Page:The Galaxy, Volume 6.djvu/521

1868.] Glengall, Moore, Monk Lewis, Sheil, and many of the most brilliant spirits of the hour. Mr. Johnson was cast for the part of Sir Lucius O'Trigger; Mr. Wallack played Captain Absolute. The play ran on gaily and gallantly until that passage was reached in which Sir Lucius, handing over the lady to Captain Absolute, says, "An offence handsomely acknowledged becomes an obligation," when the house, catching the sentiment with quick intelligence, rose, and by sheer acclamation ratified a reconciliation.

The evening but one before Mr. Wallack had carried off and taken to him as wife the daughter and only child of Johnson, a lady of many accomplishments and much beauty. At the close of the Drury Lane season Mr. Wallack sailed for America, even then a land to him much loved, and in Hudson street, New York, on the last day of 1819, was born his eldest son, John Lester Wallack, whose portrait, graven by the cunning hand of Hennessy, from a picture in the character of Don Felix, by the celebrated artist, Stone, illustrates this brief memoir.

If there be aught in blood, John Lester Wallack should surely carry off the blue ribbon of the drama. Bluegown cannot boast of such a pedigree! As we have seen, from time to time, almost as many cities claim his birth as that of Homer, we trust this will settle that much vexed question.

Lester Wallack was educated at Mitcham and at Brighton, in England, with the intention of adopting the military profession. His father and his uncle, the father of that gifted artist and most genial of men. the present J. W. Wallack, had both been middys in the British navy, and Mr. Johnson, whom we mentioned had been himself an officer, had left a sum of money specially to purchase a commission for each of his sons in the service, and the family had the advantage of the powerful influence of the Duke of Beaufort and Lord Fitzgerald and Vesci, both of whom were warm admirers and attached personal friends of the late Mr. Wallack. From the natural reluctance of Mr. Wallack's father, and especially his mother, to part from their eldest son, the procural of his commission was delayed until the year 1841, when he was twenty-two years old. Feeling then, on a consideration of his position, that he should have to undergo the humiliation of seeing striplings of fifteen and sixteen over-ranking him, he concluded to decline the commission, and at once embraced the profession of the stage. The lesson was of service to his brothers, as they both obtained their commissions at the age of seventeen.

In commencing his professional career, Mr. Wallack wisely steered clear of the temptation before which so many have fallen, of taking advantage of a great name to vault with gay bound over the preliminary studies and struggles which are a fit training to the attainment of eminence in every profession, and at once commence as a star. He started from the very foot of the mountain, like nearly all the really great artists of the stage, and, step by step, struggled up to the summit; and, that he might owe his position to his own industry and ability alone, and not borrow an extrinsic distinction, he adopted the name of Lester.

He opened at Rochester, in the County of Kent, in England, as the Earl of Rochester, in Charles II., and played there through the season, living honorably on his salary of ten dollars a week. From Rochester he went the following season to Dublin, where Julia Bennett Barrow, since a popular favorite in this country, was then a member of the company, and played Don Pedro to the Benedick of his father, who was then performing in a starring engagement there, and through the season a variety of small parts. The following seasons found him at South-