very much the reverse all the rest of his life. He spends, on a single effort to shine, the strength that might have made him tolerable, if it had been properly managed, for three or four hours. Shun such a man as you would a pestilence. If you have as many thoughts as will last a year, you will do well enough. By the end of it, the ideas first hung out will have been sufficiently aired, and may be used again without much risk of recognition. I once took a paper, conducted on the natural plan, for three years; solely for the sake of three or four new ideas in each number. At last, the reservoir gave out, and my old friends appeared again in new dresses. One of them was cuffed and banged with the cloth of Lord Bolingbroke, and another was skirted with stuff of a color different from that of the rest of the coat. Their disguises amused me for a while, and I believe they passed with most folks for as good as new. If you can, by any means, get admittance where two or three men of real learning and talent resort, you will need no capital of your own. Listen to them attentively, and pick up the crumbs of conversation. If you have a bad memory, you can note them down. You can bring out what you have heard, in a few days, as your own, and after the ideas have passed through your hands, it is not likely that their parents will know them again. If they should, they will probably be ashamed to claim them. I have known several Naturals to get the name of very pretty scholars and wits in this way. If a brother editor should copy any of your paragraphs without giving you credit, seize on the circumstance as a godsend. Complain bitterly of the loss you have suffered, and accuse your brother roundly of theft. Swear, with old Sir John, that you have lost "two or three bonds of forty pound apiece and a seal ring of your grandfather's." The more noise you make the better. The more you show yourself aggrieved, the higher your readers will value your goods, and, consequently, you. This piece of art is often practised with great success. You will sometimes find yourself under the necessity of stealing. In such cases, never steal from a brother Natural. Every Natural is on the look-out for literary larceners, and you will certainly be detected. Steal from an Upright editor. He can afford you an alms. Moreover, it is likely that he will never discover your depredation; and, if he should, he will not notice it. Guard those ideas, which are truly your own, carefully. If, in copying a piece of intelligence, you find it expedient to affix an editorial paragraph of three lines, subscribe it with an abbreviation of the name of your paper. If your paper be called "The Rushlight," for example, subscribe your editorials thus, "Rush." This will identify your property, and at the same time figuratively express its value. Too much cannot be said touching the renovation of a brain exhausted, or barren of ideas. I would earnestly recommend to you an extensive course of stall reading. The old, forgotten English authors will furnish you with thoughts ad libitum; nay, with whole paragraphs. Six years ago Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy was the comforter of distressed editors, but it is now too hackneyed to venture upon. St. Evremond, however, and Davenant remain almost entire. Beaumont and Fletcher and Ben Johnson will supply all your poetry. Old sermons will serve you better than learning and genius could. Nobody reads them, and you may extract their pith without the least scruple. Beware, however, of Tillotson and Blair. If any poetical youth or miss should send you a contribution, publish it by all means. If it be wretchedly bad, you can say that "Notwithstanding its manifold faults, it is evident that the writer can do better if he will." Thus you will not commit yourself, for it is your duty to encourage native talent. If a foreigner should publish his travels in the United States, and speak ill, though truly, of any of our laws, manners, customs, &c. abuse him beyond measure. If you cannot get over his statements, say, it is clear that he does not understand our social principles. Basil Hall was a mine of wealth to our Naturals, because they could say whatever they pleased of him, without violating the truth. So excellent a but is not to be found every day. Speaking of a popular orator, say that he reminds you of the best days of Rome and Athens. Though you may never have read a line of Cicero or Demosthenes, it will appear, by implication, that you have. Insert deaths, and especially marriages. Publish an abstract of the latest fashions in every number. You can get it from La Belle Assemblée. Strive to please the women, and you need not care about the men. If you wish to get a character for independence, attack some work on a subject that interests nobody but its author. You may demolish such a person, without scruple. Begin thus-" However unpopular it may be, our duty to the public compels us to say that we think Mr.wrong in his premises, discursive in his logic, and hasty in his conclusion." You will thus prove yourself one who does not fear to express his opinion. Last, but not least-remember that the sole end of your creation is to eat, drink, and make money. In order to fulfil it, you must forget that you are an individual, and consider yourself as the representative of your subscribers, and those who are likely to be your subscribers, in every thing. You must have no thought, no feeling, no apparent interest