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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1913)
V f The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page "' - ' '". mm. i. i i iiiiijuU Copyright; 1013, by the Star Company. Great Britain Rights Deserted. m; va ya I I m M -v. . Tiir rim r rwTfir " ' " "The, smoke from her mother's pistol seemed to stretch out through the years, full of cruel, hos ttile eyes and ever forming itself into a baffling hand that beat her always back from success." How the Old Biblical Law Worked Out for Lorraine Mollis, (Beauty, Actress and Playwright), Whose Shadowed Life Has Been Ended by Starvation in the Very Heart of Rich New York "j-HB daughter Is dead starved to death ' JXJjLP Iiow furnished room. Tno inqth"p"f lives, on the opposite side of the continent, thought she tried to die by her own hand at the moment when the news of her daughter's death reachod her. The' father died years ago, by the mother's hand because he would not dlvorco his wife and, bestow his honored name upon this mother and this daughter. Thus, now for the first time, Is explained the mystery of the alwayB losing battle which wore out the life of one of the most beautiful and estimable women who ever graced the American stage Lorraine Hollls. Always, upon her spirits and upon the ma terial circumstances of her dally existence, rested the blight of the Scriptural promise: "The sins of the fathers shall bo visited upon their children, even unto the third and fourth generation." Yet, borne up by her Dense of her own personal freedom from responsibility for the misdeeds of her parents, she kept up her fight to the end. Her great beauty and tal ents could not be denied. Lenbach, the great German court painter, declared she re sembled Maxlne Elliott, hlB Ideal of a beau tiful woman. This beauty, and her ability as an actress, enabled her to earn the atten tion of a man Influential In the theatrical world and for once, a few years before the end, there was a single moment in which sho believed she had triumphed. She had been blandly recolved by him. No other person was present. "Certainly," said the man whore Influence she sought, "you shall have tho position to which your beauty and your talents entitle you. The contract will be for Ave years " She felt all the burden of her embittered past falling from her wearied body. But the arbiter of her fate was leaning over, his face almost touching, hers, muttering something which seemed incredible. "What Is that?" she asked, startled.' "It Is what you are to do," he said, "In view of what I am to see Is done for you." And, In lower tones, he repeated the con dition which had seev.ed Incredible. There was no mistaking tho man's mean ing this time. Bhe blazed forth In her in dignation, and rose to quit the place. He laughed loudly, sneering: "What, you? You, the nameless daughter of Laura Fair and Judge Crittenden? Born in scandal and reared by a murdoress! Oh, whnt a nice, precious little Innocent I Good day I'm busy." The cause celebre of the murder of Judge A. P. Crittenden, while he was on a ferry boat going from San Francisco to Oakland, 'to meet his wife, returning after a long ab sence (n the East, was written Into the criminal records and a fresh page turned in the annals of the vivid crimes of a vivid state But "Laura Fair's baby," precocious by heredity and by the candor of the hirelings who bad surrounded her In her first three years of life, understood. The story was often recited In her bearing. Laura Fair had been contont with the secret lovemaklng of the jurist. She had been flattered by bis admiration, been en riched by his generosity, but when she learned that hlB wife .was returning from her protracted visit In the East, the flame of Jealousy blazed In her breast. She bogged Judge Crittenden to leave his homo before his wife returned. Ho smiled at what he termed her childishness. Sho Implored him to offer his wife a divorce. He explained to hor what restrictions of apparent con vention hedge around a man of his emlnenco and his ambitions. She knelt to him. Ho grew Impatient. She rose and shot him. A crowd gathered about her. Sho was hurried oft to jail. A mob threatened to try lynching. On the mind of the sensitive child were Indelible photographs of the ig nominious eventB. When her mother re turned, the child turned her cheek from her kisses. One who saw the reunion said tho child's eyes wero the largest and saddest sho had ever seen. "Thqy ore tho eyes of tragedy. Sho will look always upon grief," said a woman whq knew sorrow, a'nd whose body was after wards found