The Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Chapter II Boyhood Westward Ho ?Chicago in 1839?An Adventure in Springfield, Illinois ? Hard Times? James Wallack, Sr.? The Elder Booth ? Mac- ready ? Our Voyage on a Flatboat ( y N the year 1838 the new town of Chicago had just turned from an Indian village into a thriving little place, and my uncle had...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Chapter II Boyhood Westward Ho ?Chicago in 1839?An Adventure in Springfield, Illinois ? Hard Times? James Wallack, Sr.? The Elder Booth ? Mac- ready ? Our Voyage on a Flatboat ( y N the year 1838 the new town of Chicago had just turned from an Indian village into a thriving little place, and my uncle had written to my father urging him to join in the management of the new theater which was then being built there. As each fresh venture presented itself my father's hopeful nature predicted immediate and successful results. He had scarcely finished the letter when he declared that our fortunes were made, so we turned our faces towards the setting sun. In those days a journey from Albany to Chicago was no small undertaking for a large family in straitened circumstances Jeer- tain cherished articles had to be parted with to procure necessary comforts for the trip. I really do not know how, but we got from Albany to Schenectady, where we acted for a few nights with a company that was playing there. Several of the actors, who had received no salary for some time, decided to accompany my father and seek their fortunes in the West. As I remember it, our journey was long, but not tedious. We traveled part of the way in a fast- sailing packet-boat on the Erie Canal, the only smoke issuing from the caboose stove-pipe. I can remember our party admiring this craft with the same enthusiasm that we now express in looking at a fine ocean steamer. She was painted white and green and enlivened with blue window blinds, and a broad red stripe running from bow to stern. Her name was the Pio?tee; which was to us most suggestive, as our little band was among the early dramatic emigrants to the far West. The boat resembled a Noah's ark with a flat roof, and my father, like the patriarch of old, ..