USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Old landmarks and historic personages of Boston.. > Part 22
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Bishop Cheverus, afterwards a Cardinal, was sincerely be- loved in Boston by Protestants and Catholics alike. Otis and Quincy were his friends. He took a deep interest in the heated controversy that ensued over the treaty negotiated with Great Britain by Washington, known as Jay's Treaty.
On this question Harrison Gray Otis came before the people of Boston for the first time in a public speech, and the good Bishop was so charmed with the brilliant oratory of the speaker, that he threw his arms around Mr. Otis, and exclaimed, while the tears ran down his face, " Future generations, young man, will rise up and call thee blessed."
The Federal Street was the first regular theatre established in Boston. It was opened February 3, 1794, with the tragedy of Gustavus Vasa. Thomas Paine, the same who afterwards changed his name to Robert Treat, because he wanted a Chris- tian name, wrote the prologue, having been adjudged the prize against a number of competitors. Charles Stuart Powell was the first manager. The theatre was also called the Old Drury, after Drury Lane, London. In 1798, while under the manage- ment of Barrett and Harper, the house was destroyed by fire, leaving only the brick walls standing. The theatre was soon rebuilt and opened in October, 1798, under the management of Mr. Hodgkinson, with " Wives as they Were." Mr. George L. Barrett conducted the next season, and in the following year, 1800, the celebrated Mrs. Jones appeared. Mr. Dickson
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was a favorite actor at this house until his retirement from the stage in 1817. In this year the managers were Powell, Dick- son, and Duff, and under their auspices Edmund Kean first performed in Boston. He met with a favorable reception, and
BOSTON THEATRE AND FRANKLIN STREET.
departed with a full purse and high opinion of Boston, which he pronounced "the Literary Emporium of the Western World."
In 1825 Kean renewed his visit to America, but the Bos- tonians, offended at his supercilious conduct on the occasion of his second engagement, when he refused to play to a thin house, would not allow him to utter a word, and he was finally driven from the stage by a shower of projectiles. Henry J. Finn, then one of the managers, vainly endeavored to obtain a hearing for the tragedian, who stood before the audience in the most submissive attitude, while his countenance was a picture of rage and humiliation. A riotous crowd from the outside forced their way into the house and destroyed what they could of the interior. The discomfited Kean sought safety in flight.
Finn was one of the best eccentric comedians Boston has ever known. Besides being an actor, he was a clever minia- ture painter. He first appeared at the Boston Theatre October 22, 1822, and perished in the ill-fated Lexington lost in Long
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Island Sound, January 13, 1840. Finn usually announced his benefits with some witty morceau like this :-
" Like a grate full of coals I burn, A great full house to see ; And if I prove not grateful too, A great fool I shall be."
Kean, notwithstanding his fiasco in Boston, was possessed of generous impulses, of which many anecdotes are related in illustration. The scene on the night of his retirement from the stage, when he appeared as Othello, at Covent Garden, as- sisted by his son Charles as Iago, is an ever-memorable event in the annals of the stage. Broken down by emotion and physical infirmity, the actor had to be borne from the theatre by his son to a neighboring house. He survived but a few weeks.
Edmund Kean was noted for the abuse of his powers by in- dulgence in the social glass. He had a weakness to be thought a classical scholar, and would quote scraps of Latin common- places. One evening, while deep in a nocturnal orgie, his secre- tary, R. Phillips, tired of waiting for him, sent a servant to report the situation at two in the morning.
Phillips. What's Mr. Kean doing now ?
Waiter. Making a speech about Shakespeare.
Phillips. He's getting drunk, you had better order the carriage. (Half past two.)
Phillips. What's he at now ?
Waiter. He's talking Latin, sir.
Phillips. Then he is drunk. I must get him away.
Mrs. Susanna Rowson, the gifted authoress of "Charlotte Temple," appeared at the Federal Street Theatre in September, 1796. In March of the year following her play of " Americans in England " was brought out at this house, and received with great favor. Mrs. Rowson soon sought a more congenial em- ployment, opening in the early part of 1797 a school for young ladies in Federal Street with a single pupil. Her facile pen was equally ready in prose or verse, the latter covering a wide range from deep pathos to stirring martial odes.
Mrs. Rowson's remarkable force of character enabled her to
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rise superior to the deep-seated prejudice against novel-writers and actresses, - she was both, - and to command not only the respect, but the patronage at last of many who would have looked upon an association with her at one time as contaminating.
