BOOTH. 308 BOOTH. tistical Society, 1892-94. He has taken an ac- tive part in the agitation in England for old-age pensions, in the suiiport of which lie has written three very useful books: Pauperism : A Picluie: and thc'Eiidoirmcnt of Old .ge (1892); The Aged Poor, Condition (1S94) : Old-Age Pensions (1899). See Old- Age Pensions. BOOTH, Edwin Thomas (183.3-03). A dis- tinguished American actor, the son of Junius Brutus Booth. He was born at Belair, Md., No- vember 13, 1833, and early showed his studious temperament. Brought up to the stage by his father, he made his (lebut in Boston in 1849. In 1851 he took his father's place as Richard III. at the Chatham Square Theatre, New York. The next season they went to California, and after his father's return he remained in the West for several years, visiting also the Sandwich Islands and Australia (18,54). He returned from Cali- fornia late in 1850, and after a tour in the South made, in Boston ( April, 1857 ) , an im- mense success as Sir Giles Overreach. Shortly afterwards he repeated his triumph in New York. There, also, he became acquainted with Marv Devlin, whom he married in 1860. She died" in 1863. It was in 1861 that he first ap- peared in London, where, after playing Shylock and Sir Giles, he won great popularity as Riche- lieu. In 1863 he took control of the Winter Garden, New York, and there his productions of Hamlet and other Shakespearean plays were fa- mously successful. After the assassination of Lincoln by his brother, .John Wilkes Booth, he retired temporarily from the stage, but reap- peared in New York in January, 18(56. He mar- ried, in 1869, JIarv JlcVicke'r, who lived till 1881. In 1869 '"Booth's Theatre" was built, -«here his success for a time was both artistic and financial; but the panic of 1873 made him a bankrupt. His tours in the years tluxt followed, however, amply restored his fortunes. In 1880, and again in 1882, he visited Europe, and was received with the most flattering distinction. Some time after his return he formed a partner- ship with Lawrence Barrett, with whom he con- tinued to appear till the death of Barrett in 1891. He himself then retired from the stage. He was generally regarded as the leading .meri- can tragedian, and in a few great characters he was without a rival. His Hamlet was probably his most popular role, but his Lear and Othello were especially admired, besides other parts al- ready mentioned. He was not a man of im- posing bodily appearance, being rather below the medium stature; but his frame was compact, liis carriage at once dignified and graceful, his eye ])iercing, his features grave. He was thor- oughly absorbed in his jiarts, and his voice was under such coni;)lete control as to express, upon occasion, any shade of feeling, sentiment, or conviction. His rendering of familiar Shake- spearean passages displayed a fine ai)preciation of their substance, and of the lights and shades of manner and expression by which their full meaning may be brought out. In his private life he was greatly esteemed. He was the found- er and first president of the Players' Club, of New York, in the home of which, given by him- self, he died, .June 7, 1893. Consult: William Winter, The Life and Art of Kdain llooth ( New ^ork, 1894) ; Edwina Booth Grossman, Edwin Booth; Recollections by Uis Daughter, and Let- ters to Her and to His Friends (New York, 1894) ; Asia Booth Clarke, The Elder and the younger Booth (Boston, 1882). BOOTH, .Iame.s Curtis (1810-88). An American chemist. He was born in Philadel- ])hia, and graduated at the University of Penn- sylvania in 1829. He tlicn remained one year at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and in 1832 went abroad. There were at this time no regular organized student laboratories at (ier- man universities, and Booth combined his studies of chemistry at Wohler's private laboratory at Cassel. After further studies at Berlin, Vienna, and in England, he returned to Pliila- delphia, where, in 1830, he established a labora- tory for instruction in analytical chemistry, the first of its kind in the United States. Jlany distinguished cliemists, such as Canipliell Slor- fit, R. E. Rogers, J. ¥. Frazer, Thomas H. Gar- rett, and R, T. McCulloh, were educated at this institution. Mr. Booth was professor of applied chemistry at the Franklin Institute from 1836 to 1845, and was superintendent of smelting and refining in the United States Mint at Pliiladel- phia from 1849 to 1888, in which capacity he experimented with the nickel ores of Pennsyl- vania, introducing the fusion of that metal with other alloj's in the coinage of cents during the year 1857. Among his principal works may be mentioned: Animal AV/ioc/s of the Delaware Geological Survey (1839); Eneyclopa-dia of Chemistry (in collaboration with Campbell Mor- fit, 1850) ; On Recent Improvements in the Chemical Arts (jointly with Campbell Morfit, 1852). BOOTH, John Wilkes (1839-65). The assassin of President Lincoln. For several years he was an actor, but met with indifl'erent success and abandoned the stage in 1803. During the Civil W;ir he wa,s a violent secessionist, and toward its close organized a conspiracy first for abducting the President, and later, for assassi- nating not only the President, but also the Vice- President and the members of the Caliinct. On the night of April 14, 1805, the President at- tended Ford's Theatre with his wife and several friends. About 10 I'.M. Booth approached him unseen, and shot him through the head. Leap- ing from the box upon the stage, crving out "Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged!" he escaped by the stage door, where a horse was held for him. He had reached Bowling (Jreen, near Fredericksburg, Va., before he was over- taken (April 26). Here he took refuge in a barn, and, refusing to surrender, was shot after the barn had been fired. Most of his accomplices were subsequently captured, aiul four of them, Powell, ,'tzerodt, Herold. ami Mrs. Surratt, were hanged. He was the son of .hinius Brutus Booth, and the brother of Edwin Booth. BOOTH, Ju.Nius BitUTl'S (1796-18.52). An English actor, on his mother's side a relation of Joliii Wilkes, the Englisli statesman. When a boy in London, where he was born, h(> learned printing, and after studying law, painting, and sculpture, received a commission as midshipman in the navy, but instead of going to sea he turned to the drama. He appeared on the provincial stage, December 13, 1813, and in London, in October, 1815, at the Covent Garden Theatre. Here, within two years, he became a rival of Edmund Kean, whom lie greatly resembled.
