CHAPTER XI. 1829. The South Pearl Street Theatre - Trowbridge's Museum. ON N Christmas night, the theatre again opened under Mr. Vernon's management. Mr. Chapman was stage manager, and the Vernons, of course, held prominent places. Page and Nelson, from the Arch street theatre; Jackson, from the Tremont theatre; Greenwood, from the Theatre Royal, Dublin; Mrs. Talbot, from Charleston; the two Misses Chapman, Mr. and Mrs. Judah, H. Eberle and others, were in the company. The plays were light, but the patronage was lighter still. Mr. Vernon was already suffering from the illness of which he died. Barnes, Mr. and Mrs. Hackett and Dwyer, played star engagements; as did also Henry Wallack, and the favorite Mary Rock, who played together mostly in comedy, but April 23d, 1829, as Hamlet and Ophelia, and April 28th, as Romeo and Juliet. For Mr. Wallack's benefit, May 1st, his brother, James W. Wallack, father of the present Lester Wallack, appeared for one night only, as Rolla. This closed the winter season. May 7th, a summer season began, with Mrs. Vernon's sister, the fascinating Clara Fisher, as a star. appearance was the signal for a general outburst of acrostics, poems and other tributes of admiration to the universal favorite. At Charleston, where she gave the Friends of Ireland $100, the proceeds of a benefit, they reciprocated by passing complimentary resolutions and voting her a medal in the shape of an Irish harp, richly set with emeralds, the head of the harp a Her diamond, and the whole surrounded by a ring representing a wreath of shamrock, richly chased in gold. Mr. Vernon's management came to an end May 18th, with a benefit for Mr. Duffy, who played William Tell and Wildlove (in "The Lady and the Devil"). The theatre was then opened for four nights by Mr. Eberle, who brought from New York the French dancers, Monsieur and Madame Charles Ronzi Vestris, and Monsieur and Madame Achille. Monsieur Vestris has never been excelled as a dancer, while his lady has alone been equalled by Ellsler. Faultless in form and nearly so in feature, her movements were compared to the swell and fall of the summer sea, the waving grace of the ripening meadow, the sweep of the willow branch, the skimming of a bird in air, or any thing else that could convey the most delicate and fanciful idea of the very poetry of motion. She had perfect confidence in her own powers, was bold, daring and successful, and possessed a fascinating charm of manner that almost redeemed the French school of dancing from the imputation of gross immodesty. She was born in Rome, and at the time of her Albany appearance, was twenty-six years old. The Achilles were also fine dancers, the Madame being by some thought fully equal to Hutin. She was perhaps as graceful, but not as dexterous and daring. For many years she afterward kept a dancing academy in New York. As early as 1798, Albany was furnished with a museum, which then was situated at the corner of Green and Beaver streets. In 1809, J. Scudder advertised that he intended to establish another, and September 18th of that year, Trowbridge advertised one which he conducted for many years. It was located on the northeast corner of Hudson and South Market (now Broadway) streets. Before the old capitol was erected, the legislature used to meet there, and it was there that the Declaration of Independence was first read to the people of Albany, a fact commemorated by a tablet placed on the building, July 4th, 1876. At first, the museum was only what its name indicated a collec diamond, and the whole surrounded by a ring representing a wreath of shamrock, richly chased in gold. Mr. Vernon's management came to an end May 18th, with a benefit for Mr. Duffy, who played William Tell and Wildlove (in "The Lady and the Devil"). The theatre was then opened for four nights by Mr. Eberle, who brought from New York the French dancers, Monsieur and Madame Charles Ronzi Vestris, and Monsieur and Madame Achille. Monsieur Vestris has never been excelled as a dancer, while his lady has alone been equalled by Ellsler. Faultless in form and nearly so in feature, her movements were compared to the swell and fall of the summer sea, the waving grace of the ripening meadow, the sweep of the willow branch, the skimming of a bird in air, or any thing else that could convey the most delicate and fanciful idea of the very poetry of motion. She had perfect confidence in her own powers, was bold, daring and successful, and possessed a fascinating charm of manner that almost redeemed the French school of dancing from the imputation of gross immodesty. She was born in Rome, and at the time of her Albany appearance, was twenty-six years old. The Achilles were also fine dancers, the Madame being by some thought fully equal to Hutin. She was perhaps as graceful, but not as dexterous and daring. For many years she afterward kept a dancing academy in New York. As early as 1798, Albany was furnished with a museum, which then was situated at the corner of Green and Beaver streets. In 1809, J. Scudder advertised that he intended to establish another, and September 18th of that year, Trowbridge advertised one which he conducted for many years. It was located on the northeast corner of Hudson and South Market (now Broadway) streets. Before the old capitol was erected, the legislature used to meet there, and it was there that the Declaration of Independence was first read to the people of Albany, a fact commemorated by a tablet placed on the building, July 4th, 1876. At first, the museum was only what its name indicated a collec tion of curiosities. In May, 1810, its assemblage of minerals, shells and insects was spoken of by The Medical Repository as "very good beginnings." In March, 1817, the proprietor made a sensation by illu minating his establishment with gas, which issued from 120 burners. He demonstrated that his nightly expense for lighting by the new process was only sixty-three cents, whereas by oil and tallow it had been from $1.87 to $2.25. But Trowbridge made his own gas. In 1821, he announced that he had added the New Haven museum to his own collection, which was now superior to any in the country, except Peal's, of Philadelphia. Wax figures were a prominent feature of the institution. There was also a lecture room, in which a marvellous "Phantasmagora" was exhibited. Here also occasionally appeared an actor in a monologue, or a comic singer or dancer. It was in this place, at about the time our record has now reached, that "Yankee Hill” made his first appearance in Albany, in a sort of olio. George Handel Hill was born in Boston, October 9th, 1809, and was consequently at this time about twenty years old. He was early stage-struck, and ran away to New York, where seeing Alexander Simpson (an Albany boy) in the part of Jonathan Ploughboy in "The Forest Rose," the lad determined to make a specialty of "Yankees," and persevered till he became the acknowledged representative of that class of impossible characters now happily driven from the stage forever by the more realistic personations of Denman Thompson and Bernard Macauley. But the Hill type of stage Yankee was extremely popular years ago. playing in the western part of New York, he gave his first olio entertainment in Brooklyn, in 1826. In 1828, however, having a choice between his sweetheart and the profession, he retired from the stage and married Miss Cordelia Thompson, of LeRoy, New York. But the employment of country storekeeping was so irksome to him, that he soon gave it up, and objections to his returning to the stage being modified, he came to Albany and at first sought work as a paper hanger, but After |