Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 8.djvu/231

CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN 367 had been tried too soon and too severely ; her operatic career was brought to a sudden close. Her voice failed her ; her upper notes departed, never to return ; she was left with a weakened and limited contralto register. Alarmed and wretched, she sought counsel of Mr. Caldwell, the manager of the chief New Orleans theatre. " You ought to be an actress, and not a singer," he said, and advised her to take lessons of Mr. Barton, his leading tragedian. Her articles of apprenticeship to Maeder were cancelled. Soon she was ready to appear as Lady Macbeth on the occasion of Barton's benefit. The season ended, she sailed for Philadelphia on her way to New York. Presently she had entered into a three years' engagement with Mr. Hamblin, the manager of the Bowery Theatre, at a salary of twenty-five dollars a week for the first year, thirty-five for the second year, and forty-five for the third. Mr. Ham- blin had received excellent accounts of the actress from his friend, Mr. Barton, of New Orleans, and had heard her rehearse scenes from " Macbeth," "Jane* Shore," " Venice Preserved," " The Stranger," etc. To enable her to obtain a suitable wardrobe, he became security for her with his tradespeople, deducting five dol- lars a week from her salary until the debt was satisfied. All promised well ; inde- pendence seemed secure at last. Mrs. Cushman was sent for from Boston ; she gave up her boarding-house and hastened to her daughter. Miss Cushman writes : " I got a situation for my eldest brother in a store in New York. I left my only sister in charge of a half-sister in Boston, and I took my youngest brother with me." But rheumatic fever seized the actress ; she was able to act for a few nights only, and her dream of good fortune came to a disastrous close. " The Bowery Theatre was burned to the ground, with all my wardrobe, all my debt upon it, and my three years' contract ending in smoke." Grievously dis- tressed, but not disheartened, with her family dependent upon her exertions, she accepted an engagement at the principal theatre in Albany, where she remained five months, acting all the leading characters. In September, 1837, she entered into an engagement, which endured for three years, with the manager of the Park Theatre, New York. She was required to fulfil the duties of " walking lady " and " general utility " at a salary of twenty dollars a week. During this period of her career she performed very many characters, and toiled assiduously at her profession. It was then the custom to afford the pub- lic a great variety of performances, to change the plays nightly, and to present two and sometimes three plays upon the same evening. The actors were for- ever busy studying new parts, and, when they were not performing, they were rehearsing. " It was a time of hard work," writes Miss Stebbins, "of ceaseless activity, and of hard-won and scantily accorded appreciation." Miss Cushman had no choice of parts ; she was not the chief actress of the company ; she sus- tained without question all the characters the management assigned to her. Her appearance as Meg Merrilies (she acquired subsequently great favor by her per- formance of this character) was due to an incident — the illness of Mrs. Chippen- dale, the actress who usually supported the part. It was in the year 1840; the veteran Braham was to appear as Henry Bertram. A Meg Merrilies had to be