SIXTY-EIGHT YEARS ON THE STAGE.
Sixty-eight Years on the Stage. By Mrs. Charles Calvert. (Mills and Boon. 10s. 6d. net.)—Mrs. Calvert had, of course, the chance of an early debut because her father was a manager that she has kept the place so long is of her own doing. And here she tells us the story—indeed, her book is purely dramatic from beginning to end. It is not all rose-coloured. There is an account, for instance, of the " Dramatic College at Woking," a theatrical almshouse which was most lamentably mismanaged, to say the least. The author, too, had troubles of her own. There were fluctuations in her husband's fortunes, and in 1879 he died. There are various interesting anecdotes: in one of them we read of a performance of Hamlet, on an American tour, conducted by Mr. Edwin Booth. All the dresses and properties of the company went astray, and the play was given in travelling costumes. In another we hear of Booth's withered arm. It had been injured in a carriage accident, and he made a great coup when he bared it. as Richard III. to show the working of Jane Shore's witchcraft. Everyone said that it was admirably made up I Mrs. Calvert has lived to see no small change in the standing of her profession. Phelps and Alfred Wigan bad children sent away from their schools because of the profession of their fathers. Now an actor is knighted just as if he had been a Lord Mayor when a Royal Duke pays a visit to the City.
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