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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (May 16, 1915)
The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page How Poor But Ingenious Little Maria Des monini, Tired of Working Ten Hours a Day in a Sweatshop, Invaded "the Wisest Street in the World9 and Made It Wine and Dine and Court Her for Weeks Just By "Talking Money." BROADWAY, the wise, has been fooled by an Eaat Side girl, the daughter of a poor ahoemaker. The Great White Way, that boaata that It can never be taken In, has been held up to ridicule by a nineteen-year-old sweatshop worker. The highway of amusement, known throughout this country and across the seas as "the wise guy of streets," has been duped, outwitted, laughed to soorn by a prod uct of the tenement districts. Maria Desmonlni, whose father's shoemaklng shop Is In a basement of one of the fire escape-draped dwell ing places of the many at No. 610 Bast Fourteenth street, has been feasted and toasted, and been, though for a brief time, a belle of Broadway. The "wise ones" of the "wise street" are wondering how it ever happened. Maria Desmonlni, albeit In the Tombs, laughs. She thinks Broadway Is as gullible as any other part of Manhattan. More gullible. Indeed, than her own earnest-eyed East Side. "I got tired working ten hours a day and giving all the money to my mother. . So I ran away and made them believe I was a rich woman, the owner of a coffee plantation in Brazil. And they believed It for two months, the fools," she says, and laughs. A pretty girl, with deep-set, shrewd black eyes, a little too close together, an engaging smile and enviable . fluency of speech, is Maria Desmonlni. She is tall, with an ability to "wear her clothes well." She has a lithe, swinging grace, an exotlo earnestness of manner, a wealth of gesture. As Ruth Downes, the name she gave herself, she was "something new." In Its never ending quest of a novelty Broadway discovered her. For two. months she lived at fine hotels or exclusive boarding houses. She had the best rooms and ths best places at table. Every one who met her was charmed by her. Her stories of life in Brazil were vastly inter eating to those who had never visited the South Amer ican country. .Her romance was so sad and so greatly to her credit She told it so well, with alternate sighs and smiles, the tale of how her proud, tyrannical mother had tried to marry her to a California multi millionaire whom the daughter did not love, and how her pure, proud soul, revolting at such slavery, she had taken a drawing room palace car and crossed the conti nent in the fastest train that runs between San Fran cisco and New York. "Mamma, dear foolish woman, is so proud. She would not let me marry a mere millionaire. There are several of them whom I might have loved. He must nave many millions. Dear mamma, I know she is weep ing her eyes out. She is such a picture always wears rustling black silks and a high gold comb blazing with jewels, and a priceless lace mantilla. A handsome woman, but o proud of her. Jlu blood, and pur great fortune." .'; , The Cross-Continental Journey Really a Ride Cross-Town When Maria's mother, the East Side shoemaker! wife, made her appearance in court she wore a shawl over her head. RuefuUy the witnesses who had been listening to Maria stories gased upon that threadbare gray shawl. When the cross-continent Journey resolved Itself Into a ride on a Fourteenth street crosstown ' car, with a transfer up Madison avenue, the wise men and women of Broadway could have wept In sheer chagrin. "But she knew Spanish," they protested. 80 she did. She learned 4t from a little red pocket dictionary she always carried. The dictionary cost fifteen cents. "Spanish is easy U yon know Italian. It Is so like It," explained Maria, with her mischievous laugh. "I have plenty of money. I work for occupation, not for mere salary," said Maria '.wben she visited the offices of theatrical managers. One after another engaged her to pose as a haughty beauty. "She will be stunning in the pictures at last we have found a rival of Anita Stewart," said the screen magnates o their office staffs The projector of a musical comedy engaged her fot a production. She was to play the part of a Brazilian beauty, and In a yellow satin frock, and with many diamonds, was to dance the tango as it is danced on its native soil, the pampas of Argentina.. Then came the news that bowled over Broad way, that left gasping the street that Is proud of Its self-possession, that boaata that it can never be sur prised "Ruth Downes." she of the swinging, Spanish walk, of the stories of romance that held a mingled flavor of the old and new, was arrested I A common place officer came to her lodgings, broke in upon a tale of an all-night ball at the hacienda of a billionaire cousin of bers in Argentina, a billionaire who aspired for her hand, but whom she repulsed