The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-12 00:00:00

DEATH OF ADAH I.KIACS ME KEG'.

On Monday afternoon the well-known Adah
Isaacs Menken—after having suffered severely for
.navy weeks from disease of the lungs—quietly
passed away without mental or physical pain, at
half-past two, at her hotel in Paris, in the presence
of two or three friends. According to her own
statement, made some mouths ago when she was
delivering a lecture, she was born in New Orleans
in the spring of 1811. Her father, Ricardo Feur-
tos, a Spanish Jew, was a merchant i❑ that city.
Her mother was a native of Bordeaux. Her maiden
name was Dolores Adios Feurtos. By the death of
her father she was left an orphan at the age of two,
and then was taken by her mother to Cuba, where
6he was brought up in the family of a rich planter.
By and by her mother died, and finally her bene-
factor, leaving her, then aged 13, the bulk of his
estates. A suit was instituted in the law courts by
the heir-at-law, and the will was set aside. Left
utterly unprovided for she turned her attention to
the stage, and at the age of 14 came out at a theatre
in New Orleans, her native city, as a dancer. Her
success was flattering in the extreme, and for up-
wards of a year she continued this vocation, appear-
ing in the principal theatre in the Southern States,
and once in Havannah, where she again experi-
enced ill-treatment at the hands of the possessors of
her former benefactor's property. Afterwards she
aspired to higher walks of the drama, and played
Bianca in " Fazio," Madeleine in " The Belle of the
Faubourg," and many other parts in tragedy and
serious drama, with more or less success. About
this time she married Mr. John Isaac Menken, and
thus, changing her second name Adios into the
English Adab, acquired the name she has borne till
her death. Before the American war broke out she
again married, this time Mr. Robert H. Newill, of
the New York Sunday Mercury, and author of the
famous " Orpheus C. Kerr Papers." This alliance,
like one or two others which it is still less pleasant
to dwell 'upon, was ill-assorted, and speedily re-
sulted in separation and divorce. She seems to
have followed the axiom laid down in words she
often spoke jestingly, "It is well to marry young,
and, if possible, often." At the commencement of
the civil war she evinced strong Southern :Tel-
pathies, and on one occasion, when acting at Pitts-
burg, she was arrested on a charge of rebellious
conduct, an actually imprisoned for thirty days►
when she was sent under guard to Louisville.
After this affair she came to England and played a
wonderfully successful engagement at Astley's,
then to the provinces, and finally to the Continent,
where, except for a few months last winter, she hal
lived ever since, making Paris her home. Had she
been spared life and health she would have played
at the Chatelet in a new drama called "Theodorns,"
written by M. Henri Rochefort, the clever jour-
nalist and editor of La Lanterne. Throughout her
life she professed the Jewish creed, and only a few
months ago expressed a strong wish to be buried
according to its customs, with nothing to mark her
resting place beyond a plain piece of wood with the
words, " Thou knowest."