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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 28, 1915)
Omaha Sunday Bee M uvu wasted Ufe xat- . S if ' AM-i ' . X 77ie IcoZ of fte Studios, One of New York's Most Famous Artists' Models, Sadly Preaches the Lesson of Her Wrecked Career a' "J .s yjfc . - - - :4V " -. . ,$i ' 3 1 1 - 1 i A' ' A Photograph of Mias Fanning as She Wa at the Height of Her Fame as an Artist's Model. By Nellie Fanning Hulges. I MaitfrabMd." a fr'amuua lifrf firay Maraard Mlaia far W kirk lll t !( aa tka laaylratlum. I v , - AM not yet twenty-nine years old and yet I have . have lost everything In Hfe worth having. I have lost my opportunity for success. I have lost my husband; I have lost my own dear daughter; I have lost my friends and I have lost my beauty. I have wasted my life. .It Is my own fault. Drink did It. When I was seventeen I began posing for artists. My success was Instant and astonishing. From the depths of misery Into which I have plunged myself I can say this without risk of being called Immodest. When I was twenty I was sought after by the most famous artists and sculptors. I posed for Abbey for his wonderful murals, "The Quest of the Holy Grail." in the Boston Tublic Li brary, and now I who helped Inspire that exquisite conception of the bunt for the most sacred vessel am ruined by the devil's brew! It Is Ironic I posed for Gibson, for Christy, for Bryson Bur roughs, for the great sculptor, George Gray Barnard ind a dosen others of the best. At twenty-two I had my world at my feet. I was queen In Bohemia, And now at barely twenty-nine I am done for. I tell my story so that some other girl may read ,t and be saved, perhaps, from taking the road that has led me to the pit. If only one can be Saved it will have been worth while. I want to urge every girl who Is etandlng at the threshold of life to avoid drink as she would Satan and everything that goes with him. Throw the glass In the face of the first man, even if he is your husband, who offers you drink. To drink means to lose out. I say that through my own experience and through that of others whom I've observed and I have been la a position to observe, for I studied to be a trained nurse at one time. I saw the victims of drink brought in on atretchera and I saw them carried out In pine boxes and often thesv poor broken wrecks had started out with brilliant careers. , ' I knew one beautiful girl who posed at the time I did. She had Intelligence of mind and heart as well as beauty. She would have made a wonderful wife and mother. She allowed herself to be mastered by the poison that wreck the body, dulls the mind and .-oarseni the sensibilities. I remember the first glass he took. She was at her first party in a cafe. I t-.ink she was the prettiest thing I have ever Been, lie was a little confused by the glitter and the dresses, v happy young artist leaned over to her with a glass f wine. He held It to her lips. She objected. He murmured something about hoping that she "was ot provincial." He pointed out to her fashionable omen who were taking straight whiskey. The word provincial" had made Its Impression. She bad not lie sophistication to know that she was better than those fashionable women. She took ber first drink. To-day she Is an outcast As I am! I was seventeen years old when I began to pose. My father was a gen tleman. He had been a graduate of the University of Dublin. He left t no money. When I was sixteen I worked In a department store In Philadelphia. I did not like It. 1 had what I afterward grew to koow was called temperament. I did not know It myself until I. by accident, went to a famous artlet's studio. Tha beautiful pla. the (harmlug pol ished people, the soft, colorful Uf" truck from my heart chords I did not know were there. I let my Tav ist for baauty burst Its bounds. I wantsd to live. I turned from my dull, peat-tip Ufa and brame a model. And here I want to say that there was nothing that dragged me down but drink. It was my good fortune, perhaps, to meet only gentlemen. Certainly I never met any creatures such as Stanford White was supposed to be. The men I posed for, without exception, were Inter ested In my good, and their advice was always of the best. I was only seventeen, and I was a beauty. My arms and shoulders were exquisite. I had the grace ot maiden hood. The great artists vied with each other for me. Then I began to meet other models and go to studio parties. They are gay, these parties. It is what is called Bohemia. They called me the little Puritan, for I re membered what my artist bad told me, and T held tight to myself. Then one night there was a very gay party. They pressed me to drink. One model said: "She thinks she's too good to drink with us. I guess we'd better not Invite her any morel I was ashamed to refuse, and I liked them all and didn't want them to drop me. So I took a glass and drank. It made me feel funny and gay, and I drank another. And afer that I was among the gayest of the gay at the parties. But always, except for that. I was still the "Little Puritan," but