MACKAY, John William, American capi talist: b. Dublin, Ireland, 28 Nov. 1831; d. Lon. don, 20 July 1902. His parents brought him to New York in 1840, and he learned shipbuilding. He went to California as a miner in 1851, and afterward to Nevada, where he continued min ing with great perseverance in the face of many disappointments. In 1872 he was one of the discoverers of the Bonanza mines of the Com stock Lode (q.v.), in which mines he obtained a two-fifths share and became very wealthy. He and his partners, Fair, Flood and O'Brien, founded the Bank of Nevada, of which Mackay was president for years. His relations with Jay Gould being unfriendly, in a spirit of oppo sition to him, and to the Western Union Tele Mackay in 1884 joined with James Gordon Bennett in forming the Commer cial Cable Company and the Postal Telegraph Company. He succeeded in laying two cables, overcoming great obstacles, and afterward won in a long rate-war with the old lines. The Ro man Catholic Orphan Asylum at Virginia City, Nev., founded by him, is noteworthy among his many public benefactions.
IttACKAYE, James Steele, Amer ican playwright: b. Buffalo, N. Y., 1844; d.
Timpas, Colo., 25 Feb. 1894. In 1868 he went to Paris to study painting; but having there met Delsarte (q.v.) became interested in die latter's theories, and studied dramatic expres sion. In 1870-71 he gave in New York and Boston lectures on the art of expression. He opened the Saint James Theatre at New York in 1872, and appeared there in adapted by himself from the French. In 1873 75 he was studying the drama in Paris and Eng, land, and at the Crystal Palace, London, he played the title-rOle in (Hamlet.' His adapta tion of Blum's (Rose Michel' in 1872 ran for 122 nights at the Union Square Theatre, New York. He established in New York the Lyceum School of Acting, which later became the Amer ican Academy of Dratmatic Arts. For several years he was manager of the Madison Square Theatre, and in 1885 built the Lyceum. Among his further plays were (Won at Last' ; (Through the Dark' ; 'Hazel Kirke' ; Fool's Errand' ; 'In Spite of All' ; Consult Mackaye, Percy, Mackaye: A Memoir) (New York 1911).