom and Eva, of Emmeline and Cassy. For Dramatic effect it is necessary that these threads should be inter- 
 woven, and that what cannot be connected should be abandoned. This is what has been attempted in this Drama, 
 in which, while there has been both the wish and effort to preserve the spirit which breathes through Mrs. Stowe's 
 pathetic pages, the relations of characters and the sequence of incidents nave been altered without reserve. 
 Produced under the Immediate Direction of MR. J. NICKINSON. 
 
 Mr. Shelby Mr. Marlowe Solomon Spicer Mr. Notter 
 
 Simon Letrree Mr. Petrie Skunk Mr. Johnson 
 
 George Harris Mr. Henry Cook Sambo Mr. Hill 
 
 Uncle Tom Mr. Den Thompson Quimbo Mr. Cooke 
 
 Adolph, Sam, Rosa, Mose, Pete, etc., by a Numerous Auxiliary Force. 
 
 EI.IZA MISS C. NICKINSON 
 
 Cassy Miss Phillips [ Topsey Miss V. Nickinson 
 
 AuntChloe Miss Lyon | Mrs. Shelby MissS. Lyon 
 
 In Che course oftlie piece the Canadian ETHIOPIAN SERENAUERS will perform the following melodies, 
 etc.: Opening Ch orus. Masser Sound Sleeping. Ring de Banjo. Poor Old Slave Little M ore Cider. 
 
 "Old Folks at Homb " will be Sung by M iss C . Nickinsow and Chokus. 
 
 ~ ROBINSON CRUSOE and"MER"R"Y~WTVES OF WINDSOR in Rehearsal. 
 
 Request. — Gentlemen are most earnestly requested not to give their Tickets to boys at the door, as cou- 
 
 sid erable disorder arises from the practice, which is, moreover, a great injustice to the Manager. 
 
 C!7*The undersigned will not be responsible for any debts contracted for tliis establishment, OR BY MEMbeks 
 
 thereof, unless under written order. JOHN NICKINSON. Lessee and Manager. 
 
 BOXES, is. 6d.; Pit, Is. 3d.; UPPER BOXES. Is. lO^d.; TICKETS for UPPER BOXES, admitting Lady and 
 ___^____^^ Gentleman, ^s. Gd. Doors open at 7}-^, commence at 8. 
 
 GOD SAVE THE QUEEN! VIVE L'EMPEUREUB DES FBANCAIS! 
 
 The *' Merchants ' ' Cheap PrfcBS.] [Farrel I & Jacques, Printers and Design "rs. 
 
30 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 Nickinson, was continually rebuking him for this personal 
 neglect, but never changed him from the habit, and had many a 
 hearty laugh over the blundering success of the popular player. 
 
 Strong limbed, full cheeked and chested, with a thick growth 
 of red hair, brushed straight up from a full forehead, and large, 
 good-natured eyes, he was a handsome man. Equipped as he 
 was physically, and the pick for a soldier, he could never carry 
 out the part with becoming stage gravity. 
 
 Upon the first occasion that he was cast for a soldierly part, 
 he innocently created a scene of mirth that upset the spirit of 
 the play entirely, and turned scenes of serious sentiment into 
 the liveliest sort of comedy. He was dressed in the regulation 
 suit of scarlet, with gilt braids and all the small insignia of office, 
 and meant the best in the world. But his round, good-natured 
 face, with roguish eyes and shifting manners, did not fit the 
 sanguinary clothes nor situation, and the more he tried to appear 
 haughty and serene the more he reddened and the more he 
 shifted, until the uproar became so great that the play could 
 hardly proceed. 
 
 From that night forward he eschewed all such roles, and 
 abandoned serious leanings toward the tragic side of the drama. 
 
MANHOOD AND PEOFESSIONAL STETJGGLES. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 'N the spring of 1862 he went to England, with the avowed 
 hope of getting a chance to play Salein Scudder in "The 
 Octoroon," then playing at the Drury Lane Theatre, London, 
 ^^ with remarkable success, and also in the provinces. He 
 failed in this object, much to his chagrin, as he had trusted to 
 make a fine impression in this role. He secured a position, how- 
 ever, as "low comedian " in the stock company of the City of 
 London Theatre, and remained there under circumstances of 
 moderate favor until the fall of the same year, when he returned 
 to Toronto. 
 
 There was a remarkable show of friendly feeling for the 
 actor upon his return to the Royal Lyceum at Toronto, and for 
 several weeks after the opening night the house was thronged 
 with boisterous admirers, for they had a habit then and there of 
 showing their preference for a player, which left no room for 
 conjecture, and was especially sweet to the favored one. 
 
 From this time until 1868 he remained at Toronto under the 
 successive managements of Henry Linden, J. C. Myers and 
 George Holman. 
 
 An admirable and versatile fancy dancer, he was in constant 
 demand for this popular feature between the pieces of the even- 
 ing, and by his quaint and humorous manner as well as amiable 
 disposition, became an object of lavish favor from the local 
 theatre-goers. 
 
 Upon one occasion, as a lively bit between the plays, it was 
 announced that the manager, Henry Linden, and Mr. Thompson, 
 would appear respectively as Richard III. and the Duke of 
 
32 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 Richmond, and settle with boxing gloves, once for all, the histori- 
 cal family feud. Each was to attire himself in the most ludicrous 
 costume he could devise, and without the knowledge of the 
 other, and then at the proper cue they were to march boldly 
 forth upon the mimic battle-field, and set to pounding each other 
 with all the skill and vigor at their command. Thompson was 
 arrayed in a glaring grenadier coat, dragoon high fur hat, black 
 skin tights, blue garter and "essence shoes." Linden came forth 
 in a short linen jacket, a tight-fitting bathing shirt of a dozen 
 lurid colors, striped linen trousers as wide as a sail, straw hat, 
 and generally " light and airy " costume. ' Their grotesque ap- 
 pearance provoked the heartiest good humor, and when Richmond 
 had been hit hard by the enraged Richard, smuggled a small 
 rubber ball into his mouth, and turned toward the audience with 
 his jaw swollen to an enormous size, the audience rose in an 
 uproar, and Richmond was made the hero of the night, despite 
 his boxing discomfiture. 
 
 The honest face and simple manner of the actor invested 
 every incident of a humorous character with a double charm and 
 winning expression peculiarly his own. And as indicated before, 
 this sincerity of countenance is a natural reflex of the actor's 
 true nature — a character quality which has made his word as 
 good as gold with business acquaintances, and the special pride 
 and happiness of the family name. 
 
 How far this trait has become a governing principle of con- 
 duct was practically illustrated several years ago. Salaries were 
 not large for professional services during his long term of resi- 
 dence at Toronto. Twenty-five dollars a week was a large sum, 
 and they were few and far between and of singular success who 
 received that amount. Mr. Thompson's salary was considerably 
 less than this a good deal of the time he spent there. Generous to 
 a fault, with a family to support, and an unbroken habit of 
 remembering the ''old folks at home," it may be expected there 
 were financial "ups and downs" in the Thompson household of 
 those days, and some affairs of trade were entered upon an 
 account of "faith and hope." 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 33 
 
 When " Uncle Joshua " was born into the dramatic world, and 
 touched the secret springs of human nature as had never been 
 done by any kindred creation of the Yankee type, it was like a 
 find of the richest ore, and paid out almost unendingly. It was 
 his first thought then to look up and pay off any and all claims, 
 of whatever date, with interest simple and compound, and he 
 advertised in important Canadian papers for that purpose. 
 
 Upon his first visit to Toronto after this fortunate turn in 
 the tide of his affairs, he had messengers scouring the city for a 
 week, looking up old acquaintances and creditors who had an- 
 swered his advertisement. He paid out in all $1,900 during this 
 engagement. This unusual proceeding caused a great deal of 
 local comment, and brought into strong relief the seamy side of 
 human nature as well as the good. All of the claims were out- 
 lawed and most of them forgotten. Finally, Mr. Thompson said 
 to one doubtful claimant : " Now, tell me, did I ever owe you 
 anything?" 1 
 
 He replied: "Well, to speak the truth, you did not. But I 
 was hard up — dreadfully so ; and a friend of mine prompted me 
 to try this dodge." He kept the money and left a good deal 
 better in heart. 
 
 Another party followed him to the theatre, and sent in a bill 
 for cannons. At the sight of this odd item, he laughed immod- 
 erately for several minutes, and finally said : " Well, boys, I may 
 be responsible for a good many funny purchases in my day, but 
 I'll swear I never bought cannons. No, sir ; I am not blood- 
 thirsty enough for that. I draw the line on cannons." 
 
 This incident has often been referred to by those who 
 witnessed it, and provoked much mirth. Probably some old firm 
 had an ancient charge on their books of this sort, and thought 
 the occasion a good one to cancel it. 
 
 It was a common practice among the players of the Toronto 
 Stock Company in those early days, as it is in a measure now> 
 under the head of "Summer Snaps," to organize in the summer 
 months upon a commonwealth plan, and arrange a tour through 
 the Ontario and Quebec provinces. A programme of a miscel- 
 
34 
 
 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 laneous order was generally given, with a strong leaning toward 
 minstrelsy. There was the usual first part, with the company 
 blacked and arranged in a semi-circle, to sing ballads, comic 
 ditties, say funny things and listen to popular music. Then 
 followed "Ethiopian Varieties," a Yankee farce, or a roaring 
 burlesque upon circus life, like the " Saw-Dust Brothers," in all 
 of which our hero took an active and popular part. 
 
 He could never learn to play the bones, however, suitably 
 enough for a solo number or in passable time with the band. He 
 could talk, sing and dance well, but with the bones he was weak, 
 hopelessly weak. As he was desirable " on the end," it was devised 
 to have a screen back of him in the first part of the entertain- 
 ment, and behmd this was placed a nimble bone player. Mr. 
 Thompson went through all the motions of an ecstatic bone 
 player, and the dummy back of the screen produced the sound. 
 
 Mr. Thompson retired from the stage in 1868, and followed 
 commercial pursuits until 187 1. He then returned to the stage 
 and played successively in Toronto, Montreal, Rochester and 
 Syracuse, acting the principal role in small pieces like " Pyke 
 O'Callaghan," "Chimney Corner," "Troublesome Yankee," etc. 
 He followed the variety theatres at this time because they offered 
 larger salary. 
 
