of Juliet. It was in reality
her _debut_ upon the stage. She played, a short time since, for one week
in her native city, Louisville, but this is her first effort upon a stage
away from the associations which surround an appearance among friends, and
which must, to a great extent, influence the general judgment of the
_debutante's_ merit.... We believe her to be the most promising young
actress who has stepped upon the boards for many a day, and before whom
there is, undoubtedly, a brilliant and successful career."

The _St. Louis Republican_ has the following very interesting notice:--

"A fresh and beautiful young girl of Juliet's age embodied and presented
Juliet. Beauty often mirrors its type in this beautiful character, but
very rarely does Juliet's youth meet its youthful counterpart on the
stage.... A great Juliet is not the question here, but the possibility of
a Juliet near the age at which the dramatist presented his heroine. Mary
Anderson is untampered by any stage traditions, and she rendered
Shakespeare's youngest heroine as she felt her pulsing in his lines....
She leads a return to the source of poetic inspiration, and exemplifies
what true artistic instincts and feeling can do on the stage, without
either the traditions and experience of acting. She colors her own
conceptions and figure of Juliet, and by her work vindicates the master,
and proves that Juliet can be presented by a girl of her own age.... The
fourth act exhibited great tragic power, and no want was felt in the
celebrated chamber scene, which is the test passage of this _role_.... It
stamped the performance as a success, and the actress as a phenomenon....
The thought must have gone round the house among those who knew the
facts--Can this be only the seventh performance on the stage of this young
girl?"

Here is another notice a few months later on in Mary Anderson's dramatic
career from the _Baltimore Gazette_:--

"Miss Anderson's Juliet has the charm which belongs to youth, beauty, and
natural genius. Her fair face, her flexible youth--for she is still in her
teens--and her great natural dramatic genius, make her personation of that
sweet creation of Shakespeare successful, in spite of her immaturity as an
artist. We have so often seen aged Juliets; stiff, stagey Juliets; fat,
roomy Juliets; and ill-featured Juliets, that the sight of a young,
lady-like girl with natural dramatic genius, a bright face, an unworn
voice, is truly refresh