and proves that Juliet can be presented by a girl of her own age.... The
fourth act exhibited great tragic power, and no want was felt in the
celebrated chamber scene, which is the test passage of this _role_.... It
stamped the performance as a success, and the actress as a phenomenon....
The thought must have gone round the house among those who knew the
facts--Can this be only the seventh performance on the stage of this young
girl?"

Here is another notice a few months later on in Mary Anderson's dramatic
career from the _Baltimore Gazette_:--

"Miss Anderson's Juliet has the charm which belongs to youth, beauty, and
natural genius. Her fair face, her flexible youth--for she is still in her
teens--and her great natural dramatic genius, make her personation of that
sweet creation of Shakespeare successful, in spite of her immaturity as an
artist. We have so often seen aged Juliets; stiff, stagey Juliets; fat,
roomy Juliets; and ill-featured Juliets, that the sight of a young,
lady-like girl with natural dramatic genius, a bright face, an unworn
voice, is truly refreshing. In the scene where the nurse brings her the
bad news of Tybalt's death and Romeo's banishment, she acted charmingly.
In gesture, attitude, and facial expression she gave evidence of emotion
so true and strong, as showed she was capable of losing her own identity
in the _role_."

As an amusing specimen of vindictive criticism, we subjoin a notice in the
_Washington Capitol_, under date May 28, 1876. This lengthy notice
contains strong internal evidence of a deadly feud existing between
Manager Ford and the editor of the _Capitol_, and the stab is given
through the fair bosom of Mary Anderson, whose immense success in
Senatorial Washington, this atrabilious knight of the plume devotes two