 In 1874 he went to New York and obtained an engagement 
 with a pantomime and comedy company to go to the West Indies. 
 When they arrived at Kingston they found the place scourged 
 with small-pox, and immediately set sail for Baranquella, United 
 States of Columbia. He escaped the small-pox by this change of 
 course, but incurred the yellow fever. He was isolated from his 
 friends and fellows, therefor, and kept in a rude tent on the coast 
 for ten or twelve days. His naturally robust constitution stood him 
 well in this crisis, as did his naturally good temper and will. 
 But for these administering virtues, he would have been done for 
 early in the sickness, so dreadful were his sufferings and surround- 
 ings; that is, so far as we can estimate results from a physical 
 standpoint. He always looked on the bright side of things. 
 Trials and misfortune did not sink his soul into despair and 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 35 
 
 cripple effort, no more than a few gathering clouds of mist blight 
 and wither the radiant landscape. 
 
 As soon as he was strong enough to walk he sought Captain 
 Eckert, of the steamer Etna, and prevailed on him to take him 
 back to New York. It was doubtful if he could pass the ^quar- 
 antine officer, and the captain and a few fellow passengers whose 
 sympathies were enlisted were palpably uneasy when the official 
 presented himself. Thompson braced himself for the ordeal, for 
 he was as weak as a kitten, as he says, and when the examiner 
 struck him a hardy blow on the chest, as if to test his physical 
 tone, they all looked despair. Said he afterward: "That blow 
 nearly settled me. Its pain tingled in my veins for weeks after- 
 ward. But I was resolved to get back home, and would not 
 give up. It was do or die. That shock, and a long drink of cold 
 water I sneaked away and got in spite of the doctor's orders, I 
 believe drove all the yellow fever out of my system." 
 
 His next engagement was with Murtha and Campbell, at the 
 old Globe Theatre, New York, where he played such parts as 
 Zebulum, in the "Fool of the Family," 
 
 In January, 1875, he went to Harry Martin's Varieties, Pitts- 
 burg, and while there wrote and played the first sketch of the 
 now historically famous "Joshua Whitcomb." 
 
-^^^f 
 
 -1 T— — r 
 
 a ■» 
 
 ---'A-^rijiij^at 
 
 
 r 1-? 
 
 If 
 
 %\ 
 
 
JOSHUA WHITOOMB. 
 
 'OSHUA WHITCOMB is a " dramatic evergreen," and will 
 continue to be so as long as Denman Thompson lives, 
 said a Boston critic, after the rural Yankee had been 
 coming and going for nine successive seasons, always 
 warmly welcome, and as freshening to the spirit and body as the 
 cljanging landscape of the early spring. 
 
 Theatre-goers had been sated with the artificial in plays and 
 players. Affairs and people of the stage were adjusted and regu- 
 lated with a mechanical nicety about as infectious as a read ser- 
 mon or an almanac cover. The elocution and diction were good, 
 opportunities many, sentiments lofty and pure, intention, situa- 
 tions and climaxes all right — but the moving principle of natu- 
 ralness was wanting. That quality of truth which galvanizes the 
 hearer into an active personal interest and overcomes the mimic 
 character of the scene until the curtain falls and dispels the 
 illusion, was a rare attribute. Stage heroes of the Yankee type 
 that had been offered from time to time were of the Brother 
 Jonathan pattern, and about as much like the genuine character 
 of the soil as gilt is like gold. The average specimen was lank, 
 weazened and selfish, with a certain low cunning in trade, and 
 an eccentric bent that invariably run to vulgarity. He was a 
 gross burlesque of the natural man, whose lovable traits, humor- 
 ous enough in their homely lines and expression, never degen- 
 erated into irreverence and coarseness, and were as true to honest 
 manhood as the needle to its pole. John E. Owens came near- 
 est to the natural presentment of a Yankee with a humor, dialect 
 and personal manner that partook of the green hills, scented 
 meadows and youthful memories of Down East farm life,- until 
 " Uncle Josh " came down from Swanzey with the simple charms 
 
3« 
 
 LTFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 and serene dignity of the New Englander as he had been or- 
 dained by both nature and God, and who was as much and sweet 
 a feature of the soil as the buttercups, dandelions and daisies. 
 
 The friend of our childhood had come a long way to see us. 
 His old straw hat, ill-fitting clothes, cow-hide boots and beaming 
 spectacles were more beautiful to our eyes than the most grace- 
 ful and expensive adornments of current fashions. Our hearts 
 warmed and our eyes softened as we went back to the old farm- 
 house kitchen with its big rafters, high dresser and large open 
 fire-place. What a place of cheer at night, brightened by a roar- 
 ing log fire ! The true heart of the house, where we loved to 
 lounge and linger. A mellow, brown old kitchen, full of homely 
 things, the vital centre of a pure and pious home life — how many 
 costly rooms simulate in their expensive furnishings your sombre 
 colors ! The room and its simple furnishings were enriched by 
 shadows from the dancing 6re-light, or the few sunbeams that 
 came in the small windows, and every simple feature of the home- 
 like place was mellowed into a tone of cheerfulness which 
 reached the heart and satisfied the day of yearning as we have 
 never felt again. 
 
 What visions of skies and woods and water and far-off hills 
 were let in through the windows of memory by the bright, 
 beautiful home light of the old homestead ! We could hear the 
 crackling back log, eloquent with fiery tongues, as it sizzled, 
 sputtered and fought against the fates that would exhaust its 
 life blood for the higher comfort and cheer of the human kind. 
 We were boys again, buoyant, wholesome and happy, and Uncle 
 Joshua was the inspiring guide who carried us back to these 
 precious scenes of " heaven on earth," the recollection of which 
 exerts a greater moral influence upon our lives than all the after- 
 thought and study of a maturer age. 
 
 The doors of every heart were thrown wide open and beat a 
 hearty welcome for the honest New Hampshire farmer, and he 
 has been the cherished guest of our affections since. 
 
 Until his Pittsburg engagement Mr. Thompson had affected 
 Irish comedy, with considerable success, and was convinced that 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 39 
 
 therein lay his best hopes for enduring success. He traveled about 
 from city to city doing an Irish piece, in which his clever dancing 
 was a distinctive feature. He went to Pittsburg in this role and 
 was stricken down in the midst of his engagement by a severe 
 attack of rheumatism, and obliged to give up playing for a time. 
 As he depended in a large measure for popular success upon his 
 terpsichorean indulgences, this malady was a serious blow to his 
 prospects. It looked as if he must abandon his profession or 
 submit to a lowly place in the ranks. As salaries in those days 
 were about one-third what they are now, he could not have 
 saved much for a possible contingency like this, even if he was 
 of frugal habits (which he was not), and the outlook was far 
 from promising of aught but pain and care. 
 
 It was clear that if he were to remain an active and honored 
 figure of the stage, it would be by the work of his brains to the 
 exclusion of his heels, and not a divisional affair as heretofore, 
 in which both extremities partook of more or less credit. 
 
 It was under these circumstances, and while confined 
 to his bed, racked with rheumatic pain, that he conceived 
 the idea of playing a Yankee character of the quiet, homely 
 kind — one that depended for its effects more upon dialogue 
 than dramatic business. 
 
 The result was "Joshua Whitcomb." 
 
 At first it was the merest sketch, not taking more than 
 twenty or twenty-five minutes for its representation, and only 
 the vaguest suggestion of the character in its present perfect 
 development. It was produced in this embryonic form for the 
 first time at Harry Martin's Varieties, Pittsburg, in February, 
 1875, and remained two weeks with conspicuous success. There 
 were two scenes — the street scene, in which Uncle Joshua upon 
 his first visit to Boston had a number of exciting and laughable 
 adventures with low types of city life ; and the birthday party 
 at which he made the liveliest sort of merriment by his rustic 
 manners and homely talk. 
 
 At Rochester, in the spring of 1875, "Roundy," the boot- 
 black, and " Tot," the crossing sweeper, were added to the sketch. 
 
40 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 They were familiar figures in the metropolis, wise beyond their 
 years, roughened by the hard knocks of fate, but ingrained with 
 qualities of nature that only needed a little ripening time and 
 sun to develop into strong and lovable character. They gave 
 added zest to Uncle Joshua's city trip, and photographed a phase 
 of lowly city life that intensified the simple charms of the quiet 
 country home and its rustic king. 
 
 From Rochester he went to the Coliseum at Chicago, man- 
 aged by Hamblin Brothers. Here it was, and during this en- 
 gagement in the summer of 1875, that Mr. Thompson met Mr. 
 J. M. Hill, a Chicago merchant, who afterward became his 
 manager and evinced a managerial talent that commanded the 
 admiration and respect of the whole theatrical business. He 
 was a Yankee himself, remarkably energetic and shrewd, and 
 rose to a pitch of enthusiasm over the homely merits of the 
 piece, still an after-sketch, which led to his giving up his legiti- 
 mate business in Chicago the following year and joining fortunes 
 with Mr. Thompson. He continued in the relation of manager 
 and partner with Mr. Thompson six years, during which time 
 there was not a single marring incident, and there never existed 
 a writing of any sort between them in business dealings. 
 
 This original sketch was as happily natural in its character, 
 woof and humorous incident as the four-act play into which it 
 finally developed. The homely handiwork of the piece, seasoned 
 with the true flavor of simple rustic life, and the real Jonathan 
 of the farm, uncouth in dress and dialect, but honest, self-reliant 
 and kind, touched the golden keys of memory and awoke a 
 sweet response in every heart, full of tender recollections and 
 soothing emotions. 
 
 The public wanted more of it. The space, quiet, sunshine, 
 verdure and homely characters of remote country life as reflected 
 through Uncle Josh and his dramatic etching, inoculated the 
 audiences with a taste for the pure pleasures and woodland 
 odors of extreme New England, and they longed for more of its 
 companionship. 
 
 A second and a third act were added at Chicago during the 
 
42 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 years of 1876 and 1877, and in the spring of the latter year it 
 was presented in the dignified proportions of a three-act play at 
 Haverly's, now Hooley's, Theatre. The venture did not prove 
 immediately successful in the new form, and the management 
 was considerably out of pocket at the close of the Haverly 
 Theatre engagement. 
 
