Title: Nate Salsbury's Welcome | A Dinner to the Partner of the Typical American

Periodical: New York Times

Date: February 3, 1888

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NATE SALSBURY'S WELCOME.

A DINNER TO THE PARTNER OF THE TYPICAL AMERICAN.

Genial Nate Salsbury, bearded and bronzed after his European trip with Buffalo Bill Cody and the Wild West Show, was welcomed home last evening at a dinner at Delmonico's, at which Anarchical Steele Mackaye [1] presided. The welcome home was because he and his partner had carried the Stars and Stripes successfully through the snug and tight little island 2,500 miles away, and shown to the English people that some good might come out of Nazareth. That he had come back with his pockets lined with gold made every one feel happy, and the bottled-up enthusiastic Americanism of such men as Larry Jerome [2] and Tom Ochiltree [3] oozed out in great big chunks in commendation of the enterprise which took them across the water. Nate Salsbury was particularly happy when he told how cordially he had been received by the Britishers, but when he undertook to tell how much he thought of the British cousins he met over there his efforts paled into insignificance, because Osmond Tearle, [4] with the frank speech of a Briton who loves America, told how he and his partner deserved all the success they met with over on the other side. "It was the welcome of a mother to her children," said Mr. Tearle, "and God knows you deserve it, for America has opened heart and arms and hands and pockets to us Englishmen who have come over to try and amuse you on the stage."

And Dr. T. S. Robertson, [5] the Scotch-American doctor whom every actor loves, and big John Schoeffel, [6] and eye-glassed Frank Sanger, [7] and blonde-mustached Clay Greene, [8] the dramatist; bluff Edward L. Merrifield, [9] quiet David Yuengling, [10] jolly Capt. "Billy" Conner, [11] who had a touching and thoroughly pat word to say in memory of the great John McCullough; [12] blonde Harrison Gray Fiske, [13] bluff John W. Keller, [14] suave George Floyd, [15] and quiet Dr. J. F. Traut [16] couldn't help joining with the unique Marshall Wilder [17] in drinking the health to the Queen, after Salsbury's gracious recognition of her and her appreciation of a show that was so uniquely and entirely American as that which Salsbury helped introduce to the Englishmen. There were columns of good things said about Salsbury and Buffalo Bill during the evening, and every one was glad to join in welcoming back to America an American actor with English guineas in his pocket, who had insisted that wherever he went the American flag must fly. It was because he came back more distinctively American than he ever was before, if possible, that his welcome was so warm hearted and so thoroughly American.

Note 1: James Morrison Steele MacKaye (1842-1894), an American playwright, actor, theater manager, and inventor. [back]

Note 2: Lawrence Jerome (1822-1888), brother to Leonard Jerome, was an American newspaper publisher, a founding broker on Wall Street, and an investor in Wyoming Territory. [back]

Note 3: Thomas Peck Ochiltree (1837-1902), a U. S. Representative from Texas from 1883 to 1885. [back]

Note 4: George Osmond Tearle (1852-1901), a well-known English actor. [back]

Note 5: Dr. Thomas Seton Robertson (1846-1898), a family physician in New York City. [back]

Note 6: John B. Schoeffel (1846-1918), an American theater manager and the resident partner of the Boston Theatre. [back]

Note 7: Frank W. Sanger (d.-1904), a renowned figure in the American theatrical realm as a theater manager, producer, and owner. [back]

Note 8: Clay Meredith Greene (1850-1933), an American playwright and author of fifty plays and opera librettos. [back]

Note 9: Edward L. Merrifield (1839-1902), proprietor of the Continental Hotel, New York City, beginning in 1876. [back]

Note 10: David Yuengling is probably David Gottlob Yuengling, Jr. (b.~1845) whose father, D. G. Yuengling (1808-1877), founded the Eagle Brewery (later renamed D. G. Yuengling & Son) in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in 1829. [back]

Note 11: Capt. "Billy" Conner, propietor of the St. James Hotel in Washington, D. C. [back]

Note 12: John Edward McCullough (1832-1885), an Irish-American Shakespearean actor. [back]

Note 13: Harrison Grey Fiske (1861-1942), an American theatrical manager, author, and journalist. [back]

Note 14: John W. Keller (1858-1919), an American journalist, author, politician, and Commissioner of Public Charities in New York City. [back]

Note 15: George Floyd (1847-1921), theatrical agent representing actors such as Nat Goodwin and perhaps the first agent in baseball history. [back]

Note 16: Dr. J. F. Traut is unidentified. [back]

Note 17: Marshall Pinckney Wilder (1859-1915), an American actor, humorist, sketch artist, and writer who was one of the first disabled entertainers to have become a celebrity on his own terms. [back]