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E. A. SOTHERN, SR.
Tragedian, a drama reconstructed, for the
actor's purposes, from The Prompter's
Box, of Henry J. Byron, in which Mr.
Sothern took the part of an unfortunate
player, whose bearing and speech in pri-
vate life were portentously and melodramatically
theatrical. There were many
good passages in the comedy, and one of
the most notable occurred in a passage-
at-arms between the thin, out-at-elbows
tragedian and a large-girthed, purse-proud
banker. The actor had spoken of " the
profession," meaning, of course, his own;
the banker answered, with a sneer, " Oh!
you call it a profession, do you ? " and the
player replied, with superb conviction of
superiority, "Yes, we do; banking we call
a trade," — the retort hitting rather harder
in London than here, because in England
" the trade of banking " was a familiar and
technical phrase.
The dialogue which was last quoted,
and a half line of comment passed above
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