floating In San Francisco Bay. Laura Fair set up a little home In tho Mission. She hired a new nurse and tho new nurse supplied all tho facts tho old ones had overlooked In tho grim story of hor mother's life; whilo the woman, still young and beautiful, and desperate, was earning her livelihood and he child's by singing In tb,e dance halls of tho mining camps. And tho child grew up. Often sho said to tho friends of that time that sho wished she had not. With tastes superior to hor environment, with a spirit acutely sensitive, she suffered keenly from the little hurts of lfo and dreaded tho greater ones. And al ways over her lay the shadow of the mem ories of her babyhood, a shadow thick, black, Impenetrable Sho went upon tho stage and her beauty won her a local fame. Pacific Coast theatre goers recall her Parthonla, her Camllle, her Frou-Frou, her Stephanie In "Forget-Me-Not," and her Marina In "Mr. Barnes of New York." She joined William H. Crane's com pany and she played In Augustln Daly's com pany. Sho wrote dramas and melodramas, "The Panther's Trail," "A Heart of Stone" she said the title was what the world seemed to her and "A Woman Pays." Sho had thought, she said, of giving the last tho title, "The Daughter Pays." But for Lorraine Hollls success was brief. For a time she starred, but her tours wero short. Morja money tb carry her through the one-night stands and make good the de ficits by bad business, more lnfluenco to "boom" the now-risen star, for the stage Is, In this respect, much like real estate, were what she needed. They were offered her for the price often exacted In that sphero of glittering temptations, the stage. But sho could not bring herself to pay that price From the day of the scene with the man of lnfluenco abovo described, her fight bo came a hopeless one. Lorraine Hollls was "blacklisted." Managers received her Indif ferently or not at all. They had nothing for her. They would never have anything for her. Maxino Elliott's beauty shone more radi antly for Us brilliant setting, Lorraine Hollls's, much resembling It, was dulled by Its grim and gloomy surroundings. Latterly sho ffas known as "Tho Lonely Lady." Al ways those who knew her story called her "Tho Child of Tragedy," Sho was a woman of tender est sympathies. Once she held an audi once waiting an hour while she rescued a horse that was being beaten and kicked by its .driver. "Four-footed beasts havo alwaya been my friends, but I detest two legged ones," sho said, as, arriving bo late, sho made her smiling trem bling apology and expla nation to hor audience. Into her humble last home she gathered waif dogs and lost cats. Tom, a gray-striped mascot, she carried with her to the theatre always. For children sho had tho love of motherhood denied. She would stop in tho street before a perambulator and look with hungry, tear-wet eyes at tho rosy face be neath tho canopy of lace. Lorraine Hollls's health failed rapidly under the strain. She grew too weak to go about. She scribbled a little every day, but hopelessly, sho A Photograph of Lorraine Hollis When Trying for Success Upon the Stage. Women Growing Manly and Men "Lady-like 99 A Rare Photograph from a Portrait of Mrs. Laura D. Fair, the Mother of Lorraine Hollis. Painted Just Before sat often with her head She Killed Judge Crittenden, Whom She Accused of Being In her hands, four waif the Father of the Unfortunate GirL cats mewing plteously or angrily about her. She looked often at the portrait of a beautiful woman, but sho never spoke of her. Sometimes she said: "I will never escape It! It will be with me to tho end!" At forty-two, Laura Fair's daughter was a broken woman, an admitted failure, for the shadow wrapped her thickly around. Many others had said that to her, and Laura Fair's daughter had begun to hate all men and to care for few women. Her heart remained tender to children and anlmalB, to the stricken and hopeless. She, looked oftener than ever at the portrait of her mother, of whom she never spoke. Hound the figure of the beautiful woman she saw a shadow, broad and black and suffocating. It was crushing her life. They found her on a February morning in the cold, dark room, her face lovely with tho beauty of a fading dower. The news sped, to tho woman in San Francisco. Laura Fair screamed and raged at fate. Thoso who saw her recalled the tigress woman of forty-two years before who had slain the father of her child, who had been condemned to the scaffold and had been finally permit ted to live and suffer the prolonged penalty of a llfo filled with regrets. She tried to end her life. Falling, sho said: "Can