Macready made his first appearance before a Boston audience at this theatre in the character of Virginius ; and Boston was also his place of refuge after the lamentable Astor Place Riot, in New York. John Howard Payne also acted here. About 1833 the house was closed as a theatre, and leased to the
society of Free Inquirers. In 1834 the " Academy of Music," an institution for the culture of vocal and instrumental music, obtained possession. Mr. Lowell Mason conducted the Acad- emy, and the name of the theatre was now changed to the " Odeon." Religious services were held on Sundays by Rev. William M. Rogers's society until the building of their church on Winter Street. The stage was again cleared for theatrical performances in 1846 - 47, under a lease to Mr. C. R. Thorne. Lafayette visited the Boston Theatre on the last evening of his stay in 1824. An entire new front was erected on Federal Street in 1826, and an elegant saloon added with many interior improvements. About 1852 the theatre property was sold, and the present business structure erected on its site at the north- east corner of Franklin and Federal Streets.
Charles Bulfinch was the architect of the Boston Theatre. It was built of brick, was one hundred and forty feet long, sixty-one feet wide, and forty feet high. An arcade projected from the front, serving as a carriage entrance. The house had the appearance of two stories ; both the upper and lower were arched, with square windows, those of the second stage being the most lofty. Corinthian pilasters and columns decorated front and rear. Several independent outlets afforded ready egress. The main entrance was in front, where, alighting under cover from their carriages, the company passed through an open saloon to two staircases leading to corridors at the back of the boxes. The pit and gallery were entered from the sides.
The interior was circular in form, the ceiling being composed of elliptic arches resting on Corinthian columns. There were
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two rows of boxes, the second suspended by invisible means. The stage was flanked by two columns, and across the opening were thrown a cornice and balustrade ; over this were painted the arms of the United States and of Massachusetts, blended with histrionic emblems. From the arms depended the motto, " All the World 's a Stage." The walls were painted azure, and the columns, front of the boxes, etc., straw and lilac color ; the balustrades, mouldings, etc., were gilt, and the second tier of boxes were hung with crimson silk. There was also a beautiful and spacious ballroom at the east end, handsomely decorated, with small retiring-rooms. A cuisine, well furnished, was be- neath. Such was the first play-house Boston ever had.
Cast on the opening night of the Boston Theatre : -
NEW THEATRE Will open on Monday next, February 3d, With the truly Republican Tragedy, GUSTAVUS VASA, THE DELIVERER OF HIS COUNTRY.
All the characters (being the first time they were ever performed by the present company) will be personated by Messrs. Baker, Jones, Collins, Nel- son, Bartlett, Powell, S. Powell, and Kenny ; Miss Harrison, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Baker, and the Child by Miss Cor- nelia Powell, being- her first appearance on any Stage. To which will be added an Entertainment called
MODERN ANTIQUES ; or,
THE MERRY MOURNERS.
Mr. and Mrs. Cockletop by Mr. Jones and Miss Baker. The other characters by Messrs. S. Powell, Collins, Nelson, Baker, etc., Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Baker, and Mrs. Collins.
The history of the Boston stage is instructive, as showing the gradual development of a change of feeling in regard to the establishment of theatres. The earliest attempt at such exhi- bitions was a performance at the British Coffee House of Otway's Orphan, in 1750, followed by a law forbidding them under severe penalties. The British officers had their theatre, in 1775, in Faneuil Hall, where they produced the " Blockade of Boston," by General Burgoyne, " Zara," and other pieces.
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In 1792 a company of comedians from London, chief among whom was Charles Powell, fitted up a stable in Board Alley (Hawley Street) into a theatre. Governor Hancock was highly incensed at this infraction of the laws, and made it the subject of special comment in his message to the Legislature. The representations were conducted under the name of "Moral Lectures," but were brought to a summary conclusion by the appearance of Sheriff Allen on the stage, who arrested one of the performers as he stood in the guise of the Crooked Back Tyrant. The audience sympathized with the actors, and amid great excitement, in which Hancock's portrait was torn from the stage-box and trampled under foot, the play ingloriously ended. The law, however, was repealed, before the year was out, mainly through the efforts of John Gardiner, while Samuel Adams and H. G. Otis opposed its abrogation. Mr. Otis, how- ever, defended the captured knight of the buskin, and procured his discharge on technical grounds.
