FOLLOWING the New England cities come the last of the return
visits,—Philadelphia, Brooklyn,[57] New York. They reindorsed the
previous successes, and fully justified the decision of a second visit
next season.
One of the most interesting incidents of the second visit to
Philadelphia was Irving’s entertainment in the new rooms of the
“Clover Club.”[58] Accustomed to play the host, the club found itself
in a novel position when it accepted that of guest. The occasion was
one not likely to be forgotten in the annals of an institution which
interprets the best and highest social instincts of an eminently
hospitable city. The club-room was decorated with its characteristic
taste.
Mr. Dion Boucicault, in a brief address, spoke of the beneficent change
which Irving had wrought in the methods of the English stage; Mr.
McClure, the popular and powerful director of the “Times,” thanked him,
in the name of all lovers of art, for extending that reformation to the
American stage; Col. Snowden depicted his high place in the history
of the best civilization of America; and Irving, while accepting
with pride the honors which had been conferred upon him, defended
the great actors of America’s past and present from the criticism of
several speakers, who complained of their adherence to what Boucicault
called “the pedestal style” of acting Shakespeare. Irving described
to them how, in years gone by, both England and America had possessed
provincial schools of acting, in the stock companies that had
flourished in such cities as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago,
and other cities on one side of the Atlantic, and Bristol, Bath,
Manchester, Birmingham on the other; how these had been broken up by
“combinations” in travelling companies; and how the leading actors of
America had thus been disabled from presenting the dramas of the great
masters in a manner they would, no doubt, have desired to present them.
He said he had found similar difficulties in his own country; but,
actuated by the resolute purpose of a sense of duty to his art, and a
devoted love for it, he had overcome them. For some eight or ten years
he had worked with a company, trained with the object of interpreting,
to the best of their ability, the work of the dramatist. They
subordinated themselves to the objects and intentions of the play they
had to illustrate, and only by such self-abnegations to the harmony of
the entire play, he said, could anything like an approach be made to
the realization of a dramatic theme. He disclaimed any such ambition
as to be ranked foremost among the great actors whose names had been
mentioned; but he confessed to a feeling of intense satisfaction
that America should have accepted with a generous, and he must say a
remarkable, spontaneity, the methods which he had inaugurated at the
Lyceum Theatre.
Among other “sight-seeing” and calls which we made together in
Philadelphia was a visit to Mr. Childs, at the “Ledger” office, and
an hour or two spent at Independence Hall. Irving was much interested
in the new private office of Mr. Childs. Decorated in the so-called
style of Queen Anne, it is a fine example of the progress in art which
America has made within the past few years. “It contains many precious
reminiscences of the Centennial Exhibition. A screen in front of the
street windows is not the least artistic feature of the apartment. It
is formed by six square pillars, with arched openings, which, save
the centre, are closed to the height of three feet from the floor,
the space between the back of these and the windows forming a kind
of recess, where have been gathered some very valuable specimens of
plastic and mechanical art. Over the screen, or arcade, are ten painted
glass panels; the centre one contains the portraits of Gutenberg,
Faust, and Sch[oe]ffer, inventors of the art of printing with type;
the other four contain figures representing the art of bookmaking.
The left-hand panel contains a sitting figure, intently engaged on an
article for the press, which, with two figures, a man and a boy, the
latter of singularly fine action, forms the second panel. Passing over
the centre, the story is continued by the proofreader, and concluded
in the last panel, which represents a standing figure perusing the
finished book in the shape of a Bible, chained to a lectern. The centre
panel of five smaller panels, over those just mentioned, exhibits Mr.
Childs’s motto, ‘_Nihil sine labore_,’ and on the remaining four, in
old English, is painted the command, ‘Let there be light, and there was
light.’”
Mr. Childs is one of the best-known and one of the most popular
journalists in the United States. His name is familiar to the newspaper
men of England, and his offices are models, both as regards the
mechanical departments and the rooms set apart for his editorial
associates and writers. Mr. Cooke, the able and trusted correspondent
of the “London Times,” is the financial editor of the “Ledger.”
The porter at Independence Hall was glad to get the English actor’s
signature in the visitor’s book. From the moment that Irving entered
the place he attracted more attention than even “the bell of liberty”
itself. Long before American independence was even dreamed of, this
bell (originally cast at Whitechapel, London, and afterwards recast in
Philadelphia) bore the inscription, “Proclaim Liberty throughout all
the Land, to all the Inhabitants thereof!” Having taken in the historic
room which was formerly the Judicial Hall of the English colony of
Pennsylvania, Irving said, “How English it all is! how typical of the
revolt the portraits of these great fellows who headed it!” Then he
traced likeness to living Englishmen in several of the pictures. “One
hundred and thirty portraits by one artist!” he exclaimed. “He has done
wonderfully, I think, to get such variety of style, and yet so much
individuality.” In modern days this chamber has been the scene of the
lying-in-state of several prominent statesmen, on the way to burial.
Among them were John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln.
American history proudly recalls that “here, on the 3d of November,
1781, twenty-four British standards and colors, taken from the army
under Cornwallis, which had surrendered at Yorktown, were laid at
the feet of Congress, amidst the shouts of the people and volleys of
musketry, for they had been escorted to the door of the State-House
by the volunteer cavalry of the city, and greeted by the huzzas of the
people.” “But let us not forget,” said an American speaker, discoursing
on this theme at an Irving entertainment, “that we were all British
until we had signed that Declaration of Independence!”