but theirs; at least you must make them think you have no other. If you observe the directions here laid down, they will probably send you to the General Court, and your ghost will laugh when it reads the lie on your grave-stone. ACROSTIC. Written in a young lady's Album. DRAMATIC REMINISCENCES. NO. III. In the summer of 1792, induced by a prospect of support from a number of influential individuals, a part of the American Company, so called, which was attached to the Philadelphia and New-York theatres, visited Boston. A number of gentlemen associated for the purpose of erecting a theatre. The committee who furnished money for the enterprize, were Joseph Russell, Esq. who also acted as treasurer to the association, Dr. Jarvis, Gen. Henry Jackson, Joseph Barrell, and Joseph Russell, jr. A piece of ground was purchased in Board-Alley, now Hawley-street. A building called the "New Exhibition Room,' was erected with such rapidity, that it seemed almost the work of magic. It was a theatre in every thing but the name. It had a stage of considerable extent, a pit, one row of boxes, and a gallery, the whole capable of containing about five hundred persons. The boxes formed three sides of a regular square, the stage making the fourth. The scenery was tolerably well executed, and the whole interior was neat and comfortable, both for actors and auditors. Before the completion of the New Exhibition Room, Charles Powell arrived in Boston, from England, and offered a public entertainment, the nature and composition of which will best appear from his advertisement, of which the following is a copy. "AT CONCERT-HALL, on Monday, August 13, Wednesday 15, and Friday 17, will be presented, for the first time here, by Mr. Powell, (from the Theatre Royal, Covent-Garden,) a favorite Pasticchio, called-THE EVENING BRUSH, for rubbing off the Rust of Care. The chief subjects of Laughter,-Modern Spouters, Stage Candidates, Tragedy Tailors, Wooden Actors, Butchers in Heroics, Buffoons in Blank Verse, Bogglers, and Blunderers, &c. Laughter, with reason, Is surely no treason, Proportion of grace can have no cause to blush ; And the sons of true merit, No grudge can inherit, To see rank impostors exposed by the Brush. With a contrasted set of original Songs; particularly the Tragi-comedy of Human Life; the Roman Veteran, or Date Obolum Bellisario; the Golden Days of Good Queen Bess, &c. The whole to conclude with a Whimsical Transformation, or Humorous Dwarf Dance. Tickets half a dollar," &c. The New Exhibition Room was opened the same week, under the management of J. Harper. The first public performance was announced for Thursday evening, August 16, and consisted of dancing on the tight rope, by Mons. Placide; songs by Mr. Wools; feats on the slack rope, and tumbling, by Mons. Martine; hornpipes, and minuets, by Mons. and Madame Placide; and the "Gallery of Portraits," or the World as it goes, by Mr. Harper. These entertainments were continued, with slight variations, for several weeks. The company in the mean time received important additions of numbers and talent; and, besides those already mentioned, it consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Morris, Mr. and Mrs. Solomon, Messrs. Robert, Adams, Watts, Jones, Redfield, Tucker, Murry, Mrs. Gray, Miss Smith, (afterwards Mrs. Harper,) Miss Chapman, &c. Powell also performed there occasionally, having repeated his "Evening Brush," till it had lost its attraction. The performances began now to assume a more dramatic form, and to have some claims to the character of intellectual entertainments. But the law forbade the representation of stage-plays; and, the better to evade its operation, and elude its penalties, though every species of dramatic entertainment was presented, in fact, yet it was thought proper by the players, to offer them by another name in the bills. The following is a copy of one of the earliest play-bills of this description : "NEW EXHIBITION ROOM, BOARD ALLEY. Mr. Murry's benefit. This evening, 26th Sept. will be presented a Moral Lecture upon DOUGLAS, in five parts. Delivered by Messrs. Watts, Murry, Redfield, Adams, Solomon, Tucker, Mrs. Solomon, and Miss Chapman. "BUCKS, HAVE AT YE ALL," by Mr. Watts. After which will follow a COMIC LECTURE, in two parts, in which will be introduced all the Songs of the POOR SOLDIER,-delivered by Messrs. Watts, Murry, Redfield, Solomon, Jones, Mrs. Solomon, Miss Chapman. It is not a little surprising, that, in a town where so many of the inhabitants were opposed to the establishment of a theatre, or to the public representation of a dramatic piece in any form that it could assume, and with the law on their side, a company of players should have been suffered to pursue their purpose for several months. Such, however, was the fact. No attempts were made, by the municipal officers, to break up these exhibitions; and though they were opposed by a number of writers in the newspapers, (chiefly in the Independent Chronicle) yet they continued till about the end of October or beginning of November, unmolested by the civil authority. It was then, during the representation of the School for Scandal, and while Morris and his wife were on the stage in the characters of Sir Peter and Lady Teazle, that the sheriff of the county, suddenly, and very unexpectedly to the uxorious knight and his fashionable wife, made his first appearance on that stage, and arrested them by virtue of a peace-warrant. Governor Hancock was known to be