Anecdotes of public men; by John W. Forney.

ANTONIO BLITZ. 413
as "The Mysterious Boy." After two years of adventure, the
youngster returned home, in time to be folded in his mother's
arms and to see her die. He was fifteen when he appeared in
England, and had rare success, but did not venture upon the
London boards till he was eighteen. Good fortune welcomed
him from the first, and would have waited on him to the last had
he not been cheated by his managers. His Irish and Scotch
tours were full of incident and anecdote. In 1834, in his twenty-fifth year, he landed in America, and performed at Niblo's
Garden, where he met Norton, the great cornet-player, so well
known in Philadelphia, and witnessed the long contest between
him and his rival on the same instrument, Signor Gambati, and
played some of his best tricks on Hamblin and Price, the distinguished theatrical managers. After a tour of New. England
and the West, he appeared in Philadelphia under the patronage
of Maelzel, the proprietor of the celebrated Automaton Chess
Player, the Burning of Moscow, the Automaton Trumpeter, and
the wonderful Rope Dancer, and made his bow at the northeast
corner of Eighth and Chestnut Streets in that city. What scenes
of our childhood come back to us at the mere mention of these
names! He next journeyed through the South, the British
Provinces, the West Indies, beginning at Barbadoes and ending
at Havana. After his return to the United States he settled
in Philadelphia, where he has ever since resided, to use his own
words, "In my own house, with ample means for all the necessaries and comforts of life, surrounded by a host of near and
dear friends, whose warm hearts and smiling faces always greet
and cheer me." It was in Philadelphia that he spent most of
his time, not relaxing his work, and giving pleasure to thousands of all conditions in life, in public and in private. No social party in the winter is complete without his cheering presence and amusing deceptions.
I have read the autobiography of Signor Blitz, published in
I872, not so much because it is the story of a successful nec