Bill at the opening in Board Alley : -
NEW EXHIBITION ROOM.
BOARD ALLEY. FEATS OF ACTIVITY.
This Evening, the 10th of August, will be exhibited Dancing on the Tight Rope by Monsieurs Placide and Martin. Mons. Placide will dance a Hornpipe on a Tight Rope, play the Violin in various attitudes, and jump over a cane backwards and forwards.
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS, By Mr. Harper. SINGING, By Mr. Wools.
Various feats of tumbling by Mons. Placide and Martin, who will make somersetts backwards over a table, chair, &c. Mons. Martin will exhibit several feats on the Slack Rope. In the course of the Evening's Entertainments will be delivered
THE GALLERY OF PORTRAITS, or, THE WORLD AS IT GOES, By Mr. Harper. .
The whole to conclude with a Dancing Ballet called The Bird Catcher, with the Minuet de la Cour and the Gavot.
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John Howard Payne, whose memory is immortalized by " Home, Sweet Home," lived in a little old wooden building at the corner of Channing, formerly Berry and Sister Streets. His father, at one time, kept a school in his dwelling, which he styled the Berry Street Academy. Howard showed an early inclination for theatricals, and was the leader of an amateur company composed of his young companions. He was also possessed of a martial spirit, and organized a band of juvenile soldiers of his own age, with whom he paraded the streets, armed with muskets borrowed of Wallach, the Essex Street Jew. On one occasion, when drawn up on the Common, they were invited into the line and passed in review by General Elliott. The company was called the Federal Band, and their uniform, blue and white, was copied from the Boston Light Infantry. Payne was sent to Union College, Schenectady, through the generosity of a noble-minded New-Yorker. His father's death occurring while he was at college, he resolved to try the stage, and made his first appearance at the Park Theatre in February, 1809, as Young Norval. He astonished everybody, and went the round of American theatres with great success. He went to England in 1813, suffering a brief imprisonment at Liverpool as an American alien. After a time he went to Paris, and devoted himself to adapting successful French plays for the London stage. He witnessed the return of Bonaparte from Elba, and the scenes of the "Hundred Days." His future life was one of trial, vicissitude, and unre- quited effort. The plays of "Therese," and "Clari, the Maid of Milan," are from his pen. "Home, Sweet Home," was first sung by Miss Tree, sister of Mrs. Charles Kean, and procured her a wealthy husband, and filled the treasury of Covent Gar- den. Payne afterwards received an appointment from our gov- ernment as consul at Tunis. He died in 1852. Who knows that "Sweet Home" was not the plaint of his own heart, sigh- ing for the scenes of his youth ?
" An exile from home, pleasure dazzles in vain, Ah, give me my lowly thatched cottage again ; The birds singing sweetly that came to my call, - Give me them, and that peace of mind dearer than all."
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Another abandoned church-site is near. The Old Presbyte- rian Meeting-house stood on the north corner of Federal and Berry Streets. The latter has changed its name to Channing, as it did its ancient orthography, Bury into Berry. The founders of this church were Irish Pres- byterians, and their first house of worship was a barn, which sufficed until they were able, in 1744, to build a neat wooden edifice. Governor Hancock pre- sented the bell and vane which had belonged to the Old Brattle Street Meeting-house. The old house was a pattern of many that may still be seen in our older New England villages.
An amusing incident is related of the vane, - Hancock's gift.
OLD FEDERAL STREET CHURCH.
Colonel Erving, meeting Rev. John Moorhead, directed his attention to the fact that the vane did not move, but remained fixed in its position. "Ay, I must see to it," said the honest parson, who ran immediately to the mechanic who placed the vane on the steeple. A fatiguing climb to the top revealed that the fault was in the wind, which had remained due east for a fortnight.
Mr. Moorhead, the first pastor, was ordained in Ireland, and was installed in Boston in 1730, a hundred years after the set- tlement. This was also the church of Jeremy Belknap, and of Dr. W. E. Channing, for whom the neighboring street is named.
It was to this church the Convention adjourned from the Old State House, when it met to consider the adoption of the Federal Constitution, January 9, 1788.
" The 'Vention did in Boston meet, But State House could not hold 'em ; So then they went to Federal Street, And there the truth was told 'em."
