SOURCE: “Augustus Thomas,” in Commemorative Tributes of The American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1905-1941, Books for Libraries Press, 1942, pp. 317-19.

In the following excerpt, Garland pays tribute to his deceased friend.

Augustus Thomas was born in 1857 of a fine St. Louis family of moderate means, and early became a bread-winner for the family. As a page in the state legislature of Missouri and later in the House of Representatives at Washington he earned ninety dollars per month, all of which went to help out the folks back home. Passing from this to newspaper work, he had small opportunity for an academic education. He got his learning as he went along the road.

In the newspaper office he began to write plays, and from writing plays he naturally passed to the acting of them. The earlier years of his career were alternately spent in acting in other men's...