ared at the Park for the benefit of Woodhull,
playing Othello. He made a pronounced success, his old manager sitting
in front, profanely exclaiming, "By God, the boy has made a hit!" This
was a great event, as the Park was then the leading theatre of
America, and its actors were the most famous and exclusive.

He opened at the Bowery Theatre in November, 1826, as Othello, and
made a brilliant impression. His salary was raised from $28 to $40 per
week. From this success may be traced the first absolute hold made by
Edwin Forrest upon the attention of cultivated auditors and
intelligent critics. The Bowery was then a very different theatre from
what it afterward became, when the newsboys took forcible possession
of its pit and the fire-laddies were the arbiters of public taste in
its neighborhood.

An instance of Forrest's moral integrity may be told here. He had been
approached by a rival manager, after his first success, and urged to
secede from the Bowery and join the other house at a much larger
salary. He scornfully refused to break his word, although his own
interests he knew must suffer. His popularity at this time was so
great that, when his contract for the season had expired, he was
instantly engaged for eight nights, at a salary of two hundred dollars
a night.

The success which had greeted Forrest on his first appearance in New
York, was renewed in every city in the land. Fortune attended fame,
and filled his pockets, as the breath of adulation filled his heart.
He had paid the last penny of debt left by his father, and had seen a
firm shelter raised over the head of his living family. With a
patriotic feeling for all things American, Forrest, about this time,
formed a plan for the encouragement or development of an American
drama, which resulted in heavy money losses to himself, but produced
such contributions to our stage literature as the "Gladiator," "Jack
Cade," and "Metamora."[14] After five years of constant labor he felt
that he had earned the right to a holiday, and he formed his plans
for a two years' absence in Europe. A farewell banquet was tendered
him by the citizens of New York, and a medal was struck in honor of
the occasion. Bryant, Halleck, Leggett, Ingraham and other
distinguished men were present. This was an honor which had never
before been paid to an American actor.

[Footnote 14: Of Forrest's performance of Metamora, in the
play of that name, W. R. Alger says, "Ne