 In the summer of 1877 Mr. Thompson organized a company 
 and determined upon a tour of the New England towns, beginning 
 at Bridgeport in September, 1877. It was thought that in this 
 section, above all, Uncle Joshua would be appreciated at his true 
 value, and bring honors and profits to all concerned. It proved 
 an illusive hope, at least on this occasion, and after seven weeks 
 of " hope deferred " the season was closed. 
 
 The company then went to Buffalo and began a Western tour 
 under the personal direction of Mr. J. M. Hill. Mr. Hill remained 
 constantly with the company from this time for the next five 
 years. When he and Mr. Thompson separated they had divided 
 over $400,000 in profits from the play " Joshua Whitcomb." 
 
 Not until Denver was reached in the winter of 1878 was 
 there any radical change in the fortunes of the play and players. 
 
 The bitter was taken with the sweet, and all remained buoy- 
 antly confident of the result. The fact of the star having been 
 previously identified with variety theatres no doubt militated 
 against his early success in many places, and saddled the pre- 
 possession of many newspaper writers. 
 
 But at Denver the local critics were taxed for fine words to 
 show their admiration for the beautiful stage character, and the 
 business of the engagement resolved itself simply into a question 
 of space. 
 
 In March, 1878, Emerson's Opera House, afterward called 
 the Standard Theatre, was rented for Uncle Joshua's San Fran- 
 cisco debut. This was not the house for a good local effect with 
 a new attraction, and one praised for its New England atmos- 
 phere, but preferred theatres were not available or the presiding 
 geniuses were averse to the experiment. Acres of advertising 
 space were covered with pictorial and descriptive paper. The 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 43 
 
 newspapers were used as never before to exploit the homely 
 virtues and quaint humor of the Swanzey farmer. There was 
 an audacity in the cost and spread of these announcements 
 which startled the gossips and inspired a good deal of idle com- 
 ment on the folly of the enterprise and the probability of 
 failure. The latter feeling grew apace in social centres before 
 the production, and the critics went the first night more or less 
 prepared for saddening results. The very extreme of managerial 
 flourish no doubt occasioned these misgivings, at least on the 
 part of the critical guild. 
 
 On the opening night the house was only half full. To the 
 credit of the management be it said, there was no attempt at 
 bolstering for a good first impression through a gratuitous au- 
 dience. The faith and principle of the enterprise were not of 
 that sort. They had that to offer which it was felt would com- 
 mend itself for honest admiration, without any showman's tricks. 
 And they were right. 
 
 The newspaper censors vied with each other in writing fine 
 phrases of Uncle Joshua's peculiar charms and the rare beauty 
 and entertainment of his play. 
 
 The second night the theatre was almost filled. The third 
 night it was comfortably so. The latter half of the week and 
 during the rest of the engagement, running through an extended 
 period of eight weeks, seats were held at a premium and hard 
 to get at that. Uncle Joshua was the dramatic idol of the day. 
 He brought with him a patch of the clear blue sky, green hills, 
 clover meadows, the old farm house with its treasured joys of 
 childhood, and a life as full of wholesome flavor and vitality as 
 the wild apples of a country orchard, which boys are bound to 
 steal, and relish above all other sweets. There is hardly any 
 person, whatever his environment of growth and city life, who 
 has not a latent sweetness of nature, waiting to be unloosed by 
 the right conditions of time and circumstance, into feeling as 
 pure and tender as any emotion of first or second childhood. 
 
 There was good news abroad. Every person became a per- 
 sonal herald. Families, friends, strangers sat down together to 
 
44 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 enjoy the abundant feast of all that is best in human nature. It 
 was a long thanksgiving service in which everybody seemed to 
 join. 
 
 The return from San Francisco to the East was a journey 
 marked by the same demonstrations of affectionate welcome. It 
 was then concluded to go into New York and present " Joshua 
 Whitcomb " for a long period. The Lyceum Theatre, now the 
 Fourteenth Street, was secured from the lessee, Mr. A. M. Palmer, 
 for six months upon a liberal rental basis. 
 
 In September, 1878, "Joshua Whitcomb "was introduced to a 
 New York public at the Lyceum Theatre. It was freely men- 
 tioned that the engagement was to be for six months. This play- 
 house had been a conspicuous failure up to this time. These 
 facts were juicy items for the theatrical wiseacres, impecunious 
 and obtrusive, of which New York is a sort of hot-bed. Besides, 
 " Hill,'' the manager, hadn't rubbed the dust of commerce from 
 off his coat sleeve yet. A capital centre like New York is not to 
 be won so easily as Bangor, St. Joe and Ogden. Arrogant folly! 
 
 To be frank, these enemies of thought had a laughing time 
 and merry talk for several weeks. They didn't calculate upon 
 that touch of human nature which makes the world of kin, about 
 which poets have sung and prophets have written. 
 
 The advertising methods of the management again attracted 
 general notice. Newspaper space was bought up with the enter- 
 prise of a dry goods merchant. Bill posters chuckled and were 
 happy. Yet back of it all there was something to sell, and cus- 
 tomers soon found it out. It was wholesome amusement, delight- 
 ful companionship, a gracious joy that stirred up the springs of 
 one's spiritual nature. 
 
 New York soon followed the world and was happily exer- 
 cised over " Joshua Whitcomb " as it is now over " The Old 
 Homestead." 
 
 From this time until " The Old Homestead " was presented 
 as a continuation of " Joshua Whitcomb," the latter play was 
 held in affectionate regard everywhere, and succeeded financially 
 as well beyond all precedent. 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 45 
 
 An old Philadelphia lady summed it up correctly when she 
 remarked after she had seen Mr. Thompson as Uncle Joshua, 
 " That man is not acting — he portrays a living character." And 
 as a minister out West said to his congregation after witnessing 
 the play — " If all plays put upon the stage were as good as this 
 one, I should recommend you to become regular patrons of the 
 theatre, for no sensible person can object to harmless amuse- 
 ment." 
 
 They were both right. 
 
 V:>i 
 
HE sum of human happiness was added to con- 
 siderably everywhere " Joshua Whitcomb" and 
 its noble characters were seen. Its homely 
 charms warmed into life precious memories. 
 Every heart responded to its natural life. The 
 hardened lines of a formal, selfish world were 
 melted in their places, and faces made to beam 
 with softening thoughts of other days and 
 their best joys. It was a glad experience and 
 did the soul good. It spread good cheer wherever it went. It 
 was a sort of dramatic landscape, fragrant and glowing with 
 healthy life, with Uncle Joshua lifted up and standing out from 
 it all, an evident king, and the greatest glory. 
 
 It was a good thing for the world, and, as with a good book, 
 there was room for more. Every natural heart longed for more 
 of the pure country life and its invigorating spell. The hope 
 was continually expressed that Mr. Thompson might create 
 another play with the same refreshing power. " Joshua Whit- 
 comb" had become a familiar story. Its rural characters and 
 woodland flavors were as sweet to the senses as ever, but that 
 restless law of nature which seeketh after newer and higher 
 beauties, whatever the acquirement, thirsted for more of the 
 same delightful companionship. 
 
 These influences resulted in the writing of the " Old Home- 
 stead." In "Joshua Whitcomb" the son Reuben, who is the 
 virtuous pride of the old people, is charged with robbing the 
 Cheshire Bank, and the disgrace of such an accusation against 
 his boy, the soul of honor and honesty, as he thought, almost 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 crushed the old farmer's spirit and 
 blighted their home. The piece ended 
 in the boy's exoneration and a thanksgiv- 
 ing at the " Old Homestead," in which 
 all felt a glowing personal interest. But 
 the odium of having been arrested for so 
 serious a crime, which was sure to cling 
 more or less to his name among the 
 simple country people familiar with the 
 fact, was the germinal idea for a new 
 play. Reuben was to leave the old farm 
 for New York to build up a good name 
 and fortune among strangers, and Uncle 
 Joshua's trip to the metropolis to look up 
 the absent boy, from whom he had not 
 heard for a long time, and the humorous 
 incidents such a journey made possible, 
 furnished the lines of work which have 
 been so admirably followed in the now 
 famous play, "The Old Homestead." 
 
 In the first scheme of the piece 
 it was intended that Uncle Joshua 
 should make the trip from Boston by a 
 Sound steamer, and his experience on 
 one of these " floating palaces" was to furnish much humorous 
 amusement. But several farcical sketches came into the theat- 
 rical field before this idea was formulated into dramatic shape, 
 and the plan was abandoned. 
 
 Finally Mr. George W. Ryer, a business acquaintance for 
 whom Mr. Thompson had evinced a strong liking, was asked to 
 give his attention to the construction of a play to succeed " Joshua 
 Whitcomb," as a continuation of the same theme, and with the 
 same principal characters. Mr. Ryer undertook to write the play 
 himself, but in a short time confessed that his knowledge of 
 " Josh Whitcomb" and New England life was too slight to admit 
 of satisfactory results without the aid of Mr. Thompson himself. 
 
 REUBEN WHITCOMB. 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 49 
 
 The effect of this was that Mr. Ryer joined Mr. Thompson at 
 Lock Haven, Penn., about December, 1885. " Joshua Whitcomb " 
 was then being played through Pennsylvania, changing the place 
 of performance each night. They began the work at once, and 
 despite the inconvenience of daily travel, finished the play in 
 fifteen days. " During the progress of the work," said Mr. Ryer 
 afterward, " Mr. Thompson overflowed with humorous anecdote 
 and pleasant reminiscence, one-half of which, if I could remem- 
 ber, would adorn and prosper several plays." 
 
 " The Old Homestead " was presented to the public for the 
 first time at the Boston Theatre, April, 1886. Uncle Joshua 
 was always a welcome guest in Boston, and the receipts of the 
 first week in the new play were $11,279.25. Several minor charac- 
 ters like Eb. Ganzey (" Whistling Eb."), the carroty-headed Irish- 
 man in the last act, and " The Hoboken Tough," which have 
 since fitted so pleasurably to the spirit and scheme of the play, 
 were not in the original production. 
 
