ively the true
light of genius which shone clear and bright through all defects and all
shortcomings. It was a rare experience, whether on the stage, or in other
paths of art, but not an unknown one. Fanny Kemble, who made her _debut_
at Covent Garden at the same age as Mary Anderson, took the town by storm
at once, and seemed to burst upon the stage as a finished actress. David
Garrick was the greatest actor in England after he had been on the boards
less than three months. Shelley was little more than sixteen when he wrote
"Queen Mab;" and Beckford's "Vathek" was the production of a youth of
barely twenty.

In the year 1876, Mary Anderson received an offer from a distinguished
theatrical manager, John T. Ford, of Washington and Baltimore, to join his
company as a star, but at an ordinary salary. Three hundred dollars a
week, even in those early days, was small pay for the rising young
actress, who was already without a rival in her own line on the American
stage; but the extended tour through the States which the engagement
offered, the security of a good company, and of able management, led to an
immediate acceptance. On this as on every other occasion, through her
theatrical career, Mary Anderson was accompanied by her father and mother,
who have ever watched over her welfare with the tenderest solicitude. All
the arrangements for the trip were _en prince_. Indeed we have small idea
in our little sea-girt isle, of the luxury and even splendor with which
American stars travel over the vast distances between one city and another
on the immense Western continent. The City of Worcester, a new Pullman
car, subsequently used by Sarah Bernhardt, and afterward by Edwin Booth,
was chartered for the party, consisting of Mary Anderson, her father,
mother, and brother, and the young actress' maid and secretary. A cook and
three colored porters constituted the _personnel_ of the establishment.
There was a completely equipped kitchen, a dining-room with commodious
family table; a tiny drawing-room with its piano, portraits of favorite
artists, and some choicely-filled bookshelves, as well as capital sleeping
quarters. It was literally a splendid home upon wheels. Where the hotels
happened to be inferior at any particular town, the party occupied it
through the period of the engagement. Visitors were received, friendly
parties arranged, and little of the inconvenience and discomfort of travel
experienced. It was thus that Mary Ande