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CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN
figure and homely of feature, who spoke
with a voice naturally high in pitch and
of a peculiar hollow quality, but of great
range. The beauties and all the other
women of the American stage were mere
children beside her. Miss Mary Anderson,
perhaps the most celebrated of our other
home-born actresses, bore about the same
relation to her that a march of Sousa bears
to a symphony of Beethoven. Her as-
sumption of Meg Merrilies, in the stage
version of Guy Mannering, was the most
famous and popular of her efforts, and
well merited the general favor. It was
one of the few impersonations I have seen
which appeared to me to deserve to be
called "creations." The queer old bel-
dame of Sir Walter's novel, a figure
strongly outlined by his strong pen, fur-
nished Miss Cushman with little more than
the germ of her conception. The Meg
Merrilies of the actress was sometimes of
the order of the Scandinavian Nornse or
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