The Curtain Falls

SlURDOCH IS DF.AD. Cincinnati, May 20. - James E. Murdoch, the famous actor, died at 5:30 a. m., Friday, aged 83. For two years he has been ill frora various ailments. He was tenderly cared for to the last by his daughters, Fanny and Ida. Ten days ago he took to his bed with a pronounced attack of pneumonía. Despite the attention of leading physicians he steadily gresv worse. He inaintained consciousness up to the last moment, constantly chatting with relatives and friends on his dramatic eareer. His last public appearance was at his benefit here two years ago, when he recited ''Sheridan's Ride." The poem was written in this city by Thomas Buchanan Reed and recited for the first time thirty years ago ly Murdoch during a performance at the old Pike opera house. BEVIEW OF HIS LIFE. [James Edward Murdoch was bom In Philadelphla, January 26, 1811. He was one of the last of the actors of the old school, of whieh Forrest, Macready and the eider Booth were the chtef exponents. He learned the trade of a bookblnder, but on Ootober 13, 1839, appeared at the Arch street theater, Philadelphia, as Frederick in Kotzebue's play of "Lovers' Vows." afterward acting for many years in most of the large citlcs of the United States. In 1810 he became stage manaeer of the Chestnut street theater in Philadelphia, and m the following ycar temporarüy withdrew from the stage to leclure on Shakespeare and to teach elocution. The attraclion of the stage, however, preved too much for hira, and in 1843 he returned to the drama, bezinning iin engagment at the Park theater in New York as Hamlet, and afterward making a tour of the United States and Canada. In 1856 he went to England, where he scored asuccessat the Haymarket theater, but in 1857 he again abandoned the stage and settled on a farm near Lebanon, O. During the war of the rebellion he nursed (lok and wounded soldiere in the hospital, gave readings for the beneüt of the United States sanitary commission and became a volunteer aid on the staff of Gen. Rosecrans. Up to within two years na was professor of eloculion at th' Cincinnati College of Music. Murdoch's best cfforts were in tho line of penteel comedv and juvenile tragedy; his Horneo, Charles Surface and Don Fclix in "The Wonder" had many admirers. But while his acting wa alway praised by the critic he was never notably successful as a star, possitily because h disdained the methoas by which so many actors have risen to notoriety. Mr. Murdoch was a writer as we]l as an actor, having published works on the culture of the voice ard dramatic art which have been accepted a tcxl books througliout the world. ]