God be so cruel as to vlBlt (ho 'sins of the mother upon the daughter? I cannot be lieve It." But the dead woman knew. It was no casual coincidence that those ovents occurred In the Bame week. They hold to each other the relation of cause and effect. The woman who died was the daugh ter of tho woman who tried to dlo. Out of the black past had stalked a spectre that beckoned both to death. The sin of the mother was visited upon tho daughter. By the law of reaction the grief of tho daughter was visited upon tho mother. The daughter dying because of tho mother, tho mother had tried to die because of the daughter. Across the continent sped a story of love, of vengeance, of the suffering and sacrifice of th Innocent, of retribution. The story is ono that shows how stronger than environment may, in some Instances, be heredity, for by every external sign Lorraine Hollls had a brilliant prospect for success. She had beauty so unusual that In a news paper contest she won the title of the most beautiful woman In California, a State of beautiful women. Sho had an Irresistible charm. "Every time sho smiles she makes a friend," said one of her suitors, a discarded one, for aa the shadow of her tragedy closed around her, tho beauty became a man hater. She had a brilliant mind and worked with a vast onorgy that kept her at work until the day before her death. Even while the shadow under which she was born settled forever upon her. never to lift a passerby saw the thin, palo, still lovely profile silhouetted against the window, and bent above a writing pad. while her hands, thin nearly to trans parency, tremblingly guided a pencil. But the memory of tho crime was stronger than hfl. In It chadnw she dlod. AT this moment, when tho Eng lish Suffragettes aro making extra exertions to carry out their threat to "make London unin habitable" the contrast between these Amazons and the lady-llko youth of the British Metropolis, has evoked much nowspapcr comment. Of the latter tho Dally Sketch says: Thorn Is a type of man that every real man wants to kick. It ono cannot use tho masculine pronoun Is to be found chiefly In the neigh borhood of Bond street, either com ing out of a hairdresser's establish ment or getting into a taxi-cab. It seldom wnlks because Its leg muscles are barely strong enough to bear the weight of Its frail body, but It can stand at a bar 'for fairly long periods if its weight bo sup ported by a cane and the rail of the bar. Straight drinks are too strong for Us delicate constitution, so it ruins what little health there Is within It by imbibing the sort of drinks they sell to women In the cafes. Its greatest desire in life Is not to look like a man, and in this It is en tirely successful. It possesses neither vigor nor brains, aud com pared with the "nut" it is an empty shell. You may recognize It by many signs. Its head is anointed with violet-scented oil; its body Is encased In corsets, and Us feet in tight shoes with high "heels. It wears a shirt of a material more sultablo for a woman's blouse, and it tells the time of day by a woman's wristlet watch. It has to bo born of wealthy parents, because It cannot work for n living. The world has no ufe for It, but its money is nn asset to Wes End tradesmen. Tho Dally Sketch inquired into some of Us habits. A tailor said an invariable sign of effeminacy, so far nn his trade was concerned, was a deslro for trimmings. Whore a real man would have plain braid the effcmlnnte ordered a little embroid ery. One customer bad a large cloth covered button, similar to those on women's ulsters, where the ordinary man would have two plain bone but tons. Tho effeminate note in hla overcoat was achieved by exag gerated skirts and a compressed waist But the real hall-marks of tha empty shell are to be found In Its night attire and toilet accessories. It sleeps in a silk nightgown- or gorgeous pyjamas of the same ma terial, wears silk slippers In the bed room, and crimps its hair with sU-ver-mounted curling tongs. Often it has not sufficient energy to make its toilet all at once, and It trips into a taxi-cab to be finished off In Bond street. Here its face Is covered with hot towels and after wards massaged with scented creams. At the door of such an ea tabllsbment you may see It holding! up a stick for a taxi-cab. A cigarette trembles from its weaW mouth, and Its small brow is puck ered In an attempt to solve the great problem of the day what shall be the aporltlf, and where shall It bet taken? To the observer the greatest prob lem the empty shell presents ia: What would happen to it it U lost the support cf Us aliab.