ean Prior, in
Devonshire. From this position he was ousted about the beginning of the
Cromwell regime. He went to London then and published "Hesperides," a book
of verses. There, it is supposed, he lived a bohemian sort of existence
until he was returned to his Dean Prior living by Charles II. He continued
there until he died at the age of eighty-four.

This old-time Devonshire vicar was a great worshiper at the shrine of
feminine beauty, and was a fond lover of his garden and ale-tankard as
well. Like Omar Khayyam, he believed in making hay while the sun shone,
and it is this spirit that pervades the exquisite verses which are
published herewith.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting.
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer:
But being spent the worse and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

The Beginnings of Stage Careers.

BY MATTHEW WHITE, JR

A Series of Papers That Will Be Continued from Month to Month
and Will Include All Players of Note.

LACKAYE NEARLY A PRIEST.

On the Way to Rome to Prepare Himself
for Holy Orders He Was Stricken
with Stage Fever.

It is an interesting coincidence that Eben Plympton, now playing a bishop
in "The Duel," should have been the unconscious means of keeping a young
man out of the priesthood. It was away back in the early days of the
Madison Square Theater, when "Esmeralda" was having its big run at that
little playhouse and Plympton, as the hero, was a matinee favorite.

In the audience one day was a youth with big gray eyes, which were riveted
in charmed attention on Plympton's every movement. The young man was with
his father, and was on his way from his home in Washington to Rome, to
attend there the school for acolytes, which was to pave the way for him to
become a priest. His tomblike cell had already been selected for his
occupancy, and, meantime, until the steamer sailed for Havre, the boy was
going to the theater every night in New York with his father. He went in
the afternoons, too, whene