BOYCOTT. 



73 



through the acting of Joseph Jefferson, is usual- 

 ly attributed to Boucicault's pen. Jefferson, in 

 his autobiography, says of, the play : " ' Rip van 

 Winkle ' was not a sudden success. It did not 

 burst upon the public like a torrent. Its flow 

 was gradual, ajid its source sprang from the 

 Hartz mountains, an old German legend, called 

 ' Carl, the Shepherd,' being the name of the origi- 

 nal story. The genius of Washington Irving 

 transplanted the tale to our own Catskills. The 

 grace with which he paints the scene, and, still 

 more, the quaintness of the story, placed it far 

 above the original. Yates, Hackett, and Burke 

 had separate dramas written upon this scene, and 

 acted the hero, leaving their traditions one to the 

 other. I now came forth, and, saying ' Give me 

 leave,' set to work, using some of the before- 

 mentioned tradition, mark you. Added to this, 

 Dion Boucicault brought his dramatic skill to 

 bear, and, by important additions, made a better 

 play and a more interesting character of the hero 

 than had as yet been reached. This adaptation, 

 in my turn, I interpreted and enlarged upon. It 

 te thus evident that, while I may have done much 

 to render the character and the play popular, it 

 has not been the work of one mind, but, both as 

 to its narrative and its dramatic form, has been 

 often molded, and by many skillful hands." 



In 1873 Boucicault brought out, at Booth's 

 Theatre, in New York, his Irish play " Daddy 

 O'Dowd " ; at Wallack's, " Mora " and " Mi- 

 mi " ; and at the Union Square, " Led Astray." 

 He returned to the United States to remain, and, 

 in connection with William Stuart, opened the 

 New Park Theatre. Among his other plays are 

 " Janet's Pride," " Louis XI," " Faust and Mar- 

 guerite," " Paul Lefarge," " A Dark Night's 

 Work," " The Dead Secret," " Andy Blake," and 

 " The Shaughraun," which was produced at Wal- 

 lack's Theatre (now the Star), ran for a whole 

 season, and has been often revived with success. 

 Mr. Boucicault established a school for acting, 

 and devoted much of his time to it. He insisted 

 upon higher rates of compensation for the dra- 

 matic author, made the play the leading attrac- 

 tion, and so endeavored to elevate his profession. 

 Unfortunately for his personal fame, after many 

 years, and when their children were already upon 

 the stage as actors, he separated from Agnes 

 Robertson, with the declaration that he had 

 never been legally married. Several years later 

 he married, in Australia, Miss Louise Thorndyke, 

 an actress. At the time of his death he was at 

 work upon a dramatization of Bret Harte's story 

 " The Luck of Roaring Camp." 



BOYCOTT. The boycott is an ancient cus- 

 tom under a new name. It may be defined as a 

 policy of social excommunication. Although 

 the policy is thoroughly American, the name 

 " boycott " was given it in Ireland. The policy 

 was first recommended to the Irish people by 

 James Redpath, who, during the land agitation 

 in Ireland in 1880 advised it, in the following 

 words : " Call up the terrible power of social 

 excommunication. If any man is evicted from 

 his holding, let no man take it. If any man is 

 mean enough to take it, don't shoot him, but 

 treat him as a leper. Encircle him with silence. 

 Let no man nor woman talk to him nor to his 

 wife nor children. If his children appear in the 

 streets, don't let your children speak to them. If 



they go to school, take your children away. If 

 the man goes to buy goods in a shop, tell the 

 shopkeeper that if he deals with him you will 

 never trade with him again. If the man or his 

 folk go to church, leave it as they enter. If 

 ever death comes, let the man die unattended 

 save by the priest, and let him be buried unpit- 

 ied. The sooner such men die, the better for 

 Ireland. If the landlord takes the ground, let 

 no man work for him. Let his potatoes remain 

 undug, his grass uncut, his crop wither in the 

 field. . . . When an honest tenant, unable to 

 pay his rent on account of bad crops, is evicted 

 from his farm, let no man take it ; but if any 

 man does take it, do not speak to him nor sell 

 to him nor work for him nor stand at the same 

 altar with him ; let him feel that he is accursed 

 and cast out from all your sympathies, he and 

 every member of his family. . . . Act toward 

 him as the Queen of England would act toward 

 your good wife, if she lived in Clonbur. Act 

 toward his children as the Queen of England 

 would act toward your children. The Queen of 

 England would not speak to you, she would not 

 speak to your wife, she would not speak to your 

 children/ She would not regard you, nor your 

 wife, nor your children as her equals. Now imi- 

 tate the Queen of England, and don't speak to a 

 land-grabber, nor a land-grabber's wife, nor to a 

 land-grabber's children. They are not your 

 equals. Do as the Queen of England does, and you 

 will violate no law of England. . . . This is no new 

 policy I am advocating, only a new application 

 of an ancient policy. Once Europe was a vast 

 camp of armed men. And yet we read that the 

 haughtiest Emperor of Europe was once forced 

 to kneel in the snow, a suppliant, for three days 

 and nights at the door of a priest who had not 

 an armed soldier to obey his orders. What 

 power brought the armored prince to the feet of 

 the unarmored pope ? It was the terrible weap- 

 on of religious excommunication. That weapon 

 you can not wield in defense of your rights : but 

 the next keenest weapon the power of social 

 excommunication is yours, and no law of the 

 state or the Church forbids you to draw it." 



Mr. Redpath gives the following account of 

 the naming of this policy : " Capt. Boycott came 

 into that country seventeen years ago [1863], but 

 had not lived there five years before he won the 

 reputation of being the worst land-agent in the 

 County Mayo. . . . The land agitation suddenly 

 aroused the tenantry to a sense of their power, 

 which they could wield without violating any 

 law, if they would combine and act as one man. 

 The first use of this power against Boycott was 

 made when he sent last summer for the tenantry 

 of the estates for which he was agent, to cut the 

 oats on his farm. . . . The whole neighborhood 

 declined to work for him. . . . The people as- 

 sembled, and I was told by (it would 



ruin him if I were to give his name) that . . . 

 he told the people about my prediction of the 

 effects of a strike against trie landlords, in my 

 Clare Morris speech, and advised them to try it 

 on Boycott at once. The men advised Boy- 

 cott's herdsmen and drivers to strike, and the 

 women advised Boycott's servant girls to strike, 

 and that evening every one of them left his 

 house. Next morning when Mrs. Boycott went 

 to buy bread, the shopkeeper told her that, 



