THEATREGOERS HEAR FATHER AND SON

William Seymour, for 10 years manager of the Boston Museum, will relate the history of the Museum at 4 o'clock this afternoon in Harvard 1 before the Theatregoer's Club. His son, J. W. D. Seymour '17, will follow him with a short speech.

The Boston Museum was the most famous theatre in the country for a score of years before its close in 1903. Mr. E. E. Clive, manager of the Copley Theatre, pointed to it as the rallying standard of an epoch, when in a recent speech he said, "Years ago, in the days of the Boston Museum, Boston was an important producing center."

In an interview granted yesterday, Mr. Seymour explained his plans for his speech today. "I want to tell the Theatregoers of the actors and actresses who appeared at the Museum. The very names ought to interest your generation, for I'm sure they still are of interest to mine. There were, to name a few, the elder and younger Sothern, John Drew, the elder and younger Booth, William Gillette, Richard Mansfield, Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson, the Wallacks, E. L. Davenport, and Eleanora Duse.

"The birth of the Museum should interest them, too, for that was only surpassed by its very dramatic death. In 1841 the Museum on Bromfield Street was opened as a sort of miniature Madame Tussaud's wax works. Light musical entertainment was soon added and in 1843 the first play was produced. The gentry scorned the theatres of the time and it was not until 1844 that 'nice people' could be persuaded to attend. They were lured inside the doors by that moral production, 'The Drunkard, or, The Fallen Saved'. After that moral productions followed thick and fast, the most famous being 'Ten Nights in a Bar Room'."

Mr. J. W. D. Seymour '17, Secretary to the University for Information, will follow his father in a short speech on the purpose of the club. In Boston, three years ago, a movement was inaugurated which had aims similar to those of the Theatregoers. It is of the virtues and shortcomings of this organization in comparison with the Theatregoers that Mr. J. W. D. Seymour will speak.

Following the speaking there will be a short business meeting at which the chairman of the Board of Critics will be elected. It is this board which will visit the plays current in Boston and pass judgment on their comparative worth.