Identifier: autobiographyofj00injeff (find matches)
Title: The autobiography of Joseph Jefferson
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Jefferson, Joseph, 1829-1905
Subjects: Jefferson, Joseph, 1829-1905 Actors
Publisher: New York : Century Co.
Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant

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wing words : Avaunt, and quit my sight!Thy tubs are marrowless; there is no starch inmy fine shirts that thou didst glare withal! Ap-proach thou like the Russian manager, the Hyrcancritic, or the Old Rye whisky-us; or, be aliveagain, and make it salary day. If, trembling then,I do inhibit thee, confess me but a babe of a Salis-bury. The laundress fled in despair, only too gladto escape unpaid from the supposed lunatic. Innocent mirth is most desirable, but not mirthexpended at the cost of anothers feelings; andSalisburys unfortunate career, terminating as itdid in sickness and poverty, is an example of ahandsome man, possessed of fair ability, who, byutter disregard of loyalty to his manager and ofrespect for the public, gradually lost the confidenceof all who knew him, and became a neglectedwreck. The practice of guying is unpardonable,and the indulgence in it unworthy of an artist or agentleman. The leisure hours passed in the dress-ing-room or the greenroom afford ample time for an
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JOSEPH JEFFERSON AS SALEM SCUDDER. OF JOSEPH JEFFERSON 217 actors amusement without inflicting the exuberanceof his personal humor upon the audience. The re-hearsals and subsequent performances of a play arenot his property, and he has no right to mutilatethem. Managers and leading actors are altogethertoo lax in their rebuke of this senseless and ruin-ous practice. They should neither commit the out-rage themselves nor permit it in others. Whereexample leads the way the multitude will follow,and no leader can rightly claim the respect of hiscompany unless he shows it to them and the public.I have a suspicion that guying begins where abilityleaves off, and that manv actors exhibit this trifling:to conceal their own shortcomings, I believe it is the ostrich which runs his head intothe sand, thinking that if he does nt see his pur-suer his pursuer cant see him. I wish, for thesake of simile, that it were the goose. Actors areoften under the erroneous impression that theirauditors do not

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