ampton and Winchester. From thence he went to Edinburgh, and next season to Liverpool, where he attained his first great popular success. And though he may not then have attained that skill in his art, which has since imparted such exquisite delight, his personations carried much of that grace and richness of coloring which at present are their brilliant characteristics. So strong a home had he built in the affections of the Liverpoolians, more especially of those of lovelier Liver, styled "Lancashire witches," that the back door was besieged at the close of the performance, and, like Macbeth on the heath, witches often stopped his way at night. From Liverpool he accepted an offer of starring terms from the late Mr. Sloan, to act at Manchester with Charles Mathews and Madame Vestris, and played with them the Duke in "Follies of a Night;" "Millamaur," Sir Benjamin Backbite; and with Miss Helen Faucit, Benedick to her Beatrice; and with the Misses Cushman, Mercutio and Ruy Gomez. While here he was allured to the Mecca of dramatic pilgrims, and engaged for the London season at the Haymarket, by Mr. Benjamin Webster. And here he at once made a most favorable impression, opening as Don Raphael in the "Little Devil," which, owing to some of those small jealousies which infest even the best-regulated green-rooms, he was not permitted to improve, being only permitted to appear four or five times during the season in such characters as Dazzle and Courtall.
On one of these occasions he happened to be seen by the late George Barrett, who was wandering in search of talent, and who immediately engaged him for the opening of the Broadway Theatre. On that historic occasion he assisted, making his first appearance in America as Sir Charles Coldstream. The gods at first, however, looked coldly on the Broadway, and the receipts grew nightly beautifully less, until the happy idea dawned on the management of producing "Monte Christo," with Lester Wallack as the hero. The piece at once gathered the city in its grasp, and held it for one hundred consecutive nights, then deemed a marvel; and the fortunes of the Broadway were thus placed beyond fear. From the Broadway he went to the Bowery, then the recognized chief temple of art, where he formed one of a powerful company, including James W. Wallack and his wife, Mr. John Gilbert, Miss Wemyss, and other distinguished artists, and closed his wanderings by forming for a season one of the galaxy which Burton had gathered round him at the old Chambers Street Theatre, embracing W. R. Blake, Mary Taylor, and the charming Mrs. Hoey, then in the budding bloom of her beauty and her fame.
At this period the late Mr. Wallack determined to undertake the arduous task of founding a theatre with a view of affording to the more really eminent members of the profession a fair field of labor, and of elevating the drama, which was gradually by the star system being brought to a condition of degradation and decay, to its proper position as one of the highest and noblest branches of art. Even the available talent left on the stage had utterly lost all force and effect for the want of that rare artistical combination, which, as experience has since shown, could alone set it forth to advantage. And this was the first and most essential requisite brought by Mr. Wallack to his task. With fewer aids than any actor had before him, he struck at higher aims than any had dared to attempt. In the presentation of many of Shakespeare's plays—"Hamlet," the "Merchant of Venice," "Much Ado about Nothing," "As You Like It"—in the restoration of several of the old comedies, and equally in revivals as in new plays, he strove by new and accurate applications of the scenic art, by a more tasteful and pic-
