Rehearsed Juliet In A Cemetery

Eeturniug fo Louisville from New York city, study was begun on a new plan. I had learhed from Mr. Vandenhoflf [who gave hor a few lessons in elocution and acting] to turn my den into a stage. Imagining one of the walls the auditorium, it needed but a stepfarther to crowd the house vvith au enthusiastic public, and a smal] audience was uever seen in that theater. Chairs were made to represent the different characters, and a bust of Shakespeare - the Chandos, to my rnind the finest of all, though unfortunately not as autheutic as the Stratford - was placed at a proper height and couverted into the "leading juvenile. " Clifford, Claude, Colonna, were tho parts assigned to it, bat as Romeo I imagined it looked least stony. Six months of solitary work was now begun. Dancing and rausic, of which I was passiouarely fond, were renounced and xnygirlhood friends and cotnpanions given up. The exaggeration of yonth led me to believe that complete concentration on the on e subject alone would lead to success. Tbe labor was particularly hard, working as I did in the dark, having uo one to consult and no experience to guide me. I longed for belp, which never came, except, from my mother, who was as ignorant as I of the rules of dramatic art. Still we worked on incessantly, I producing ofEects, she critiuising them to the best of ber ability. Often in tho ruiddle of the night I would awaken her to show some new point. Indeed I owe more to her constantand loving interest and encouragement than I can ever hope to repay. To get the hollow tones of Juliet's voice in :he tomb and botter realizemy heroine's 'eelings on awakening in her "nest of death, contagión and unuatural sleep," [ frequently walked to Cave Hill, Louisville'sbeautiful cemetery, theretospeak ler lines through the grilled door of a vanlt. Had a thorough schooling in the art been possible, instead of these random and unguided eiïorts, my work wonld have been halved and its results