torial arrangement of the ordinary stage resources, and by the collection of a company containing the very best representatives of each class of character the stage could afford, to carry out the general spirit of the play into the particular details of each performance. The results established in these respects by Mr. Wallack's management bear the same relation to the condition in which it found the arts of the stage, as that may be supposed to have borne to the period when Othello flamed forth his Vesuvius passions in scarlet regimentals, with a full flowing Ramillies wig, and Hamlet pondered over the mysteries of life in full evening costume, shoe buckles, bag, and ruffles. To his strict good faith; to his development of the resources of the dramatic art; to infinite delight and instruction diffused for a number of years among intelligent masses of the people; and to a disinterested zeal and unselfish spirit gallantly exhibited throughout, press, public, and profession, bore well-deserved testimony. Sole reliance was placed on the quality and interest of the performance, all available talent was secured and honorably recompensed, a liberal economy in outlay was combined with an unsparing use of that valuable but inexpensive article, taste; and immense labor and pains were bestowed on the scenic accessories and drilling of the performers. The results of this management remain. Green curtains cannot cover them. They acted as an inspiration, and the tide of enthusiasm on which they were established and carried partially into every theatre through the country, has never since settled back into the old dull and stagnant pool.
Now, the artist who really effected this great work for the stage was, as his father was ever happy and proud to acknowledge, Mr. Lester Wallack. If he did not lay the granite block, he wielded the silver trowel. His father's health was at the time much broken, and, though his experience and taste lent direction, and his unflagging spirit confidence and strength, the work was done by Mr. Lester Wallack, and it may be useful for the young and rising members of the profession to know that those honors which Mr. Lester Wallack wears now with such a graceful ease were earned by hard and unremitting toil. The popular error, which has attracted too many idle young men to the profession, that actors earn their money easily, and that no labor attends their vocation, is one of the gayest delusions of the day, from which not a few have found unpleasant disenchantment.
Mr. Lester Wallack has often, when receiving but a small salary, after playing two parts in Southampton one night, at the close of the performance had to study a new part travelling in the stage at night, and be at rehearsal at Winchester next morning; and we have known him for a considerable portion of his career to rise at four and five in the morning and devote several hours, the only ones he could snatch, to study, for he really studied. Later in the day, four hours were occupied at rehearsal; and, after a hasty dinner, the hours from six to eleven were occupied in the severest mental and bodily strain. The career of D'Israeli, perhaps the most brilliant actor of our time, can furnish no more vigorous proof of long and well-sustained labor.
Nor is it necessary to demonstrate how much more difficult it is in the revivals of comedy to achieve the success which has crowned the efforts made to reinstate tragedy. The leading characters of each class of comedy find in nearly all instances none, and, at best, but one, adequate representative. The race of genuine humorists, whether in old sparks or young fellows, with but few exceptions, are extinct, and enforced gaiety and animal spirits, the nurse of true comedy, is no longer seen. Mr. Lester Wallack and Mr. Charles Mathews are
