From that time must be dated the career of Mr. Thompson as a _star_
or leading actor and manager, at first in low comedy, so called, or
eccentric drama, and later, in what he has made a classic New England
drama.
Mr. Thompson is the author of several very pleasing and successful
comedies, but the play JOSHUA WHITCOMB is the best known and most
popular. The leading character is said to have been drawn from Captain
Otis Whitcomb, who died in Swanzey in 1882, at the age of eighty-six. Cy
Prime, who "could have proved it had Bill Jones been alive," died in
that town, a few years since, while Len Holbrook still lives there.
General James Wilson, the veteran, who passed away a short time since,
was well known to the older generation of today. The last scene of the
drama is laid in Swanzey and the scenery is drawn from nature very
artistically. Mr. Thompson is the actor as well as creator of the
leading character in the play. The good old man is drawn from the quiet
and comforts of his rural home to the perplexities of city life in
Boston. There his strong character and good sense offset his simplicity
and ignorance.
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