ng the town by storm. Poor Jefferson! He sat like
an awkward boy, helpless and blushing, the German wholly unconscious of
the fun or even comprehending just what was happening--Halstead and I
maliciously, mercilessly enjoying it.

III

I never heard Mr. Jefferson make a recitation or, except in the singing
of a song before his voice began to break, make himself a part of any
private entertainment other than that of a spectator and guest.

He shrank from personal displays of every sort. Even in his younger days
he rarely "gagged," or interpolated, upon the stage. Yet he did not
lack for a ready wit. One time during the final act of Rip Van Winkle,
a young countryman in the gallery was so carried away that he quite lost
his bearings and seemed to be about to climb over the outer railing. The
audience, spellbound by the actor, nevertheless saw the rustic, and its
attention was being divided between the two when Jefferson reached that
point in the action of the piece where Rip is amazed by the docility
of his wife under the ill usage of her second husband. He took in the
situation at a glance.

Casting his eye directly upon the youth in the gallery, he uttered the
lines as if addressing them directly to him, "Well, I would never have
believed it if I had not seen it."

The poor fellow, startled, drew back from his perilous position, and the
audience broke into a storm of applause.

Joseph Jefferson was a Swedenborgian in his religious belief. At one
time too extreme a belief in spiritualism threatened to cloud his sound,
wholesome understanding. As he grew older and happier and passed out
from the shadow of his early tragedy he fell away from the more sinister
influence the supernatural had attained over his imagination. One time
in Washington I had him to breakfast to meet the Chief Justice and Mr.
Justice Matthews and Mr. Carlisle, the newly-elected Speaker of the
House. It was a rainy Sunday, and it was in my mind to warn him that our
company was made up of hard-headed lawyers not apt to be impressed
by fairy tales and ghost stories, and to suggest that he cut the
spiritualism in case the conversation fell, as was likely, into the
speculative. I forgot, or something hindered, and, sure enough, the
question of second sight and mind reading came up, and I said to myself:
"Lord, now we'll have it." But it was my kinsman, Stanley Matthews, who
led off with a clairvoyant experience in his law practice. I began to