 It may be interesting to know that Joshua Whitcomb, who 
 has given so much good cheer into the world, is a reproduction 
 of two actual personages in Swanzey, N. H., known there as 
 Captain Otis Whitcomb and Joshua Holbrook. Captain Otis 
 furnished the comedy and Joshua the more serious elements of 
 this unique and life-like coftibination. They are both dead now, 
 although the former lived long enough to see Joshua Whitcomb 
 become a favorite type with the public. 
 
 Aunt Matilda and Cy Prime are also translated from actual 
 life in New Hampshire. We recognize in the patient, kindly 
 woman before us, weaving, knitting and stitching her life into 
 the fabrics in hand, a magnetic type of New England spinster- 
 hood, whose largeness of heart and sweetness of instinct was 
 a blessing and pride to many neighborhoods. The original of 
 Aunt Matilda was a sister of Joshua Holbrook, and known to all 
 the people of Swanzey as " Aunt Rhody " — a tender, honest, 
 faithful, respectful unit who transmuted the joys and sorrows of 
 her homely life and the home into pure gold. 
 
CY PRIME AND SETH PERKINS, 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 51 
 
 Cy Prime is a character photograph of one of the most 
 noted liars' in Cheshire County. 
 
 Seth Perkins is a creature of the imagination, but so true to 
 flesh and blood and distinct from the other personages in the 
 play as to form an exquisite gem of the New England soil, to 
 be cherished by every respecter of genuine worth. 
 
 Rickety Ann is a poorhouse waif, of which there are many 
 in the country towns, adopted to do chores and light menial 
 
 AUNT MATILDA WHITCOMB AND RICKETY ANN. 
 
 work about the farm. She is a queer tangle of good and bad 
 traits, bungling most errands, fretting the chickens, "sassing" 
 the neighbors' boys and help, and as full of animal life and 
 romp as a young colt. She tells her whole story when she says, 
 " I kin climb a tree like a boy — want to see me ?" She and the 
 big overgrown boy, Eb. Ganzey, are natural wild flowers, racy 
 of the New Hampshire hills, that grow up without any pruning 
 
52 
 
 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 save what nature gives them, unset- 
 tled, untamed things to the end, but 
 full of rugged strength and warm 
 color. 
 
 These characters are all brought 
 forward in the first act of the play, 
 which takes place on the Old Home- 
 stead Farm, at Swanzey, N. H. The 
 scene is idyllic and domestic. It is 
 a singularly realistic picture. The 
 odor of sweet-briar and honeysuckle 
 is in the air. The~ deep green lane, 
 the old brown kitchen, the bench and 
 basin beside the door, the kitchen 
 garden, the bee- hive close by, grind- 
 stone under the maple and old well- 
 box and oaken bucket, are familiar 
 'sights that make one believe the good 
 old days have come back again. The 
 personages before us are not actors, 
 with parts to speak, but our old farm 
 friends, living as they have always 
 lived, and turning back upon our thoughts the sunshine of early 
 days. 
 
 What a beautiful lesson Uncle Josh teaches when he gives 
 the tramp money enough to take him to his home, and reflects, 
 as he sits outside the cottage door — " My boy is awaj' from home 
 to-night ; perhaps he's in trouble, and if he is, I hope some kind 
 hand will be stretched out to help him." He then sinks into a 
 gentle slumber and dreams of his boy, and voices from the cot- 
 tage swell out an accompaniment to the dream with the old 
 song, " Where is My Wandering Boy To-night ?" It forms a 
 touching picture, and has had an effect for good in more than 
 one life. 
 
 Here is an instance: A young man living in Minneapolis, 
 whose home was near Bangor, Me., had been out West for several 
 
 HAPPY JACK. 
 
LIFE OF BF.NMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 S3 
 
 "^^it JbJai-p. {)ye.s,i ,do-n.tc.a.r^Cn tijL.yKe.-v 
 
 years, and his letters to the "old folks" began to get wider and 
 wider apart, until six or seven months had gone without a Word 
 passing between them. His own words to Mr. Thompson can 
 best express his feelings: " When I saw the great anxiety of the 
 father for the son, and the dream, I cried like a child, and I 
 
 ^r^jou, ^aT7Jrj 
 
UF% OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 55 
 
 went straight to the hotel and wrote home, and I'm going to 
 write every week of my life. You know I was raised in the 
 country, and the play took me back to my old homestead." 
 
 The one shadow that fell upon his simple, pious, strong life 
 was on this account. His boy, Reuben, had gone far away to a 
 great city and he had not heard from him for " nigh onto a year." 
 He determines to seek him, and as he does he leaves all the 
 quaintness and quietness of the New England scenes behind him 
 and comes to New York. 
 
 The second act reveals Uncle Joshua in the house of a mil- 
 lionaire. Henry Hopkins, his host, is an old New Hampshire 
 boy and play-fellow. They sat on the same bench in the country 
 school. The city man has grown rich and formal, and his wife 
 and daughter affect fashion. His footman, whose name is Fo- 
 garty, is called Francois and dressed gorgeously. " Gosh, I tho't 
 he was some foreign lord," said Joshua, after their first meeting ; 
 and the novelty of knee breeches brings forth the homely criti- 
 cism, " Got his trowsers gallused up pretty high. Outgrowed 
 them a leetle might, I guess." 
 
 Joshua is amusingly out of sorts with his luxuriant sur- 
 roundings. His best efforts to "he polite are bunglingly funny, 
 though sincere. The proud Mrs. Hopkins is obliged to take ref- 
 uge from his well intentioned compliments. What an honest 
 ring and glow there is to this short dialogue at their introduction, 
 though rather confusing to the sumptuous Mrs. Hopkins before 
 a numerous company: 
 
 Joshua — Let me see, you 
 was a Richardson, wa'n't you ? 
 
 Mrs. Hopkins — Yes, Mr. 
 Whitcomb. 
 
 Joshua — Betsey Richard- 
 son ? 
 
 Mrs. Hopkins — Elizabeth 
 Richardson. 
 
 Joshua — Yes, I remember, 
 we used to call you Betts for 
 
MR. AND MKS. HOPKINS. 
 
LIFE OF DEnMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 57 
 
 short. I can remember the first time I ever see you, just as well 
 as if it was yesterday. 
 
 Mrs. Hopkins — Indeed ! 
 
 Joshua — Yes, you drove down to the store with your father 
 on a load of wood. I never will forget how purty you looked 
 that day, in your new caliker frock and sun bonnet, and your 
 
 FRANCOIS FOGARTY. 
 
 MISS NELLIE PATTERSON. 
 
 blue yarn stockings hangin' down over the side on the load of 
 maple. 
 
 No wonder the daughter said, " Ma, he didn't look half so 
 funny in the country." 
 
 And after he said to _ udge Patterson, a friend of the family, 
 " You ain't no relation to old John Patterson, that used to keep 
 
S8 
 
 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 F I T C 
 
 the soap factory at Chesterfield, 
 be you ? " Mrs. Hopkins was 
 compelled to say, " Henry, for 
 goodness sake take him away or 
 I shall go frantic." 
 
 Innocent mirth begins to 
 bubble like a mountain spring as 
 soon as Joshua returns from the 
 stables. " Gosh, I tho't I sot 
 on a cat," as he jumps from the 
 first chair he touches. The farm 
 yitld is not so good' as it used to be — "Then we've had a 
 good deal to contend with. The season's been dry, and we've 
 had two circuses and a balloon ascension and a wrestlin' match, 
 and one thing and another, and old Abe Hill always contended 
 such things hurt crops wuss than grasshoppers." 
 
 And to the query, "Are the Peterson boys all living?" — "All 
 living but Bill, and I guess he'd a bin if he'd staid to home. 
 Bill_ always was of a roving turn of mind, and he took a fancy 
 and went out West somewhere — out to Montany, I guess it was 
 — and he got tangled up with politics and whiskey and a piece 
 of rope, and it kind o' discouraged him a leetle might." 
 
 And when he comes suddenly upon the nude statue — the 
 Venus de Medici — the merriment swells to a roar. " If I'd put 
 that up in my cornfield," he says, "I'll bet I'd be arrested afore 
 night." And he wants to know if "that was a New York lady 
 afore she died," and "what do you do with her when the min- 
 ister comes ?" 
 
 As Joshua is "a leetle might skittish about fire," he is given 
 his host's private office on the first floor for a sleeping room. 
 Says he before going, " You might as well leave a sasser of taller 
 alongside the fireplace; I may want to grease my boots before 
 you get up in the morning." 
 
 The homely virtues and phrase of Uncle Joshua shine all 
 through the splendid setting of this act, and afford rare and de- 
 lightful entertainment. 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 59 
 
 Joshua finds his boy in the third act. The scene takes place 
 before Grace Church on Broadway at night. A number of city 
 typeSj humorous and pathetic, pass review in this act. There is 
 the drinking, homeless wanderer, " The Salvation Army," " The 
 Hoboken Terror," " The Apple Woman," "The Letter Carrier," 
 and many familiar city characters. Uncle Joshua's rustic, simple 
 bravery is brought into vivid action here, and causes a good deal 
 of humorous excitement. 
 
 The meeting of the honest old farmer and his lost son, as he 
 comes staggering into his arms, is touching in the extreme. 
 
 After all the excitement and worrying change of the last two 
 acts, the Old Homestead of the fourth and last act is a 
 refreshing contrast. 
 
 This scene is beautifully and truthfully described by Mr. 
 A. C. Wheeler, and is here quoted by permission: 
 
 Joshua had just comejn from the barn, and says to Tilda, 
 who sits in her accustomed place knitting, " Not a critter on the 
 place but'U sleep as warm as a meader mouse under a hay-stack." 
 Aunt Tilda lays her knitting softly down to wipe a tear-drop 
 
 # 
 
'miir- ■■-■■■ ..:l'-v.ij». 
 
 j^ifif<Ml)§|fHii?»>S«'! 
 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 6l 
 
 you, ire Cjoi'lrp letiSy" 
 
 from her eye. She is thinking of 
 Reuben, and Joshua tells her that 
 
 the boy will be 
 
 home to-night. 
 