I was also a queen ot Bohemia. In those days I did not drink greatly. But the point la that I had begun. I had admitted the enemy Into my gates. And there he crouched, I know now, waiting for the opportunity to spring. And the chance came. I married.. I was still a child, but I loved my husband dearly. I loved him so well that I forgot to drink. A baby came, a little girl. And then things began to go badly for us. We needed money. My husband pe routed me to pose again And once again I went out into my old life and posed and met my old friends. It is not true that I drank then. Still, my husband grew more and more restless. He didn't forbid tne to pose but one day he left me. Then he took from me my little girl Helen. And then I was served with dl. vorce papers! . When they came I thought I would die. And then the enemy arose and whispered: "Drinkand forget it" I remembered bow gay drink had once made me. And I drank again. I drank myself into a stupor. When I awoke from It I was horror-stricken. And it came to me that my drinking had not washed away any of my troubles. I read the papers. My husband bad charged that I had been unfaithful to him, and that I had beaten my little girl. It was lies, all Ilea. Even when I drank I was kind to her. I loved ber. But there it was. I drank again- Instead of fighting for my good name and my little girl I drank and drank again! Realization of what I was doing came to me from time to time, but I could net help myself. At last they put me In the House of Good Shepherd, and Just when I was released my divorce case came up In New York. I had no money or clothes to go even. What little I did have went for liquor. I couldn't appeal to htm or to the Judge or any one. How could I without money, and with the record I had made for myself. The day the divorce was granted I was drunk! Last week I was arrested In Philadelphia for intoxi cation. I was released after I bad taken the temperance pledge I am going to try to keep It. If I could only see my little daughter now and then I know I could keep It. Put they lll not let me see the child and so I do not know. I am only twenty nine. I am too young to go under. And yet I have lost everything In the world that wouM make me keep up lokt It through my own criminal folly and weakliest. If I had refused that first drink It may well be that the crisU would never have come to me. And that Is why I want to repeat what I aald at the beginning of this ar ticle If a man offers yoa drink throw the glass la bis fare. Yoa can't beat drink. It saps ambition, will, character everything that la ortb while. Ami in the end It baa taken fmra yoa everything la your life that Is worth hsvlng '. '-mum '.. V -1 An I1 3 r f L ' 1 V t Another Striking Barnard Statue, for Which Nellie fanning t'oscci tutor She Wasted Jfef Uf. H The Happy Titled Marriage of a Noted American Beauty fcWtea H.ia. " at . Til Serena Highness, the Prle rass Victor eX Tbura a&i Tails, who before her mar rUe t Prtace VVctor. at I'atoa toe a. Pa , oa No. 1. 1111. was Mrs. LMa ntigtrall rating la by kr f rt marriage tie elTs of Gere:! Iwrcs4 . turret, ehlch nvarr'.age tka iTIer h4 ilo'. t4 hf t 'l 't .f -erlutaa(. bvss f::4 !!. i.l'rl S ! tt t fjr air4 I (fee tua cf Jb Itf I Ust luilt.lt, kTtr'l as )'n i lo Tka stuff la s"' t , kf f Ki4 ait tka r-t sftt a't er.4ki-ik ia London High Court ot Justice by ITlacesa Victor against JinMhlne Mofmt, aad wtlca. (or alt time, set tied the scandal create! ty Mis MoStt saeqeradlt.g without aay jmiflrettoa as tae elfe of Prluca Ictor It t'l Wa raisvetabara-1 that Jo ti.te M ef'i't'e k;J wrus Ciai ika hat ustratr1 ,rkr t..ar riaa !lk l'r.ta uur ass amk Iraaa ua ta sa X at.a trial. ka JuSttre KafflM grsjtJ te)ia t a. Sb-1 li ibe (xir , at J4 tael !!! "Tu-esr that iMt4 kaa b t a 'ety s4 iiiij ala4uttM kf tka (M i". lti t f. . i ,. defendant (Josept-lne MofTtti aul she admits now fu:ly that ha tarr had a claim at all to t kboan rr aitej by tbe name it tu if of I rlnce Vlct.r " llie su-itrn that I'rlMMt VI. lr Is a entitle. I iu t.. nt.k if I'rtarrss ab"!'i''!r u'.r..u- 'i 1. a Ika family Isat KhShsTrrt iriiu (rtaee are Am'tji) tsl ir l-rinrriy lxia i..frn vi.at r te da lth the -. l r .. ta f naltkrr W-rn s .r Anttr.ia He U a llstfsruii t-. tif s 1 a rerdirg to ika Is if llwif t h rule eiltt. lb w,t i4 a Hk Ittui. aa-vr. iHl ba c ar tM. kaisg tit!4 s:i Its lift Sk-t prltllffa of ber husband, including obt:o;y that t4 irr euutioa el court Aftar hr marrUga, Itlorata Vv lor .nl lluiifsry. snj ess retva i trr bubati i s family l.t t!i ntust i-.rtl.al msatiar. and k' nsrritaa I. at ,rr etly t-.r:fi! f. 1 1 is r t- 1 ti t.arr'ar ru an rl'nn.lv I j'lf t-u- alihi ,h. fi f, i f i 'i ., tli war sh ts I, r.ii ft'l't i j - ' I f -i.i . ir ks tul. t j U sn nrvr It Oa Hun (sr. an srty ma tartlug kl COTI VP try lb fsct tat ka is e umbr c-f t&a I'.rk I'ljtt ttt t lst f of II a f.l l l.tta rft ''Am tro Hungarian ('niplio- Is of Itself sufTVIrui ftilrn tif bis V'itwir ar.d hri tr lriutes Virtor also :: attnt! a IA Iba t-kntirsb M. 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