ver there was a matinee.

"I wish the theaters were open in the morning," he said one day to his
father, who began to wonder whether his son had not mistaken his vocation.

After this they went to see "Esmeralda," and then the sixteen-year-old
youth issued his proclamation in these words:

"I have a vocation, but it is for the stage."

"Your vocation is the padded cell," replied his father tersely.

Trip to Rome Abandoned.

But they did not sail for Rome via Havre or any other way, but returned to
Washington, and here Wilton Lackaye--for it was he--by way of compromise,
began to study law. He gratified his theatrical cravings by joining an
amateur dramatic club, of which he was speedily elected president, and
which was known as the Lawrence Barrett Society.

Barrett himself was once induced to attend one of the performances, and he
asked the young president if he wanted to go on the stage. This was like
fire to gunpowder, and Mr. Barrett engaged him for utility work at twenty
dollars a week.

The season ran for thirty weeks, so that he received for this period six
hundred dollars. As he was obliged to buy his own costumes, and as they
cost him seven hundred and twenty dollars in all, he discovered that the
only way he could make money out of that company was to be discharged from
it. However, his mother helped him. His father hadn't spoken to his son
since he went on the stage.

After leaving the Barrett troupe, he went to New York to get another job.
As an excuse to visit the agents' offices several times a day he used to
write letters to himself in their care. As he was walking out with the
letters, he would stop when near the door, and inquire over his shoulder,
as though by an afterthought:

"Oh, by the way, have you anything for me to-day?"

He kept this up until the usual "Nothing," in the way of reply, was one
day changed to:

"I think there is."

This "find" took him to a stock company in Dayton, Ohio, and after that he
went from one company to another until he began to find solid footing at
last with Fanny Davenport as _Claudio_ in "Much Ado About Nothing." His
first big success was in the title role of "Paul Kauvar" with Rose
Coghlan.

Compliment for Brady.

His first part with Lawrence Barrett was one of _Paolo's_ friends in
"Francesca da Rimini," done at the Star Theater, New York--now pulled
down--in 1883. He was born in Virginia.

When he comes to play in "Les Miserables" this sprin