 " He didn't want 
 
 to come home^ 
 
 with me, and hev 
 
 the neighbers say, 
 
 ' His old father 
 
 hed to bring him 
 
 home again ;' he's 
 
 too proud speret- 
 
 ed fer that ! " 
 
 It is New Year's night. A sleighing party has gone over 
 from Swanzey to Keene to meet Reuben and escort him back. 
 The fire is burning brightly in the old fireplace. The old clock 
 ticks regularly there in the corner, New Year's night and cold at 
 that. How the hickory logs spit and how the sparks go whirling 
 up the broad flue and out 
 into the sharp clear night ! 
 
 As a' domestic picture of 
 real life this has probably 
 never been equaled on our 
 stage ; its quiet realism is ad- 
 mirable. Seth and Cy are still 
 quarreling and making up, 
 and Aunt Tilda remains a 
 spinster. There is probably 
 not a line in the act that is not 
 a literal transcription from 
 New England customs and 
 conversation. When Joshua 
 says he will " go down into 
 the cellar and set my mouse- , 
 trap," we have a touch of the 
 actual, that no dr3.matist on 
 
62 
 
 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 earth could have furnished out of his imagination. And when 
 she asks Joshua to go in the front room " and turn the damper 
 in the stovepipe, coz all the heat's a goin' up the chimbly," 
 the absolute fidelity of the thing that everj'- New England 
 man has heard a thousand times is proof that the material of 
 the play is genuine. 
 
 " THE HOBOKEN TERROR." 
 
 ONE OF THE FINEST. 
 
 This fidelity is seen in the contrast of home character and in 
 the perfect truthfulness of the realistic details. Anna Maria Mur- 
 dock, the best nurse in the hull county, and who comes in be- 
 cause she got a little lonesome, is known from Boston to Bridge- 
 port, and is as familiar to us as Aunt Tilda herself. Then as to 
 the details It lacks not one essential of the New England 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 63 
 
 kitchen ; bunches of corn, strings of dried 
 apples, and slices of pumpkin festoon the 
 kitchen walls. The old flint-lock hangs 
 over the doorway. The old warming-pan, 
 the bellows, tongs and shovel, hammered 
 into form over a century ago, in the little 
 historic village of Swanzey, N. H., where 
 Mr. Thompson's forefathers were born and 
 raised. What an eloquent part that old 
 red cradle plays ! Did it ever strike you 
 before that the New England cradle and 
 barn were nearly always painted red ? 
 There is subtle cleverness in introducing this cradle at the 
 
 end of so perfect a home story. It is the Alpha of domestic life, 
 
 set in the Omega of the domestic drama. 
 
 After long years of forgetfulness, it was a pleasure to chase 
 
 the memories back to the Old Homestead. It was so distinctively 
 
 V'C'fy ?ol/(,s 
 
 
 ■^itterm- W»rse' 
 
 Yankee. There seemed to be an odor of the pine woods running 
 thro' it. The soft-blowing breezes that rocked the song bird's 
 cradle came creeping across the tangled grasses, and my heart 
 seemed to feel as the ground must, of an April day, when that 
 
64 
 
 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 yJP 
 
 strange life is worKing upward, until every bush and twig shows 
 some twinkling gem of leaf or flower, that smiles upon you as it 
 kisses the sunlight. 
 
 But hark! There are the sleigh-bells jingling ! The door is 
 burst open — you can almost feel the cold air blowing in your 
 face. Reuben is home again ! 
 
 yVowC^ j'all |air" 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 6S 
 
 And so, with the song of " The Old Red Cradle " in our ears, 
 and the recollections of the " Auld Lang Syne," with its homely 
 beauty to carry away in our hearts, we seem to have gone back 
 for an hour to the granite hills and warm hearts of our boyhood, 
 and to have lived once more among the scenes that will always 
 be the brightest and holiest in our memories. 
 
IS—' 
 
TRIBUTES. 
 
 ELOW are a few tributes of admiration for 
 Denman Thompson and " The Old 
 Homestead," selected as representative 
 of a large volume received since 
 "The Old Homestead" began its re- 
 markable engagement at the Academy 
 of Music, New York City. Over 290,000 
 people saw the play at this historic 
 theatre in the first three months of its 
 run, and the receipts averaged a per- 
 formance $1,624.25. These are the largest 
 returns accorded a theatrical enterprise 
 in the history of the American stage at 
 '^ ^ the prices, 25 cents, 50 cents, 75 cents 
 
 and f i.oo. The Academy of Music has been the scene of many 
 glorious successes, and has a distinguished record, but to " The 
 Old Homestead " belongs the hono- of attracting the greatest 
 number of people. 
 
 A. C. Wheeler, Dramatic Critic New York World. 
 
 Wherever Joshua Whitcomb's name is mentioned now there 
 is a strain awakened like the far-off bells of New England. 
 
 He brought the smell of the sweet clover into our native 
 drama and set up there the New England home with all its 
 precious memories. 
 
 He might have ransacked the world and he could not have 
 got a theme that would touch so many American hearts as the 
 Old Homestead. 
 
68 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 And if New England is the land of homesteads, the cradle 
 of commonwealths, the school-house of patriots, the academy of 
 statesmen, it was after all in the Homestead that our Websters, 
 our Adams, our Everetts, our Longfellows got their earliest in- 
 spiration and imbibed the principles that made them known to 
 the world. 
 
 That old homestead stands there yet on the stony hills and 
 in the shady valleys, just as it stood when " Bunker Hill was fit." 
 It has sent out generation after generation of brave men and 
 women who have made the valleys of the Ohio and the Missis- 
 sippi to blossom like the rose. They fought the battle of life 
 with a hymn-book in one hand and a musket in the other. They 
 drove the savage before them, and wherever they swung the axe 
 they set up the meeting-house and the district school. They 
 over-ran Ohio, they converted the prairies of Illinois into 
 measureless gardens that fed the world, and their sons and 
 daughters to-day are types of the hardihood and indomitable 
 pluck that snatched states from barbarism all along the great 
 domain of the West. 
 
 These men and women come from the New England Home- 
 stead. They had sterling piety, simple honesty and unconquer- 
 able thrift. With them shiftlessness was a crime. 
 
 They were made of granite and sunshine, and they went 
 over this continent with the keenness of the winter's blast, and 
 something of the nourishing gentleness of the summer's rain. 
 
 Of course it is the Home that makes men and women. 
 Somebody has said that the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand 
 that rules the world. And the New England Home, with its 
 rugged simplicity, its quaintness and sternness, is the Home that 
 Joshua Whitcomb puts before our eyes with its living, breathing 
 New England people. 
 
 No one even of the third or fourth generation will fail to 
 feel its charm and recognize its idyllic truth if he has one drop 
 of New England blood in him. All that is sweetest and kindliest 
 in the boyhood past comes back with the suggestions of this 
 play of "The Old Homestead." 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 69 
 
 INNOCENT AMUSEMENT. 
 Rev. Henry M. Field, in the New York Evangelist. 
 
 A few days since a resident of this city, who was born in 
 Stockbridge, Mass., and whom we have known for the trifle of 
 fifty years (it is really nearer sixty, but don't mention it), but 
 who for the last thirty years has lived in New York, and is an 
 honored member of Rev. Dr. Crosby's church, came to us with a 
 face beaming with happiness. He had been to see a performance 
 of "The Old Homestead " at the Academy of Music, which had 
 brought back such memories of his. childhood as made him a 
 boy again. He had, laughed and he ftad cried ; but to hear him 
 tell of it, he was about as happy in one as the other. The whole 
 impression was, he affirmed, not only innocent and pure, but 
 positively good ; he had found at last a diversion which he 
 thought healthful to body and mind, and which he insisted that 
 Christians ought to patronize, if it were only to show that they were 
 not opposed to innocent pleasures, but only to such as were con- 
 nected with bad associations. Believing thus, he urged us 
 strongly to go and see for ourselves. 
 
 Thus persuaded, we went, and we must say that we think our 
 old friend was not far out of the way. " The Old Homestead " is a 
 picture of country life in New England half a century ago. You 
 may call it " a play," but it is a play such as might have been 
 acted in the old times in any New England Academy, by the 
 boys and girls, who wished to get up something for their own 
 amusement, or perchance to raise a little money to furnish new 
 cushions for the meeting-house. The only difference is that here 
 everything is got up far more perfectly. Our readers will re- 
 member the Old Folks Concerts, which were so popular a few 
 years ago, in which a number of good singers were dressed up 
 in costumes such as our grandfathers and grandmothers wore, 
 and sung the songs that the dear old grandfathers and grand- 
 mothers, who had fallen asleep, had sung a generation before. 
 The Old Homestead is a similar revival of the ancient days. The 
 " scenery " is rural and domestic ; an old-fashioned kitchen, with 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 71 
 
 ihe farmer's family and his neighbors talking in the old Yankee 
 dialect. A load of hay, drawn by oxen, lumbers across the stage 
 and enters the barn. The hay-makers gather round an old well- 
 sweep, and after drinking the pure water, sing 
 
 " The moss-covered bucket that hangs in the well." 
 Then the scene changes to the city, to which the farmer 
 comes to visit an old acquaintance whom he had known when 
 they were boys together ; and his surprise at the splendor of the 
 city mansion is very amusing. There is a view of Grace Church, 
 from within which are heard voices singing as sweetly as any city 
 choir. In front of this the old man takes his place to watch the 
 ever-passing crowd, to see if he can discover a son, who, wander- 
 ing away from the old home, took to bad ways, and was lost in 
 the great city. At last the prodigal appears, and the father falls 
 upon his neck. The return home is celebrated with rejoicings. 
 The sleigh-bells jingle merrily as they bring the wanderer back, 
 the fire blazes brightly on the hearth, and the family gather 
 round it with happy and grateful hearts. 
 
 Such is an outline of this simple pjerformance, the impression 
 of which is as pure and wholesome as the most scrupulous could 
 desire. The moral is good. The old man talks temperance to 
 the prodigal as tenderly and yet as earnestly as any temperance 
 lecturer, to which the audience heartily responded. Indeed it 
 was a very sober audience, not at all a fashionable or theatre- 
 going one, that seemed to be made up of descendants of New 
 England, who came to have their memories revived of the old 
 days and the old folks at home. If our providers of places of 
 amusement were careful to give us such simple entertainments 
 as this, parents would not need to be so constantly on their 
 guard against the mischievous tendency of popular amusements 
 upon their children. 
 
