William Kirby

William Kirby 1817-1906, Canadian author, b. England. He was a journalist and civil servant. Besides volumes of verse and tales, he wrote The Golden Dog (1877), also published as Le Chien d'or (1884), a popular romance of 17th-century Quebec.

Farnum, Dustin (1874–1929), actor. The popular matinee idol was born in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, and took part in amateur theatricals in Maine before turning professional in 1897. Although he appeared briefly in New York in A War Correspondent (1898), A Romance of Athlone (1899), and Marcelle (1900), his first years were occupied largely with touring and playing in stock. Farnum won major recognition as Lieutenant Denton in Arizona (1901), playing the role for several seasons, then scored an even greater success as the rugged but chivalrous cowboy The Virginian (1904). Farnum also shone as the fighting Captain Esmond in The Ranger (1907), the reformed train robber Rev. Prince in The Rector's Garden (1908), gambler Eugene Kirby in Cameo Kirby (1909), and the Yankee Lt. Colonel Morrison in The Littlest Rebel (1911). One unidentified critic wrote of him, “There is no more ingratiating and charming personality on our stage . . . and in roles of the romantic hero type there is no other man who acts half as well.” After appearing in a 1913 revival of Arizona, he devoted the rest of his career to films, frequently in cowboy roles. Although his brother, William FARNUM (1876–1953) was never quite as popular on stage as Dustin, he too became a celebrated matinee idol. He was born in Boston and made his debut in 1890 in Richmond, Virginia, as Lucius in Julius Caesar. A decade of touring, with occasional New York engagements, passed before he won attention when he replaced Edward Morgan in the title role of Ben‐Hur in 1900. His notable roles include Prince Mohammed in The Prince of India (1906), the tragic Capt. Severi in The White Sister (1909), and the title role in a revival of Ingomar. The two brothers performed together in The Littlest Rebel (1911) and Arizona (1913). Although William also turned to films, he made occasional New York appearances, most notably as Banquo in a 1928 revival of Macbeth. His last appearance was as Inspector Bill Regan in Headquarters (1929).

Talbot, Mary Anne (1778–1808), known as the ‘British Amazon’, the youngest of sixteen illegitimate children of Lord William Talbot, later Earl Talbot, all by the same mother. As a young girl Mary Anne was seduced by a captain in the army and, suitably disguised, she accompanied him, first as a servant and then as a member of his regiment. She was twice wounded, deserted after her lover was killed, and signed on to a French lugger which she subsequently found to be operating as a privateer. After four months the lugger was captured by warships of the British Navy's Channel Fleet commanded by Lord Howe, and Mary Anne was taken aboard the flagship for questioning as a renegade. She convinced Lord Howe of her bona fides and was sent by him to serve aboard one of the fleet's warships, first as a powder monkey and later as the captain's principal cabin boy, and in 1794 took part in the battle of the Glorious First of June in which she was wounded. She then served, according to her own account, as a midshipman in a bomb vessel, but was captured and imprisoned at Dunkirk for sixteen months. On being released, she served as second mate on an American merchant ship but this, too, ended in disaster when, after a voyage to New York and back, she was taken by a press gang. Her only means of escaping their clutches was to reveal her sex, and from then on she seems to have had an even more chequered career: she worked as a goldsmith's assistant before becoming an actress, was in and out of prison for debt, and was even a prostitute on the side. She wrote an account of her adventures which was first published in the second volume of Kirby's Wonderful Museum of Remarkable Characters, and in 1809 was published separately as a pamphlet called The Life and Surprising Adventures of Mary Anne Talbot.