after a rain; the man who can not forget the
faults of the character which Jefferson pictures, nor feel like
taking good-natured young Rip Van Winkle by the hand and offering a
support to tottering old Rip Van Winkle, must have become hardened
to all natural as well as artistic influences. It is scarcely
necessary to enter into the details of Mr. Jefferson's acting of
the Dutch Tam O'Shanter. Notwithstanding the fact that the
performance is made up of admirable points that might he enumerated
and described, the picture is complete as a whole and in its
connections. Always before the public; preserving the interest
during two acts of the play after a telling climax; sustaining the
realities of his character in a scene of old superstition, and in
which no one speaks but himself,--the impersonation requires a
greater evenness of merit and dramatic effect than any other that
could have been chosen. Rip Van Winkle is imbued with the most
marked individuality, and the identity is so conscientiously
preserved that nothing is overlooked or neglected. Mr. Jefferson's
analysis penetrates even into the minutiae of the part, but there is
a perfect unity in the conception and its embodiment. Strong and
irresistible in its emotion, and sly and insinuating in its humor,
Mr. Jefferson's Rip Van Winkle is marked by great vigor, as well as
by an almost pre-Raphaelite finish.

The bibulous Rip is always present by the ever-recurring and
favorite toast of "Here's your goot healt' and your family's, and
may dey live long and prosper." The meditative and philosophic Rip
is signaled by the abstract "Ja," which sometimes means _yes_, and
sometimes means _no_. The shrewd and clear-sighted Rip is marked by
the interview with Derrick Van Beekman. The thoughtful and
kind-hearted Rip makes his appearance in that sad consciousness of
his uselessness and the little influence he exerts when he says to
the children, talking of their future marriage: "I thought maybe
you might want to ask me about it," which had never occurred to the
children. The improvident Rip is discovered when Dame Van Winkle
throws open the inn window-shutter, which contains the enormous
score against her husband, and when Rip drinks from the bottle over
the dame's shoulder as he promises to reform. The most