 From S. Churchill, the Author of '^ Thanksgiving Sixty Years Ago." 
 Denman Thompson, Esq., Academy of Music, N. Y. City : 
 Dear Sir — After witnessing the exhibitions you are giving 
 at the Academy of Music in delineating the farm scenes of the 
 
72 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 olden times, I am not surprised to see the throngs crowding 
 around the ticket office in the morning for seats for the evening: 
 
 The character of the whole play is filling a vacuum of long 
 existence in our want of a proper amusement and evening en-l 
 joyment, where a gentleman of refinement and culture can take 
 his wife and daughters and be entertained without having their 
 finer sensibilities disturbed by scenes that are seen and heard on 
 the stage. 
 
 You have successfully introduced a play that furnishes in- 
 nocent amusement, cheerful recreation and a pleasant diversion, 
 enlivened by hilarious enjoyment. 
 
 To those more advanced in life it recalls the scenes and ex- 
 perience of their early days at the Old Homestead. To those in 
 middle age the novelties furnish ample occasion for joyous 
 amusement. To the young it gives a rare insight into old modes 
 and manners, full of instruction. To those who have their ner- 
 vous system taxed by excessive cares and burdensome anxiety, 
 it gives a pleasant relaxation. To the full-fed and agile, with 
 buoyant hopes, it arouses their temperament to a high pitch of 
 mental enjoyment. Ladies of culture and pure sensibilities, who 
 are disgusted with innuendos or double entendres in words or 
 acts that blink toward lasciviousness, are the first to enjoy pure 
 native wit or innocent humor, and laugh the loudest. 
 
 The man who can meet and supply these wants in the ex- 
 igency, occupies a high and honorable position, and should 
 guard against any temptation to lower the high standard of 
 moral excellency that has so highly elevated the fame of Joshua 
 Whitcomb in the esteem of your patrons. S. Churchill. 
 
 EUGENE field's OPINION OF DENMAN THOMPSON'S ART. 
 
 The play of " The Old Homestead " is one which can be en- 
 joyed over and over again ; each time some new and delicate 
 beauty appears, or some pleasant memory is awakened, or some 
 sweet fancy is suggested. Certain it is that no other play be- 
 fore us at the present tim-e abounds in such wholesome material 
 as we find in the homely pictures and the genial humor and the 
 tender pathos presented by Denman Thompson in his latest 
 work. 
 
 Amid all the changes and fluctuations to which our stage 
 has been subjected, there has obtained a strong demand for a 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 purely American drama — a play which should truthfully illus- 
 trate a type of our humanity. This demand is fully answered, 
 we think, in " The Old Homestead," a production so complete in 
 its naturalness that it seems to be not a play but actual bits of 
 Yankeedom and of Yankee flesh and blood plucked from the 
 Down-East and spread before us for our delectation and benefit. 
 Denman Thompson himself is unquestionably the only delineator 
 of Yankee character the stage has had ; he does not act — he is. 
 Until he gave us Uncle Josh, the Yankee of the playhouse was 
 simply a buffoonish freak, to be ranked with the conventional 
 negro minstrel and the typical stage Irishman. 
 
 "The Old Homestead," so truthful of illustration and so 
 pure and kindly of motive, may be accepted as altogether the 
 best American play yet produced. 
 
 We who live in the West feel under peculiar obligations to 
 Denman Thompson for the good he brings to us in this rare work 
 of his. Many of us are unable to get back to the home, the 
 people and the scenes of our youth. Hills, plains and rivers in- 
 tervene ; the distance is great and this busy Western life of ours 
 is exacting in its demands. Sometimes business, sometimes ill 
 health, and sometimes poverty keeps us from revisiting the old 
 homestead and the old folks, but none of us ever loses his love 
 and veneration for the dear scenes and the kindly spirits about 
 which the tendrils of memory cling so tenderly. In Uncle Joshua 
 Whitcomb we recognize an old friend ; we knew him in Maine, 
 Vermont, New Hampshire — yes, and in York State too. His 
 name was not Joshua Whitcomb in the old days, but he was then 
 the same lovable character as he is to-day, his heart as tender, 
 his charity as universal, his humor as quaint, his pathos as ten- 
 der. So, while you and I and others may disagree as to who he 
 was when we were boys, we do agree that each of us knew him 
 then, and that we all love him now. He is an old friend come 
 from among the hills that once did girt us round about, and he 
 has transplanted out here among the prairies patches of our old 
 New England ; and we seem to breathe once more the atmos- 
 
74 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 phere of those hills, and we seem to hear the humming of bees 
 and to scent the fragrance of lilacs and wintergreen. 
 
 We laugh riotously, for it is fun to be boys and girls again ; 
 but we cry, too, for in all we see and hear there is so much of 
 suggestion. We see more than our eyes behold, and hear more 
 than that which falls upon our ears ; faces that are dust now, 
 voices which were hushed long ago — these are the sights and 
 these the sounds recalled by the magic of Denman Thompson's 
 art. — Eugene Field, in the Chicago News, March, 1888. 
 
 "THE OLD HOMESTEAD." 
 
 Jest as atween the awk'ard lines a hand we love has penn'd 
 
 Appears a meanin' hid from other eyes ; 
 So, in your simple, homespun art, old honest Yankee friend, 
 
 A power o' tearful, sweet suggestion lies. 
 We see it all — the pictur' that your mem'ries hold so dcar^ 
 
 The homestead in New England far away ; 
 And the vision is so nat'ral-like we almost seem to hear 
 
 The voices that were heshed but yesterday. 
 
 Ah! who'd ha' thought the music of that distant childhood time 
 Would sleep through all the changeful, bitter years 
 
 To waken into melodies like Chris'mas bells a-chime 
 An' to claim the ready tribute of our tears! 
 
 Why, the robins in the maples an' the blackbirds 'roun the pond. 
 
 The crickets an' the locusts in the leaves. 
 The brook that chased the trout adown the hillside jest beyond. 
 
 An' the swallers in their nests beneath the eaves — 
 They all come troopin' back with you, dear Uncle Josh, to-day, 
 
 An' they seem to sing with all the joyous zest 
 Of the days when we were Yankee boys an' Yankee girls at play. 
 
 With nary thought of '' livin' way out West! " 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 75 
 
 God bless ye, Denman Thomps'n, for the good y" do our hearts 
 With this music an' these memories o' youth — 
 
 God bless ye for the faculty that tops all human arts, 
 The good ol' Yankee faculty of Truth ! 
 
 Eugene Field. 
 
 THAT "OLD HOMESTEAD." 
 
 Editorial from The Christian At Work, December 6, 1888. 
 
 "The Old Homestead," now being performed at the Academy 
 of Music, seems to us as near an approach as possible as to what 
 a play should be. It depicts very truthfully country life in New 
 England about half a century ago. 
 
 The scenery is very rural and domestic in character, particu- 
 larly that in which a load of hay is drawn on the stage by live 
 oxen, and the haymakers subsequently gathering around the old 
 well singing " The moss-covered bucket that hangs in the well." 
 City life, too, is also faithfully portrayed, and the audience are 
 treated to an excellent picture of Grace Church, from which are 
 heard issuing strains of sweet music by the choir. 
 
 Altogether, the moral of the play is decidedly good, and 
 were every caterer for public entertainment to give us so health- 
 ful and innocent a performance as this is, we feel sure parents 
 and guardians ot youth would no longer cry out as they now do 
 against the immorality of theatre- going. Entertainments of this 
 sort are entitled to the staunchest support of the religious press. 
 
 Mr. E. A. DiTMAR, Dramatic Critic New York Times, Sept. 2, 1888. 
 
 A few more words about "The Old Homestead" will be 
 appropriate now that Mr. Denman Thompson and his associates 
 have settled down at the Academy for a long stay. When a 
 piece like this, which seems to defy all the canons of dramatic 
 construction, gains not only the favor of the big public, but com- 
 pels the admiration as well of people who like to think themselves 
 
76 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 critical in artistic matters, there is apt to be a sort of puzzled 
 feeling in the community regarding it. It is not often that a 
 good play is made with so little apparent regard for the ele- 
 mentary rules of play wrighting, and people are apt to forget one 
 before another is produced. The ordinary playwright still plods 
 along endeavoring to adapt what he sees and feels in life, or 
 what somebody else has seen and felt and expressed in narrative 
 form, to the conventional forms and devices that prevail on the 
 stage. But the lesson that "The Old Homestead " teaches, and 
 that might have been learned by heart years ago from other 
 sources, is that the faithful portrayal of human nature, slightly 
 idealized, will always win the admiration of the masses and com- 
 pel the praise of the critics. As a matter of fact, on close inspec- 
 tion it will be found that "The Old Homestead" is constructed 
 with more regard for the dramatist's rules than appears at first 
 sight. The disregard of the canons is more seeming than actual. 
 The desultory character of Act H., a shrewd submission to the 
 popular taste for pure farce, is apt to mislead the spectator and 
 make him lose sight of the coherence and symmetry of the scheme. 
 The second act contains one delightful passage, the dialogue be- 
 tween the two old men who were barefooted boys together 
 among the New Hampshire hills. The rest is flummery and horse- 
 play farce, the fun of which is older than Buckstone's Cousin 
 Joe, older even than Royal Tyler's much-talked-of " Contrast." 
 Without this "The Old Homestead " would be a perfect play. 
 Even with the farce it is a good play, moving the sympathies by 
 an exposition of the goodness and purity in humanity, touching 
 the heart with general pathos, bubbling with humor, sparkling 
 with homely wit. The first, third and fourth acts would make 
 the play, with the one good bit of writing in Act II. transferred 
 to the street scene. Then there would be set before the spectator, 
 more harmoniously than at present, a simple study of character 
 involved in incidents which, if not thrilling, are essentially dra- 
 matic. The force of opposing influences is exerted in the play, 
 though it contains neither a formidable villain nor a melodramatic 
 hero. The climaxes are striking and logical. The plot is not 
 
LIFK OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 77 
 
 complex, but it is sufficient, and the interest is maintained by 
 the revelations of human character and not, as some people 
 seem to think, by the interpolated music, which is quite unob- 
 jectionable but not at all necessary. The central figure is a true 
 type of American character idealized. Cyrus Prime, Aunt Ma- 
 tilda, and the other New Hampshire folks are real personages. 
 The last act is a marvelously lifelike picture of home in New 
 England, a farmer's home in its most cheerful aspect. The 
 poetry of the hills and fields is in the piece. Whoever wrote 
 the text of this play, and there must have been a trained hand 
 and a poetic brain employed in the work, deserves the thanks 
 of theatre-goers. It is a good thing to be reminded once in a 
 while that the word " dramatic " does not necessarily convey 
 an idea of rapine and assassination and marital infelicity. It 
 is a good thing to be able to prove that a sympathetic chord 
 can be struck in the public heart by a stage picture of homely 
 goodness and piety and faith in human kind. To be sure, there 
 is no love interest in the play. It resembles " Macbeth " in 
 that one particular. But the spirit of happy youth and maiden- 
 hood is preserved in it, and it is not essential always to have 
 a wedding in prospect when the curtain falls. So that " The 
 Old Homestead," if not a model for playwrights, is a distinct- 
 ively good play, apart from Denman Thompson's impersona- 
 tion of the farmer. Let us acknowledge the fact and wonder 
 no longer why we all like it. 
 
