96 



BOOTH, EDWIN THOMAS. 



Commerce and Production. The leading 

 industry is silver-mining. The produce of the 

 mines in 1890 was about $11,000,000 in value. 

 Copper, tin, and bismuth are also mined for ex- 

 port. Other exports are coca, India rubber, cin- 

 chona, and coffee. The annual value of the im- 

 ports is estimated at $6,000,000, and that of the 

 exports at $9,000,000. 



Political Disturbance. In the early part 

 of 1898 Gen. Camacho and exiled Bolivian Dep- 

 uties were in Valparaiso, plotting an uprising for 

 the overthrow of the Baptista Government. An 

 attempted revolt was promptly suppressed, and 

 the Government, after proclaiming a state of 

 siege for the whole republic, stopped the publica- 

 tion of independent newspapers, and imprisoned 

 their editors and all prominent members of the 

 Opposition. Financial difficulties had placed 

 the Government in a desperate strait, and 

 it was only able to maintain itself by means of 

 $2,500,000 obtained from Chili in time to meet 

 its pressing engagements, and 10,000 rifles sent 

 by the Chilian Government to arm the Boliv- 

 ian militia. When Baptista's position was thus 

 made secure, the state of siege was raised, 

 though it was continued longer in the State of 

 Beni than elsewhere, and conditional amnesty 

 was granted, the Government reserving the 

 right to prosecute all who were implicated in 

 the revolt. 



Treaty with Chili. Ex-President Aniceto 

 Arce was sent to Santiago as a special ambassa- 

 dor to arrange a treaty of peace and alliance 

 with the Chilian Government. He returned in 

 the beginning of February with a treaty, which 

 was ratified by the Bolivian Congress. By this, 

 Bolivia, cutting the historical ties that bound 

 her to Peru, becomes dependent upon Chili. 

 Connected with this treaty were treaties of al- 

 liance also with Brazil and Paraguay. Chili 

 agreed to cede to Bolivia a port on the Pacific, 

 either Arica or Mollendo, and to equip, arm, and 

 instruct the Bolivian national militia. 



BOOTH, EDWIN THOMAS, American act- 

 or, born near Belair, Md., Nov. 13, 1833; died 

 in New York city, June 7, 1893. He was the 

 fourth son of the celebrated actor Junius Brutus 

 Booth. From the elder Booth's custom of tak- 

 ing his son Edwin as a traveling companion 

 and attendant, the youth acquired an early 

 knowledge of the details of theatrical life and 

 work and evinced a desire to become an actor. 

 His father for a while disapproved of this pur- 

 pose, but eventually allowed him to play some 

 small parts. Edwin Booth's first appearance 

 on the stage took place at the Boston Museum, 

 Sept. 10, 1849, in the character of Tressel in 

 " Richard III," his father playing Richard. His 

 second appearance occurred later in the same 

 month, when he played with his father, in Provi- 

 dence, R. I., the parts of Cassio in " Othello " 

 and Wilford in " The Iron Chest." The desire 

 to see father and son on the stage together 

 afforded an opportunity for Edwin to make his 

 first appearance before a New York audience, 

 Sept. 27, 1850, when he played the same part of 

 Wilford at the National Theater in Chatham 

 Street. His second part before a New York au- 

 dience was Hemeya to his father's Pescara in 

 " The Apostate." His first performance of the 

 character of Richard III, undertaken suddenly 



to fill his father's place at the latter's benefit, 

 was in the same theater in 1851. His next en- 

 gagement was in a Baltimore stock company at 

 a salary of $6 a week, where he went through 

 some of the drudgery of his calling. For a short 

 time thereafter he attended school in Baltimore, 

 with which exception his education was acquired 

 solely by undirected study of books and men. 

 He went with his father to California in July, 

 1852. By this time he had fully determined to 

 adopt the calling of an actor, and by the advice 

 of his father he associated himself in a subordi- 

 nate capacity with the stock companies managed 

 by his elder brother Junius in the cities of San 

 Francisco and Sacramento. When in the follow- 

 ing October his father returned to the East he 

 remained on the Pacific coast. There he en- 

 dured the varying fortunes of a stock actor, di- 

 versified by an unprofitable trip to Australia 

 and the Sandwich Islands, from which he re- 

 turned in 1854. He was persuaded to undertake 

 some of the leading Shakespearean roles in San 

 Francisco, and by the autumn of 1856 he had 

 succeeded so well in gaining the favor of the 

 public that he took the advice of some earnest 

 friends and came East with the purpose of 

 trying to assume the position left vacant by 

 his father's death. Beginning in Baltimore in 

 " Richard III," he played through the Southern 

 cities, and was everywhere welcomed and hon- 

 ored as a worthy successor of his famous father. 

 He appeared as Sir Giles Overreach at the Boston 

 Theater, April 20. 1857, and the great success of 

 that engagement established him firmly in repu- 

 tation as one of the best tragic actors of his 

 time. He went from Boston to New York and 

 began an engagement at the Metropolitan The- 

 ater, May 4, 1857, in " Richard III." He played 

 Richelieu, Sir Giles Overreach, Shylock, Lear, 

 Romeo, Hamlet, Claude Melnotte, Sir Edward 

 Mortimer, Petruchio, lago, Othello, St. Pierre, 

 Pescara, Lucius Junius Brutus, Don Caesar de 

 Bazan, and The Stranger, to the applause and 

 delight of crowded audiences. With little vari- 

 ation this series of parts continued to be his 

 repertory to the end of his life. After a sec- 

 ond engagement at the Metropolitan, in New 

 York, beginning Aug. 31, 1857, he made a tour 

 through the South and West, where the tri- 

 umphs of his metropolitan engagements were 

 confirmed by the most generous appreciation. 

 It is characteristic of Mr. Booth's gentle mod- 

 esty of nature that it was only after he had 

 been for several months firmly established in 

 popular regard that he could be persuaded of 

 his great success. 



In 1858 he met, in the company of the Rich- 

 mond Theater, the lady who became his first 

 wife, Miss Mary Devlin. She was born in Troy. 

 N. Y., in 1840, made her first appearance on the 

 stage in that city in 1854, and was married to 

 Mr. Booth in New York, July 7, 1860. In the 

 autumn of 1861 Mr. Booth piayed at the Hay- 

 market Theater, London, but the shadow of 

 the impending civil war in the United States 

 impeded his success there. His daughter Ed- 

 wina was born at Fulham, near London, Dec. 

 9, 1861. He next played a very successful sea- 

 son at the Winter Garden Theater, New York, 

 beginning Sept. 29. 1862. His wife died on 

 Feb. 21, 1863, at their home in Dorchester, 



