Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – Spencer Houghton Cone – Bread Winner at an Early Age – From Actor to Editor – PART THREE

Thomas E Kresal November 25, 2019

Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – Spencer Houghton Cone – Bread Winner at an Early Age – From Actor to Editor – PART THREE

Beyond doubt it was the question of living that led him to adopt the stage. His mother’s wishes and his own taste were against it, but his magnificent native endowment led him to foresee a speedy way out of his pecuniary difficulties, and so he appeared on the stage, July, 1805, as Achmet, in the tragedy of “Mahomet.” He subsequently acted in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Alexandria, meeting with great success.

His own views are expressed in a letter written in 1810, wherein he says, “My profession, adopted from necessity, is becoming more disgusting to me. I pray heaven that I may speedily exchange it for something better in itself and more congenial to my feelings. What can be more degrading than to be stuck upon a stage for fools and clowns to gape at or criticize?”

To prepare the way out Mr. Cone endeavored to open a school in Baltimore, but the proprietors of the theatre would not allow him to be absent from morning rehearsals, nor did public sentiment encourage teaching by an actor.

This was in 1812. The same year he joined the Baltimore Union Artillery with the intention of enlisting in the war, but domestic considerations restrained him, and in the same year he entered the office of the Baltimore American as treasurer and book-keeper. Soon after he and his brother-in-law purchased and published the Baltimore Whig.

He at once quitted the stage, and by his vigorous articles did much to strengthen the administration of Mr. Madison in the war.

Thomas E. Kresal from – The Baptist Encyclopedia, 1881, pg 263.