 GOOD WORDS FROM THE CLERGY. 
 
 I am glad the day has come when a clergyman can go to a 
 first-class play without being hauled over the coals by fanatical 
 Christians. Rev. John L. Scudder, 
 
 First Congregational Church, Jersey City. 
 
78 LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 I would be only too glad that such plays could be encour- 
 aged. You are doing a good work. Success attend you. 
 Rev. George R. Van De Water, 
 
 St. Andrew's Church, New York. 
 
 I beg to add my recommendation of that most excellent 
 moral play. I have seen it twice, and have advised my people, 
 more particularly the young men's guild and the older boys of 
 the Sunday school, to go and see it. I consider your play equal 
 to a dozen sermons, bringing home as it does so forcibly the 
 lesson of the Fifth Commandment. God bless and prosper you 
 in the good work you are doing through your play among the 
 young men and boys of New York. 
 
 Rea-. Edwd. Wallace Neil, 
 
 Church of St. Andrew-the-Martyr. 
 
"THE OLD HOMESTEAD" A MORAL A&ENT. 
 
 There has always been more or less antagonism between 
 the church and theatre. J'he latter has been charged, with a 
 good deal of force and more passion, with being a nurturing 
 place for man's lower nature. The natural man gravitates to 
 evil if left to himself, and the theatre favors this native abandon. 
 So argue they, or many of them who are appointed to speak for 
 the former, which represents a system of life more powerful for 
 good than all the agencies of men. But there are personal defects 
 — aye, lots of them — in those who stand forth with prominence to 
 present its virtues. That does not detract from the merit of the 
 system of religion, though to some minds it has a bad effect, 
 and leads them into wild declarations of " nonsense," "folly " 
 and other empty missiles of the quick-feeling and light-headed. 
 
 The theatre has had to stand father for a good many 
 offences against sound morals that bear the same relation to 
 justice that the antics of a Salvation bugler do to revealed reli- 
 gion. Its mantle has been adopted by brazen^types of forbidden 
 men and women, who have dragged its good name and purpose 
 down as the}'' had their own flesh and soul. But every noble 
 institution has had some such experience. The theatre is not 
 alone in this respect. It fulfills a natural want and ought to be 
 good and do good, and shall, to endure. Its power for reaching 
 the masses is almost unequaled. Its misuse by the clumsy 
 or degraded does not constitute an inherent wrong. Sacred 
 truths have been proclaimed by foul mouths. Religious services 
 have been mocked by charlatans in vestments. The spirit of the 
 agent was corrupt, but not the cause he desecrated. The 
 theatre in its right use affects man with refreshment and knowl- 
 
8o LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. 
 
 edge. It vivifies truth to the appreciation as a magnifying glass 
 does a mineral object. It softens the hard lines of care in one's 
 face with humorous ideas in the lives of others. It acts on the 
 spirit as a good dinner upon a hungry body. Its influence is 
 quickening and lingering. A potent moral agent it may be, a 
 cheering effect it generally has, and a personal friend it should 
 alvirays be when found in a pure estate. 
 
 " The Old Homestead " is an example of the theatre in its 
 best expression. It is as full of wholesome life as the sun, and 
 warms the heart and mind into activities of health and cheer. 
 What sermonizer, however able he might be in text and manner, 
 could reach the tendrils of so many natures and infuse a new 
 and warm sense of feeling for the graces of an honest character ? 
 The old rustic king, Joshua Whitcomb, embodies in his humble 
 life the gracious outcome of a simple observance of God's laws 
 as written in the Holy Scriptures and the changing forms of 
 nature around him. It is an object lesson in homely virtues 
 without any token of study. It is extracting the strength of our 
 cathechism under blue skies, with the air soft and sweet and the 
 birds singing. Ministers of the gospel, noblemen in mind and 
 mission, have recognized this truth and gone so far as to pub- 
 licly praise the beautiful play, and advise their parishioners to 
 go and enjoy its delightful atmosphere. This is evangelical com- 
 mon sense. It is separating the wheat from the chaff and incul- 
 cating a desire for the best among plays as among books, and 
 exhibiting a broadness and fairness of mind which commands 
 respect and enlists followers. It is holding out the hand of 
 fellowship to an agency that helps to brighten and better a 
 troublous world which the church seeks to draw toward soberer 
 thoughts of heaven. It is a practical sort of Christianity that is 
 ready to believe in forces for good without the ken of a narrow 
 theological set. It sees the illustrative value of "The Old 
 Homestead " and its rugged characters in a moral sense, and 
 hails the portraiture in flesh and blood of a pious, strong and 
 honest type of manhood, which comes near to our own day 
 and nature and makes us yearn for his trustful companionship. 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. Si 
 
 The actor and minister should work together in harmony of 
 spirit, though separate in manner, harboring no resentment, and 
 the world will be the gainer. This sympathy will improve the 
 feeling and work of both and retard the noxious growth which 
 spreads over fields the soil of which is good, but husbandry bad. 
 
 Some one has likened a visit to " The Old Homestead," at the 
 Academy, to the trip of a waif of the city to the country in the 
 burning hot days of summer. The wide, open country, clear 
 blue sky, sparkling pure water, scented fields, wholesome food 
 and exercise and smiling friends, blow into blazing and healthy 
 energy the fires of youth which had been banked and hushed 
 by the grit of entailed poverty and ignorance. They are pos- 
 sessed with a strange feeling of strength, gladness and hope. 
 The sunshine of heaven, pure and untrammeled, has poured 
 into their shadowed lives, and brought a glow and vigor which 
 blossomed into smiles and words like the purple orown of a lilac 
 bush, long repressed by dense foliage and shade. A noble char- 
 ity is this fund which gives to the little wanderers of a big city 
 an annual taste of sky and woods, and stirs their cheeks and 
 eyes with an emotion of pleasure which sits so well on child- 
 hood. 
 
 Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, children of an 
 older growth, are taken by " The Old Homestead " upon a spir- 
 itual excursion with much the same joyous effect. The spirit of 
 the world is vexatious at best. The life of a large city is driving 
 and selfish. We are unmercifully knocked about and trampled 
 upon by Mammon's worshippers, and must be well supplied, 
 indeed, with Nature's gifts to take root and grow with any spe- 
 cial profit and bloom. The tired eye, dull skin, nervous man- 
 ner, unsettled feelings, the taxes Nature imposes upon metro- 
 politan thrift, are banished at " The Old Homestead " by the 
 healing properties of precious memories, renewed cheer of 
 heart, and a calm, contented life, of which we seem- to partake 
 with a quickening as new as delicious. 
 
 Are there any who can go away from " The Old Home- 
 Stead " at the Academy and not feel better for the time they 
 
82 LIFE or DENMAN THOMrSON. 
 
 spent in its delightful association ? I cannot think so. It 
 bespeaks a depravity, to assume this, that I don't think exists. 
 The pure, unselfish, divine love of father and mother for a child 
 will always reach the heart, no matter how low the moral status 
 of the person may be, if exhibited in natural tones of flesh and 
 blood. The stronger element of a mother's devotion is wanting 
 in "The Old Homestead," but there is a paternal honesty and 
 simplicity of affection which reaches the tendrils of feeling and 
 inculcates a good lesson. It is an unadorned fact that a number 
 of young men have been reclaimed from the habit of drink by 
 the powerful effect of situations and scenes in this play. And 
 also that many a wayward son who had left his loving home to 
 roam, and gave it little thought and no words of remembrance 
 afterward, was induced to turn longingly toward that sanctified 
 spot, and give unto it and himself a cheer and strength that cannot 
 be measured. This is the difference between theory and demon- 
 stration. Do you think pictorial language could accomplish 
 this ? It is more than doubtful. Seeing is believing with the 
 average of the multitude. The evolution of sin in a character 
 focused clearly before us, and without any affectation of science, 
 art or theology, is pretty sure to impress soundly. Is this a 
 contrary course to the church ? Could any text be more pure, 
 simple and significant of virtue and truth than the lines of 
 homely Joshua Whitcomb and his neighbors ? And it has the 
 added merit of humor, grateful and abundant, and changing 
 characters and scenes of good grain and natural color, all of 
 which attract the eye and heart, and impress the affections with 
 wholesome interest as few plays are capable. 
 
 Another good effect of this pure, domestic play has been 
 that it has drawn to the theatre a host of people who had never 
 been to a public place of amusement before. I have observed 
 lots of them with curious interest. You may know them by the 
 timid way they enter the ticket door, as like as not " curtsey- 
 ing " to the ticket-taker, after the good old-fashioned country 
 custom on meeting a stranger. I have seen them return to the 
 gate, blushing and hesitating, with the coupons which they 
 
LIFE OF DENMAN THOMPSON. S3 
 
 thought in their innocent souls a mistake. They follow the 
 usher awkwardly and settle into their places as if timid of 
 results. They do not look the audience over with that self- 
 important air of the city-bred, but glance around shyly, as if half 
 ashamed they might be recognized, and redden like a baby if 
 caught. I have watched them struggle to keep a quiet manner, 
 like many of those about them, as the play proceeded and they 
 recognized familiar and enjoying faces and incidents, but, at 
 last, forgetful of occasion, laugh and sway with an energy that 
 was simply delightful for utter freshness. 
 