because she loved him not. The rude, ordinary policeman answered her rich toned "Come in." and laying a hand upon her graceful olive shoulder, said. "Come onl" "What for?" Ruth Downes towered above him as an offended queen, resenting the affront of a barbarian. "It's an emissary of your mother's come to take TOO home," suggested a fellow boarder. "Not on your life! I'm pinching her because 1 want them clothes end Jewelry she took from the woman at No. 248 West Forty-fourth etreet," said the rude, com mon detective. "She Was That Queenlike She Had Me Going," Said the Detective. "Ill have you dismissed from the force, you dread ful person I Take your fingers off my gown. Your very touch will soli it!" The detective afterward said, "She was that queenliks she bad me going. I almost begged her pardon and said there must be some mistake." He might as well have done so, for when she was taken into court she denied so indignantly the theft that the magistrate discharged her. Miss "Downes." her eyes flashing, left the courtroom, moved from the boarding house where she had been subjected to such unwarrantable affront and resumed her reign as the novelty of Broadway. 8he was seen in the smart Broadway restaurants, in the company of admiring new friends, some of them actors, some managers, some "angels" of amusement enterprises. Always they treated her with the utmost respect Always they were enchanted by her stories of life on a Brazilian coffee plantation and of the Jour neylngs of rich planters and their families to San Fran cisco and to Parts. True, she made some remarkable statements about those cities, but her admiring and trustful audiences always ascribed these singularities to her lack of knowledge of the English language. They merely smiled at her fascinating broken speech, always accompanied by her dazzling smile. Then again an Interruption. Once more was Ruth Downes arrested. This because a dress suit case con taining some of the articles of clothing she was said Ur have stolen was found in her room. "Some one placed it there while I was out. I never saw it before," she said, her utter disdain of "those common people" who brought the charge shown in her air and speech and her scornful black eyes. Mcria Desmoninl At She Appeared While Masquerading; As "Miss Ruth Downes of Brazil Persecuted by a Tyran nical Mother." flfi N- fife ' (1 'ii irW W'. y Mr r . ... --v 1 "And Night After Night She Dipped Into Luxury are. Not. One Even Su nrfl Tha4 that Gorgeous Dresses Hid, Metaphorically, of Course, the Patched Skirt pf the Sweatshop Worker ct I bat Her feet Were still from Habit Treading Phantom Sewing Machine." ' for moving pictures, and she scolded. , I went out, at they thought, for a walk, but 1 took a crosstown car and transferred up Madison avenue and went to ths Martha Washington Hotel. I stayed there one night Then I went around to the moving picture studios. I told them I was from BraxiL, I spoke Spanish to them cone of them could speak it and they seemed impressed. They all told me to come back. Some of them paid m money down, because 1 told them I was wanted at all the studios and didn't know whether 1 .could come back. The mors I said that I was rich and only wantsd to pose for fun, the more anxious they were to pay ma a retainer. I moved out of the Martha Washington t another hotel the Dresden, on Forty-fourth street. 1 went to one fine hotel wben I was out of money and told them I was from Brazil and had run away from mj rich parents In California, but expected money soon, and they believed me and let me run up a bill. In the studios and the managers' offices I met well-knows, people whose names Inspire respect They swallowed tor story whole. "Generally I got my money without going back U the studios. I posed for seversl pictures. I don't re member their names. But I made a specialty of telllna my story and getting the money down. . leaving my address and never going back. They . were all . dad to have a rich girl posing for them. They said It gave 'class' to their studios. One man told me I had a 'swell carriage.' I told him I hadn't any . automobile, but 1 expected to have one, and he laughed. He said., 'Sure you will. Ain't you the Queen of the Movies?', That name travelled. Soon they began to salute me as 'Youi Majesty.' Oh, It was fun. "I liked the restaurants. The fellows I met at the studios used to take me out to dinner and to supper. Honest, they seemed proud to take me Into these swell places on their arms. If thsy'd known who I was they wouldn't have looked at me. The biggest snobs oa earth have Broadway addresses. , It's easy to fool Broadway it you Just talk money to them. It eendw them off their heads Just as a title does Fifth avenue. I'm glad I fooled them. Any one can who Is smart They're not the wise ones they think they are., I could take a new name, or a new story, and do the same thing over again. ; . , "I don't