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ONCE A CLOWN, ALWAYS A CLOWN entrance. "I have had the honor of playing with that lady hundreds of times, and I never have failed to watch that scene," he said.

Jefferson was dining at the Players the day after the Couldock benefit with a group of six or seven fellow actors, including John Drew, and every one else in the club crowding about his table felicitating him on his performance.

Mr. Drew did me the kindly and generous service of bringing me the news that Jefferson had remarked, "Gentlemen, I have had a very pleasant experience; I have seen a part played as well as it could be — young Hopper's David."

Mr. Jefferson's words are not to be taken literally, but even as hyperbole I cherish them, along with the praise of Mrs. John Drew, above all else. Few will remember it, but I once played Sir John Falstaff to Mrs. Drew's Dame Quickly at a special al fresco performance in the court of the Grand Union Hotel, Saratoga. Rose Coghlan was the Mistress Ford; Blanche Walsh, Mistress Page.

I committed the part in six hours distributed over three evenings. Billy Crane, who had played Falstaff the previous season and found himself unequal to it physically, lent me the elaborate pads that are a part of the make-up,