The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 444
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
actor and comic singer; James Barnes, Walnut Street Theatre,
Philadelphia, second heavy man; A. Ronti, from principal North-
ern theatres, utility; G. W. Murray, Louisville Theatre, prompter
and second old man; Sophia Miles, Britannia Theatre, London,
leading lady; Dolly Ingersoll, Holliday Street Theatre, Baltimore,
juvenile lady; Mrs. W. Y. Ayling, Opera House, Rochester, New
York, first old woman; Effie Warner, St. John's Theatre, St. John's,
New Brunswick, first singing chambermaid; Clara J. Herndon,
Olympic Theatre, St. Louis, first walking lady; Julia Moore,
London Theatre, London, danseuse and responsible business.
The season opened on November 21. Before the curtain went
up, Miss Miles read an address written for the occasion by a
local poet, Mollie E. Moore. The inaugural bill was made up of
the little toy of a piece, The Alpine Maid or Swiss Swains, and
Dion Boucicault's London Assurance. Edgar Allan Poe had
called the Boucicault drama "a despicable mass of inanity," and
claimed that it owed much of its success "to the carpets, chan-
deliers, ottomans and conservatories."' How well the "properties"
and "settings" helped the Galveston presentation along is not
known. In Still Waters Run Deep, offered the next day, Drum-
mond's conception of John Mildmay, an excellent study by Tom
Taylor, author of the popular comedy, Our American Cousin,
was declared by Flake's Bulletin to be as fine an assumption as was
ever seen on the Galveston stage. The quiet, unobtrusive Mildmay
is a particularly strong acting part; at the rise of the curtain the
audience sees Mildmay as the long-suffering husband who has
been forced out of his position as master of the household by his
wife's meddlesome aunt, Mrs. Sternhold. He spends a great part
of his time puttering round in his garden and irritating his wife
by preferring "Auld Robin Gray" to the music of Beethoven.
He seems wholly unmindful, in fact, of his subordinate position.
As the action progresses, however, he slowly regains his rightful
place, cleverly outwitting the villain Hawksley, as he contends
against his oppressors, and accomplishes his ends without so much
as ruffling the peace and quiet of his home.2 Miss Miles's por-
iJames A. Harrison (ed.), The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe (17 vols.;
New York, 190o), XV, So
2Winton Tolles, Tom Taylor and Victorian Drama (New York, 1940), 131-132.444
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959, periodical, 1959; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101173/m1/539/: accessed March 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.