Jeremy Belknap was then pastor of the church. John Han-
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cock was president of the Convention, and George R. Minot vice-president. To the efforts of Hancock is largely due the adoption of the instrument. The joy of the people at the rati- fication was unbounded, and a monster procession celebrated the event, in which the mechanics of Boston, who had taken a lively interest in the proceedings, bore a prominent part. The naval hero, John Foster Williams, then living in Leverett's Lane (Congress Street), lent his aid after the following man- ner : -
"John Foster Williams, in a ship, Joined in the social band, sir ; And made the lasses dance and skip To see him sail on land, sir !"
In 1809 the Federal Street society erected a new and elegant house, designed by Charles Bulfinch. It was, when built, the only specimen of pure Saxon-Gothic architecture in Boston.
In 1834 a number of Polish refugees arrived in this country, after the final dismemberment of their native land. One Sun- day Dr. Channing announced that a collection would be taken up for the benefit of these exiles. The call was nobly responded to ; among others, Henry Purkett, a member of the Tea Party, and one of the sterling patriots of Revolutionary times, sent his check couched in these words : -
" Pay to Count Pulaski, my commander at the battle of Brandy- wine, his brethren, or bearer, one hundred dollars."
Anciently Federal Street was known as Long Lane, but from the adoption of the Federal Constitution was known by its present name. What was true of the lower part of Franklin Street is equally so of Federal. There was once a sufficient depth of water near the meeting-house we have just described for smelts to be taken. Shaw cites Dr. Channing as saying he had taken these fish at the corner of Federal and Milk Streets, and another authority as having seen three feet of water in Federal Street.
At the upper end of Federal Street, next the corner of Mil- ton Place, lived Madam Scott, the widow of Governor Han- cock. She married Captain James Scott in 1796. He had
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been long employed by the governor as master of a London packet, and again, after the peace, sailed as master of the Nep- tune, the first ship of a regular line of London packets. Madam Scott outlived her husband many years, retaining her faculties unimpaired until near the close of her life. She died in 1830, over eighty. She was the daughter of Judge Edmund Quincy, of Braintree, and long celebrated for her wit and beauty.
Dorothy Quincy was at Lexington with her affianced husband (Hancock) when the battle of Lexington occurred, and looked out upon the fearful scenes of that morning. She knew Earl Percy well, and related that she had often heard him drilling his troops of a morning on the Common. Lafayette was a favorite with her, having been entertained by her in 1781. When the Marquis revisited Boston, in 1824, his first call was upon Madam Scott. They regarded each other intently for a few moments without speaking, each contemplating the ravages time and care had made in the features of the other.
As Lafayette rode into town, receiving the private and heart- felt homage of every individual of the immense throng that greeted him, he perceived his ancient hostess of more than forty years before, seated at a balcony on Tremont Street. The General directed his carriage to stop before the house, and, rising to his feet, with his hand upon his heart, made her a graceful salutation, which was as heartily returned. This little episode was loudly applauded by the spectators of the interesting meeting.
The mansion of Robert Treat Paine, the eminent lawyer, judge, and signer of our Magna Charta, was at the west corner of Milk and Federal Streets. The house, a brick one, fronted on Milk Street, and appeared in its latter days guiltless of paint. It was a large, two-story, gambrel-roof structure, with gardens extending back some distance on Federal Street. In the yard was a large jack with a turn-spit, according to the culinary fashion of those days. In this house Judge Paine died May 11, 1814. A Bostonian by birth, pupil and usher of the Latin School, he was a delegate to the Provincial Con-
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gress of 1774, at Philadelphia, and member of the Continental Congress ; he was the first attorney-general of Massachusetts, and member of the State Constitutional Convention ; and also judge of the Supreme Court of the State. Judge Paine con- ducted the prosecution of Captain Preston. He was an able and witty writer ; as a man, beloved by his fellow-citizens who honored him with so many high public trusts. He was enter- taining in conversation, but subject in his later years to fits of abstraction from which he would rouse himself with a pleasant smile and jest.