one of the bitterest enemies to the theatre, and it was supposed that the warrant had been granted at his request, or procured by his instigation. In the first burst of indignation, some of the audience leaped from the pit on to the stage, tore down the arms of the state, which decorated a tablet between one of the stage-boxes and the door, and trampled it under their feet. Several gentlemen immediately came forward and became bound for the appearance of the persons arrested. A few days subsequent to this transaction, at the opening of the legislature, which was held at Concord in consequence of the prevalence of the small-pox in Boston, Governor Hancock made some allusions in his speech to what he considered " an open insult upon the laws and government of the commonwealth." After reciting the preamble to the law of 1750, and remarking that by a subsequent act it was to be continued in force till 1797, he thus proceeded : "Whether the apprehensions of the evils which might flow from theatrical exhibitions, so fully expressed in the preamble of that act, are well founded or not, may be a proper subject of legislative disquisition on a motion for the continuance or the repeal of the law; but the act is now a law of the commonwealth; the principles on which it is predicated have been recognized by, and derive support from, the consideration of several legislatures; and surely it ought to claim the respect and obedience of all persons who live or happen to be within the commonwealth. Yet a number of aliens or foreigners have lately entered the state, and in the metropolis of the government, under advertisements insulting to the 48 VOL. II. habits and education of the citizens, have been pleased to invite them to, and to exhibit before such as attended, stage plays, interludes, and theatrical entertainments, under the style and appellation of moral lectures." This fact is so notorious, that it is in vain to attempt a concealment of its coming to our knowledge. Whether the judicial department, whose business it is, have attended to this subject or not, I am unable to determine; but this I am convinced of, that no measures have been taken to punish a most open breach of the laws, and a most contemptuous insult upon the powers of the government. "You, gentlemen, are the guardians of the commonweath's dignity and honor; and our fellow-citizens rely upon your vigilance and wisdom, for the support of the sovereignty and importance of the government. I therefore refer this matter to your determinations; and cannot but hope that your resolutions and measures will give efficacy to the laws, and be the means of bringing to condign punishment, those who dare to treat them with contempt or open opposition.' The legislature, in their reply to this speech of the governor, say, "We shall ever join with your excellency in expressing a just indignation at any insult to the laws of the commonwealth, and in this light we must view the breach which you suggest of the statute providing against stage plays and other theatrical amusements; a statute, which we esteem an important and needful preservation of the prudent habits and morals of the citizens of this commonwealth. If any defect should be found in that statute, as applied to present circumstances, we shall endeavor to remedy it." It does not appear that any thing further was done by the legislature to add to the severity of the law, or to repair the "insult" which it had sustained; nor have I been able to ascertain, that those, whose duty it was to see the law executed, pursued the offenders with much rigor. An association was, shortly after, formed among the most respectable and wealthy inhabitants of Boston, for the purpose of erecting a permanent theatre. Among the pieces performed at the Board-Alley Theatre, was one, entitled to a place among these reminiscences. It was the Contrast, written by Royal Tyler, Esq. and was first performed at New-York, in 1789. It met with great success in Philadelphia and Baltimore, as well as in that city. It was entitled to this, if not by its intrinsic merits, by the fact of its being the first essay of American genius in the dramatic art. The author had not studied the rules of the drama, and indeed had never witnessed the representation of more than two or three plays. The characters are well drawn; the plot is sufficiently intricate, without any forced or unnatural incidents; and there is considerable sprightliness and humor in the dialogue. The scene is laid in the city of New-York, and the period of action is supposed to be that immediately after the close of the revolutionary war. It was printed in 1790, by Wignell, the manager, and had a list of subscribers prefixed, among which are the President of the United States; the governor and chief justice of Pennsylvania; Gen. Knox, then secretary of war; E. Randolph, then attorney-general of the United States; most of the members of congress, and many other most respectable persons in the country; the whole number about seven hundred. With some trifling alterations this comedy might be revived with prospects of better success than many of the productions of modern play-writers. As it is now very seldom to be met with, the reader perhaps will not be displeased with the following extract. Jessamy is the servant of Dimple, an English fop; Jonathan is waiter to Col. Manly, an American officer, whose character and conduct, contrasted with those of Dimple, gives the title to the comedy. The |