CHAPTER XXII.

Salaries and Expenses - Miss Westray and Miss E. Westray · Holcroft- Mr. and Mrs. Barrett

- Yellow Fever of 1798- The

Theatre of New-York not opened until the 3d of December, 1798 -Saved by bringing out The Stranger - Biographical Notice of Kotzebue.

THE theatre of New-York had now but one director or manager-a circumstance which had not occurred in the United States before. An estimate of the expenses of the theatre at this time, 1798-9, will perhaps be acceptable to the general reader, and useful to those concerned in similar establishments. The salaries to actors and actresses, as follows, amount to 480 dollars weekly, viz. Mr. and Mrs. Hallam, 50; Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, 45—the first 20, the second, 25; Mrs. Oldmixon, 37; Mr. Cooper, 25; Mrs. Melmoth, 20; Mr. Tyler, 20; Mr. Jefferson, 23; Mr. Martin, 18 (and for superintending the stage and making properties, 7 more); Mr. Hallam, jun., 16; Mrs. Hogg, 14; Mr. Hogg, 13; Miss Westray, 13; Miss E. Westray, 12; Mr. Lee, 12 as performer and property-man; two message-carriers (each 8), 16; Mrs. Seymour, 16; Mr. Seymour, 9; Mr. Miller, 12; Miss Hogg, 4;

estimate for three others, 54; Mrs. Collins, 12; with supernumeraries, 32. To this was added a wretched prompter of the name of Hughes, at 10, and an intelligent box-office keeper, Mr. Joseph Falconer, at 14. Dressers, 20; orchestra, 140 (consisting of Mr. James Hewett, as leader; Messrs. Everdel, Nicolai, Samo, Henri, Ulshoeffer, Librecheki, Pellesier, Dupuy, Gilfert, Nicolai, jun., Adet, Hoffman, and Dangle). Other expenses were estimated thus:-Lights, 109; Labourers, 24; Doors and Constables, 50; Cleaning, 5; printing, 68; properties, 6; wardrobe, 15; fires, 15; Mr. Ciceri and his department (the scenery and painting, not including materials), 60; rent, 145; amounting to 1161 dollars, without including any remuneration for the personal services of the manager.

As Mr. Hodgkinson had repeatedly said that if he staid in New-York, it would be as an actor only, the manager offered him by letter, the 2d of June, 1798, a salary of 50 dollars for himself, and the same amount for his wife; and the salary of 14 as heretofore given to Mrs. Brett. This would have made the amount of expenses 1271 dollars; and in the same offer it was stated that the expenses of the benefits of Mr. and Mrs. Hodgkinson were to be estimated at 385 dollars, which, as the theatre opened only three times a week, would have been 33 dollars 75 cents under the actual expense of the night—probably much more, as never estimate yet came up to the real cost in such cases. offer was treated as an insult.

The

Miss Westray and Miss E. Westray, with a younger sister, afterwards a distinguished actress as Mrs. Twaits (as the two first were and are as Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Darley) were at this time under the protection of their mother and their father-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Simpson, who were added to the company.

The first display of the histrionic talents of Miss Westray and Miss E. Westray, that we recollect, was on the 14th of June, 1798, when Holcroft's comedy of The Deserted Daughter, then very popular, was played for their mutual benefit, the elder sister representing the character of Sarsnet, and the younger Joanna. The receipts

were 559 dollars.

Holcroft, the author of this and many other successful comedies and novels, is well known to the reading public. He was one of those energetic characters who rise in despite of, and superior to, circumstances. By birth thrown in the lowest class of European society, a beggar and a stableboy, he escaped the vices and burst the bonds of ignorance by mental effort. He educated himself, and, although a sturdy oppositionist to every abuse, social or political, no power, not even that of the mighty aristocracy of Britain, could put him down. As a politician and reformer, he was accused of treason. He surrendered himself and was acquitted. As a dramatist, he combated abuses manfully; but the managers of the Royal theatres at length dared not bring forward his plays as

such. As a novelist, he gained the attention of the public and served the cause of truth. He attacked the vices of players in one of his novels (he had himself been one of the fraternity); the characters were acknowledged, and the cap made to fit by several performers, in consequence of which the actors of Covent Garden had a meeting, and agreed to show their displeasure to the author by withholding their society from him-ordaining that he among them who should be guilty of speaking to the author of the offensive novel (the author of The Road to Ruin, and other comedies by which they subsisted-for what is the actor without the author?) should be "sent to Coventry;" but the sturdy reformer pursued his way undaunted, triumphing over the combination of cabinet ministers and green-room dignitaries.

While the heart sickens at the contemplation of the perverted talents of men who are born to fortune, and receive every aid from education—while we turn with disgust from the cant and hypocrisy of the thousands who, though blessed with every good springing from the social system, devote every effort to the advancement of self-we are relieved and refreshed by studying the lives of such men as have seen the beauty of virtue while apparently doomed to crime, and, from the regions of poverty and darkness, have by their unassisted efforts soared to that light and power, which have enabled them to overthrow the giants of the earth, and relieve their fellow-men from ignorance and

thraldom. When we trace the progress of Franklin from the hour he entered the city of Philadelphia, unnoticed and unknown, and made his first meal without table or house in the streets of the metropolis which has erected statues to his memory, to the day he dictated terms to the ministry of Great Britain; or when we accompany Holcroft as a beggar-boy soliciting alms for his parents as a menial in the stables of Newmarket, rejoicing that he could obtain food and clothing-and then rising to the useful occupation of shoemaking, and thereby obtaining the scanty means of educating himself; seeing through all these states of gloom the star which promised him the power he aspired to, the power to benefit mankind;- when we see such examples-and they are to be found both in ancient and modern times—we feel revived hope and renewed strength, as the assurance is given that man will not ever remain the thing he is. But we must descend from our hopes for the future to the plain statement of the past, retaining and cherishing those feelings which such views and hopes inspire.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson having, as before stated, left the country, the manager entered into a negociation with Mr. G. L. Barrett for himself and Mrs. Barrett, which was followed by an engagement for the ensuing season. A few passages from the letters which effected the engagement may not be thought irrelevant. Mr. Barrett writes from Boston, dated June 16th, 1798: "With