 They have lingered about the big old play-house after all 
 was over, curiously studying the " ins and outs " of the generous 
 building, and some have sought out Mr. Thompson to tell him 
 how well he pictured neighbors "down our way." 
 
 Is there not enough in these ministering influences for 
 wholesome pleasure and thought in ■' The Old Homestead " to 
 justify the title of this chapter? It does not happen to the lot 
 of many to be so powerful in lifting up and rejoicing men, 
 through the medium of theatrical work, as has fallen to Denman 
 Thompson. 
 
 He well deserves the commendation of the clergy, the 
 respect and admiration of his profession, and the affectionate 
 interest of the public. 
 
F»ROORANINlEi 
 
 FIRST PRESENTATION 
 
 THE OLD HOMESTEAD, 
 
 ACADEMY, NEW YORK. 
 
ACADBMY. 
 
 JuOEyE^ TOMPKINS,! Proprietors and Managers 
 
 ALEXANDER COMSTOCK, - - . . BUSINESS MANAGJr 
 
 Thursday, August 30, 1888. 
 
 UNTIL FURTHER ANNOUNCEMENT. 
 
 Eacli Evening'. Saturday Matinee. 
 
 THOMPSON 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Old Homestead 
 
 WRITTEN BY 
 
 DENMAN THOMPSOU and GEO. W. EYEE. 
 
 so£i]\rxi. 
 
 Cast of Characters and Synopsis of Scenes : 
 FIB8T_ACT. 
 
 Joshua Whitcomb Denman Thompson 
 
 Cy Prime Geo. A. Beane 
 
 Happy Jack Walter Gale 
 
 Frank Hopkins Chauncey Olcott 
 
 Eb. Ganzey J- L- Morgan 
 
 John Freeman Frank Thompson 
 
 Aunt Matilda Whitcomb Mrs. Louisa Morse 
 
 Rickety Ann Miss Annie Thompson 
 
 Miss Annie Hopkins Miss Venie Thompson 
 
 Miss Nellie Freeman Miss Lillian Stone 
 
 Maggie O'Flaherty Miss Minnie Luckstone 
 
 THE OLD HOMESTEAD DOUBLE QUARTETTE 
 
 Is composed of the following : 
 
 Messrs. Olcott, Earle, Akerley, Baker, Myers, Kruger, Kammerlee, Law. 
 
 HOMESTEAD F&RM 
 
 OF THK 
 
 WHITCOMBS, 
 
 SWANZEY, N. H. 
 
 rAINTID BY 
 
 PHIIilPPOTKAUX. 
 
SECON^n ACT. 
 
 SOXIiDTX:. 
 
 INTERIOR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HOPKINS MANSION, 
 
 NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 PAINTED BY 
 
 GOATCHKB. 
 
 Joshua Whitcomb Denman Thompson 
 
 Henry Hopkins Walter Lenox, Sr. 
 
 Judge Patterson Gus Kammerlee 
 
 Frank Hopkins Chauncey Olcott 
 
 Francois Fogarty Frank Mara 
 
 Mrs. Henry Hopkins Miss Rosa Cook 
 
 Miss Annie Hopkins Miss Venie Thompson 
 
 Miss Nellie Patterson Miss Annie Thompson 
 
 Miss Cora Patterson Miss Irene Comstock 
 
 TJaiRD ACT. 
 
 sioe:3>3'si. 
 
 GRACE CHURCH AT 
 NIGHT, 
 
 BROADWAY, 
 
 NEW YORK CITY, 
 
 PAINTED BY 
 
 GOATCHER. 
 
 Joshua Whitcomb Denman Thompson 
 
 Henry Hopkins Walter Lenox, Sr. 
 
 Jack Hazzard Walter Gale 
 
 Reuben Whitcomb Harry Earle 
 
 Hoboken Terror J. L. Morgan 
 
 The Dude Frank Thompson 
 
 One of the Finest Tom Law 
 
 U. S. Letter Carrier C. M. Richardson 
 
 Mrs. Maguire Miss Rosa Cook 
 
 ' rCTXH •JE^.A-TLaTS/Lt^f*' 
 
 Rendered by Chauncey Olcott and " The Old Homestead ' Choi'-. 
 
FOURTH ACT. 
 
 taa-xi:DSTs. 
 
 KITCHEN 
 
 IN THE 
 
 OLD HOMESTEAD. 
 
 PAINTED BV 
 
 GOATCHER. 
 
 Joshua Whitcomb Denman Thompson 
 
 Cy Prime Geo. A. Beane 
 
 Seth Perkins Walter Lenox. Sr. 
 
 Jack Hazzard Walter Gale 
 
 Reuben Whitcomb , Harry Earle 
 
 Eb. Ganzey J. L. Morgan 
 
 Len Holbrook C. M. Richardson 
 
 Pat Clancy Frank Mara 
 
 Aunt Matilda Mrs. Louisa Morse 
 
 Mrs. Murdock Miss Marie Kimball 
 
 Rickety Ann Miss Annie Thompson 
 
 „, _, \ Miss Minnie Luckstone 
 
 The Three ( ... , .„. 
 
 _, > Miss Lillian Stone 
 
 Stratton Gals \ •,,. r, , 
 
 ' Miss Baker 
 
 xs: 
 
 :iscJTT"n"^7"3a x>x:x=>.^»^:Ft.<i'3vcx:3Nr'i'i8. 
 
 ACADEMY. 
 
 E. G. GILMORE I p,„„.. ,„j m^. 
 
 EUGENE TOMPKINS, f "°P ' *"'' "«"= 
 
 ALEXR. COMSTOCK Bus. Manager 
 
 J. R. SH ATTUCK 1 Treasurers 
 
 WILLIAM NEWMAN. . f ' reasurers 
 
 HENRY O'ROURKE. ...Advertising Agent 
 
 THE OLD HOMESTEAD. 
 
 DENMAN THOMPSON.... Prop, and Mgr. 
 
 E. A. McFARLAND Bus. Manager 
 
 J. VAN DUSEN Treasurer 
 
 la conjunction with the Elaborate Production of 
 
 THE OLD HOMESTEAD 
 
 Special Praise is due those who have been prominently identified with the work in various 
 
 ways, to 
 
 MONS. PAUL PHILIPPOTEAUX I For the Scenenr 
 
 MR. PHILIP GOATCHER f • ''or the Scenery 
 
 MR. A. J. PECK Stage Carpentering 
 
 MR. EDWARD SIEDLE and MR. CHAS. BLESSER For the Properties 
 
 MESSRS. HERTS BROTHERS For the Furniture 
 
 MERSEREAU Brass Goods 
 
SEAL SKIN GARMENTS 
 
 ALL THE NEWEST SHAPES IN SEAL SUN &ARIENTS, 
 The Styles, Quality and Prices cannot be beaten by any. 
 
 ALSO A CHOICE AND EXTENSIVE ASSORTMENT OF 
 
 MUFFS, BOAS, SOAEFS AND TRIMMINGS. 
 
 GENTS' SEAL SKIN AND FUR LINED COATS, 
 
 IN GREAT VARIETY. 
 
 HENRY SIEDE, THE Ulh ST. FURRIER, 
 
 ±4= ~WGet ±4='bJoL S-bx«ee-b, 
 
 Bet. Fifth and Sixth Aves., 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 ESTABLISHED OVER 38 YEARS. 
 
 SEND FOR CATALOGUE. 
 
 QALL & LEMBKE, 
 
 OPTICIANS, 
 
 21 UNION SQUARE, N.Y., 
 
 OPERA GLASSES 
 
 From $3.00 upward. 
 
f.ABimiC/!. 
 
GEORGE EHRET'S 
 
 Hell Gale Brewery, 
 
 92tl to 93(1 STREETS, 
 
 BETWKEN 2(1 AND 3d AVENUES, 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 MORTOW 
 
 14th Street, 
 
 Corner Broadway k Union Spare, 
 
 TWO HUNDRED ROOMS 
 
 AT POPULAR PRICES, 
 ONE DOLLAR UPWARDS. 
 
 METROPOLITAN JOB PRINTING OFFICE, 
 
 ROBERT F. GILLIN. 
 JOSEPH H. TOOKER. 
 
 PROPRIETORS 
 
 ^1 
 
 PHILIP DILLON. 
 TIMOTHY HAYES. 
 
 MARBLE FRONT BUILDINGS: 
 
 Nos. 38 and 40 Vesey Street, Ne^rv York. 
 
 "THE SHOW PRINTING HOUSE OF AMERICAI" 
 
 Extraordinary Facilities for the Rapid Satisfaction of orders, 
 
 o either for Type Impressions, Wood, Metal or Stone. First-class 
 
 Artists on Pictorial Work. Prices Consistent with Quality. 
 
 THE METROPOLITAN IMPRINT 
 
 Is on Posters all over the world, and patrons display it as a guarantee of the high character of 
 
 their enterprise, whether of Theatrical, Steamboat, Railroad, .Express, 
 
 Political, Commercial or other Business Ventures. 
 
 ESTABLISHED 1844 
 B;^ James Gordon Bennett, nud formerly knotvn ah the Herald Job Print. 
 
 ^g~Onr block west of the Astor House and of eld St. fau/'s, and as familiar to the 
 general public as the Brooklyn Bridge or Central Pa7-k. 
 
STURTEVANT HOUSE, 
 
 BROADWAY and 29tli STREET. 
 
 !M[a.tthe;>jvs &• IPiEpesoN, Froprietorei. 
 
 American Plan, $3.00 to $4.50 per day. 
 European Plan, $1.00 per day and upwards. 
 
 Most central location in the city, convenient to all theatres and places 
 of amusement. One block from E. R. R. 
 
 RICH DIAMOND JEWELRY. 
 
 QUAINT AND FASHIONABLE DESIGNS. 
 
 Corner Twenty-Seventh Street, under the Coleman House. 
 
 HORLER & MCGRATH, 
 
 DBCORATOBS, 
 
 40 Bast 19th Stjreet, 
 
 FURNITURE Makers , H ERTS BrOTHERS, 
 Interior Decorators, 8^^^ 8^6 Broadway 
 
 Architectural and i6 East Twentieth St., 
 
 Wood Workers. Nh>w York.