The younger Robert Treat Paine was one of those brilliant geniuses which occasionally illuminate a community in which wit combined with sentiment commands a high value. He had a decided penchant for the theatre, and married an actress, - Miss Baker. He was first called Thomas, but, strongly dislik- ing the appellation of the great infidel Thomas Paine, he ap- pealed to the Legislature to give him a "Christian " name. He had been a patron of the little theatre in Board Alley, and assisted with his pen at the inauguration of the Boston Theatre. His father, as we know, lived hard by, and young Thomas was scarcely of age when he wrote the successful com- position. The greatest of his political lyrics, " Adams and Liberty," was written at the request of the Massachusetts Char- itable Fire Society. As first composed, all mention of Wash- ington was - inadvertently, no doubt - omitted. £ Major Ben Russell, in whose house Paine happened to be, interfered when the poet was about to help himself from the sideboard, humor- ously insisting that he should not quench his thirst until he had in an additional stanza repaired the oversight. Paine thoughtfully paced the room a few moments, suddenly asked for a pen, and wrote the grand lines :-
"Should the tempest of war overshadow our land, Its bolts could ne'er rend Freedom's temple asunder ; For unmoved at its portal would Washington stand, And repulse with his breast the assaults of the thunder. His sword from the sleep
Of its scabbard would leap,
And conduct with its point every flash to the deep ;
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For ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves, While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves."
The younger Paine died in 1811, three years before his father. Part of the garden lying on Federal Street became the site of the Fourth Baptist Church. Church and dwelling long ago joined the shadowy procession of vanished landmarks. Father and son were both buried from the family mansion.
Before the occupancy by Judge Paine, this house, it is said, had been the abode of Colonel John Erving, Jr., a merchant of high standing, and colonel of the Boston Regiment. His father, the old Colonel John Erving, was an eminent merchant before him, and lived in Tremont Row. The younger Erving was son in-law of Governor Shirley, and at his death the governor's funeral took place from the house of his relative, Monday, April 1, 1771. A long procession followed the remains to King's Chapel, beneath which they were deposited. The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, commanded by Captain Heath; * the officers of the Boston Regiment, in full regimentals with the usual mourning of black crape, attended. On the coffin were placed the two swords of the deceased, crossed. The pall was supported by Governor Hutchinson, Lieutenant-Governor Oliver, two judges of the Superior Court, and two of the Honorable Council. Dr. Caner preached the funeral sermon, after which the body was interred, the military firing three volleys, and a detachment of the Train of Artillery as many rounds as the deceased had lived years, namely, sixty-five. The governor will be remembered as a patron of King's Chapel, and it was doubtless his expressed wish to be buried there.
In that part of Congress Street lying north of Water Street were the old Quaker Church and Burying Ground. The latter was situated opposite Lindall Street, and was the fourth in the town in antiquity, having been established in 1709. The Friends built a brick meeting-house on that part of their lot subsequently occupied by the Transcript, and later by J. E. Farwell & Co. The house was nearly destroyed in the great fire of 1760, but was repaired the same year. Though once numerous, only eleven
* Afterwards Major-General Heath.
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of the sect remained in Boston in 1744 ; their worship in this house ceased about 1808, and in 1827 the property was sold. The remains were exhumed by the Friends and taken to Lynn, where they again received burial. No interments were made in this cemetery later than about 1815. From time to time the relics of the Quakers have been thrown to the surface by the excavations on and near this site. At a later period the Friends erected a small stone house in Milton Place, Federal Street, which is still existing; but in 1848 it was conjectured there was not a single Quaker in Boston ; in 1855 none were resident here, - the society, like the French Church, had be- 1 come extinct. The house in Milton Place was once protected by a fence, and shaded by handsome trees, - all gone, and on the front a huge sign of " Wool " is erected.
The Quakers have the distinction of having built the first brick meeting-house in Boston; it was in Brattle Street, and dates back to 1692. This was disused in 1708, and the society removed to Congress Street. The sect seems to have flourished under persecution, dying out when it had ceased. The Quakers suffered every species of cruelty in establishing their faith in Boston. Scourging and imprisonment were the mild means of prevention first employed ; banishment and the loss of an ear were subsequently decreed, - at least three persons lost this useful member by the hands of the public executioner about 1658. Even under this severity the Quakers continued to in- crease and flourish. Selling them into slavery was tried and failed, and the death penalty was applied as a last resort. Four of the persecuted sect were hanged, and but for the fear of in- tervention by the crown the Puritans would have cut them off root and branch. This occurred in 1660, rather more than two centuries ago. It must be remarked, however, that some of the observances of the early Quakers would not be tolerated even now.
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