A friend tells us an anecdote of Booth, the tragedian:
Booth and several friends had been invited to dine with an old
gentleman in Baltimore, of distinguished kindness, urbanity,
and piety. The host, altho disapproving of theaters and
theater-going, had heard so much of Booth’s remarkable powers
that curiosity to see the man had, in this instance, overcome
all scruples and prejudices. After the entertainment was over,
lamps lighted, and the company reseated in the drawing-room,
some one requested Booth as a particular favor, and one which
all present would doubtless appreciate, to read aloud the Lord’s
Prayer. Booth exprest his willingness to do this, and all
eyes were turned expectantly upon him. Booth rose slowly and
reverently from his chair. It was wonderful to watch the play
of emotions that convulsed his countenance. He became deathly
pale, and his eyes, turned tremblingly upward, were wet with
tears. And yet he had not spoken. The silence could be felt. It
became absolutely painful, till at last the spell was broken as
if by an electric shock, as his rich-toned voice, from white
lips syllabled forth, “Our Father who art in heaven,” etc., with
a pathos and solemnity that thrilled all hearers. He finished.
The silence continued. Not a voice was heard or a muscle moved
in his rapt audience, till from a remote corner of the room a
subdued sob was heard, and the old gentleman, their host, stept
forward, with streaming eyes and tottering frame, and seized
Booth by the hand. “Sir,” said he, in broken accents, “you have
afforded me a pleasure for which my whole future life will feel
grateful. I am an old man, and every day from my boyhood to
the present time I thought I had repeated the Lord’s prayer;
but I have never heard it--never.” “You are right,” replied
Booth; “to read that prayer as it should be read has caused
me the severest study and labor for thirty years; and I am
far from being satisfied with my rendering of that wonderful
production.”--_The Millenarian._
(1886)
=Losing and Saving=--See MESSAGE, A TIMELY.
=Loss and Gain=--See COMPENSATION; DEPORTMENT; FAST LIVING.