Note H — AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MRS. JOHN DREW WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HER SON

Madame Celeste, who came here under the name of Mademoiselle Celeste, in June, 1827, and bounded at once into the affections of young New York, claimed to be but fourteen years of age when she appeared at the Bowery, then called the American Theatre. The next year the precocious beauty became the wife of Henry Elliott, of Baltimore, but remained on the stage the only première danseuse and pantomimist in the country.

After two years of immense success in our cities she returned home to Paris, then to London, and became a star on the English stage. Every few years she would make her "last appearance in America," and her farewell benefits outnumbered Miss Cushman's. Much as she played in English-speaking lands she was unable to learn the language until late in her career, and her attractions were confined to her wonderfully expressive pantomime and her exquisite dancing; she created Mathilde in the "French Spy," Miami in the "Green Bushes," Fenella in "Masaniello," Miriam in "The Woman in Red" and the Bayadère in Auber's beautiful ballet-opera.