Top Highlights

• The noblest art Is that of making others happy.
• Though including, necessarily, in common with them, some of the facts of my early life, in order to make this autobiography a complete and continuous narrative, yet, as the latter part of my life has been the more eventful, and my recollections so various and abundant, this book is new and independent of the former. It is the matured and leisurely ...
• I can only say, that the "I's " are essential to the story I have told. It has been my purpose to narrate, not the life of another, but that career in which I was the principal actor.
• There is an almost universal, and not unworthy curiosity to learn the methods and measures, the ups and downs, the strifes and victories, the mental and moral personnel of those who have taken an active and prominent part in human affairs.
• The story from the actor's own lips has always a charm it can never have when told by another. That my narrative is interspersed with amusing incidents, and even the recital of some very practical jokes, is simply because my natural disposition impels me to look upon the brighter side of life, and I hope my humorous experiences will entertain my re...