CHA.P. XXXII.] ACTORS ON BOARD. 165 



cause large steamers to pitch so as to make many passengers sea 

 sick ; but this rarely happens. In the night we had often to 

 draw up to the bank, wherever a signal-fire was lighted, finding 

 sometimes a single passenger waiting to be taken on board. 



There were many actors on board, and, among others, a 

 pleasing young woman, who turned out to be the manager s 

 wife, returning with her family of young children and sick hus 

 band from Vicksburg, where she complained that the drama was 

 at a low ebb, and where, as in many other cities in the south, the 

 drunken habits of the inferior actors made the profession by no 

 means a pleasant one for a woman. She was longing for an 

 engagement in some &quot; eastern theater,&quot; where, she told rny wife, 

 she would willingly take less pay, and would not object to under 

 take the part of &quot; first old woman&quot; for eighteen dollars a week, 

 as most of the actresses, being desirous of looking young and pretty, 

 compete eagerly for the character of &quot; first juvenile.&quot; She liked 

 much to act chambermaid, as then she was not expected to learn 

 her part so accurately. She had a real feeling of enthusiasm for 

 her art, and great admiration for Mrs. Kean, and spoke with 

 satisfaction of having once acted second to her when she was 

 Miss Ellen Tree. During her husband s illness at Vicksburg, 

 she had been obliged to take the management of the theater 

 herself, and had good reason to lament that the temperance move 

 ment had not reached so far west. The physician, after attend 

 ing his patient for many weeks in a fever, remitted to them a 

 bill of fifty dollars, one only of many similar acts of generosity in 

 the members of this profession which came to my knowledge in 

 the course of my tour. This actress had with her a young 

 maid, fairer than many an English brunette, but who, though a 

 free woman, did not happen to belong to the white aristocracy. 

 The stewardess came into the cabin and summoned her to dinner, 

 and she, doing as she was bid, sat down at the second table, 

 where the officers of the ship and the white children were dining. 

 When her repast was half finished, her master and mistress sud 

 denly discovered the prodigious breach of decorum which their 

 attendant was perpetrating, and, calling her away from the table, 

 began explaining to one lady after another, especially those with 