know anythlsg about those clothes and ths Jewelry they said I took. I never saw Miss Margaret Tevls, of the Hotel Msrtha Washington. ; As for, Miss Mary Wilson. I don't know anything about her lost dresses. Some one put that dress suit esse in my room as a "plant. "There's one thing I'm sorry about. I used to be a city missionary. I gave the people on the East Side lots of good advice when I visited them. I hope they wont read the papers. And I was a Sundsy school teacher until I began teaching Broadway. I hope the little girls in my class won't hear whera thir t..H. la." Maria Desmonlni. alias Ruth Downes, laughed. "I am the victim of a conspiracy. Your Honor." she said. "This Miss Mary Wilson, who makes these charges, hates at because I am what I am and she is what ehs Is." The court released her on $1,600 ball. "A lawyer who was there trying another case and who heard my story and believed me signed for my ball," Is Maria Desmonlnl's explanation of her second escape from a prison cell. Back to the brilliance of the Great White Way, back to friends, Indignant, sympathetic, went the harassed Brazilian beauty. To avoid the drain upon her time made by her popularity she moved to lodgings cn Upper Broadway near Hudson River. Finding the quiet irk some, she chose new and exclusive quarters near Wash ington Square. There it was ths meddlesome law once mora overtook her. "We want you, Maria Desmonlni, for stealing three hundred dollars' worth of clothing from Miss Margaret Tevls at the Hotel Martha Washington." said the law In the person of an officer. This time the Judge was obdurate. Tears, rage, stories ot splendor and Influence moved htm not. The baffled beauty fainted In the Fifty-seventh street court At this time she is awaiting in the Tombs trial for theft To the Tombs came no Broadway satellites of the "Brazilian beauty. A faithful bevy of ssven paid ber a visit Came a shoemaker, bent shouldered and pale from drudgery, her father: the worn mother, with the Cray shawl; a sister, a cloak finisher, who walked with a crutch; a hunchback brother, a troop ot younger ones, the youngest a baby a year and a half old. All sobbed and cried. "Maria! Maria!" The "Brazilian beauty," flinging off ber air of dis guise, fervently embraced them. "My sister was a good girl. She worked hard at eJoek linings for seven years. She and my mother worked together in the cloak shops," said the crippled sister. "She was so kind. If she met a hungry woman In the street she brought her home and fed ber. If the woman had no home Maria would bring ber borne to sleep. She was engaged to a young man, a salesman In a Sixth avenue store. 8he was In love with him and wanted to get married. She and my mother quarrelled about whether she should get married. On February 28 she and my mother quarrelled and she went away. We thought she was at my aunt's in Brooklyn. We never knew what had happened until we read it In the papers." The sister wept Maria laughed. "Anyway I fooled wise old Broadway for six weeks. Takes a wise person to do that doesn't It?" "I got tired working hard and giving all my money to my mother. I had been working hard for seven years and getting nothing but my keep out of it. I wanted pretty clothes end I wanted to see life. I told mother I thought I could make more money by posing Why Your Best Brain Work Is Done When You're III BV PHILIP OsTERMAN. M. D IF you want to do your very best brain work don't keep yourself too fit But remember, too, that the longer you work when you are really Hi the greater will be the breakdown which must follow. It Is generally considered that a man who is physically fit necessarily does better brain work than a man who Is slightly off color. This U by no means the case, for under certain circumstance a man who Is not physically f.t I'. -tv Ti of better work t!)n s nun iu Vrr lipgt cf Cofvrifht, nil, by the Star Company. Ureal Brltala Jllt lUscrvt-.'. health. Of course. I am not rfrrlnr to cases ot serious Illness, but to cases wben a man Is "seedy," out ot sorts or possibly sickening for some illness. Let ns suppose that a man is slightly feverish. Now, fever invari ably hastens all the processes of the human body. For example. It pro duces an increased flow of ideas. In the case of a novelist or a man whose work requires wild Imanlnatlon euch a state of mind would naturally be valuable up to a point Bur an increase of fever beyond that point does not Imply an increase of ideas at least coherent Ideas. It lis this vast profusion of ideas due to increasing fever that finally pro. duces delirium. Bui the chief cause of a man do ing better work when be is ill is th increased will power he summons ut on such occasions. When a man is exceedingly tit he thinks everything else In the world la all right . Its feela that everything in going on ex cellently. He does not do quite hit best. He tries only three-qusrter as hard as hs can. 1