Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-04-21
A BIT OF ROMANCE.
A Memphis Actress in "a Strange
EIOie-Dcath i'm n Tenement House
and Behind the FO0IIights.

| ROfe-Dcath IN n Tenement House
and Behind the FOOIIights.
Burlcigh, the New York correspondent
of the Boston Journal, tells the follow
ing:
In one of the tenement houses of New
York, lin one of the lowest localities, a
laboring man lived with his family. A
missionary sought out the two daughters
and had them placed at school. The
eldest married one of her own class. Her
life became distasteful to her. She left
her husband and disappeared. Some time
after an actress creating quite sensation
attracted great attention in Memphis
Who she. was, and where she came from,
no one knew. She kept her eye on her
husband, and through friend saw that he
did not want. He was taken very sick,
and was destitute in a garnet. Some time
after he was taken sick an old lady ap-
peared at the door distributing tracts. She
had basket on her arm, and made strict
inquiry if there was any sickpersOn there.
She was directed TO the room where the
sick man lay, burning with fever,
and in complete restitution. She filed
his room with comforts, employed a
physician and a nurse, and made
daily visits to the house, always
bringing some delicacy. No one knew
who she was or where sire came from !;
but she was regarded as an angel of mercy.
Rough men lifted their hats to her as she
passed them in the hall or on the stairs,
and coarse women, looking out from their
untidy quarters, were heard to say, ''The
Holy Virgin bless her" Leaving all that
was necessary, the old woman disap-
peared The man grew worse. In his
delirium he called continually for his wife,
blending her name with that of the. kind
old tract woman who had been so mcrci-
| full. Just before the man died a fash
ionably dressed lady appeared at his bed
side He was gone too far to recognize her.
1t was his wife, and it was she who in the
form of an old woman had relieved his
wants. She gave her husband decent
burial made herself known to her sister,
and left with her tokens of her lib
crafty. The last words she said to her
as she left for the South: 81 hope | shall
not die in a theatre, as poor President
Lincoln did" She returned to her pro-
fession, was taken sick in the theatre the
first night of her return, and died in a
few hours. She left little except her war
drobe, but that little was secured by her
New York friends.
Another account says:
After brief, inharmonious experience
of matrimony, she withdrew from her
mismatched husband and disappeared
from the city. Her family and their
good friend, the clergyman, were in great
distress thereat, fearing that the unhappy
young wife had been driven to some des-
perate resource; but, at the end of some
weeks, there came to the minister a letter
from the missing ono. After cOnfding to
him the story of her intOlerable matrimO-
NAL sorrows, and declaring that she
had renowned her unfit husband for
| ever, the writer confessed that she had
| become an actress in a thcater of
| Memphis, Tenn, under an assumed name.
In this new capacity she was gaining
much success, and begged her old friend
| TO keep her secret, and act as her agent
in friendly watch over the husband she
could no longer live with. She promised
to send money from time TO time, which
the clergyman was to apply, as from him
self, to such aid as the husband might alb
solutely require, but begged that no eff
| fort should be made to persuade her back
to the life never to be hers again. Con-
WINGED that all such persuasion must be
useless, the recipient of the extraordinary
letter sadly yielded to the inevitable and
wrote to the actress that he would act as
she desired. Consequently, the detached
wife led the life of player in Tennessee,
she was still able to keep an eye,
! through her friend upon her
| husband in New York, and
see that he did not fall into abjcct
want. One day, few weeks ago, a letter
from the clergyman told her that the man
whom she vowed TO love, honor and obey,
was lying sick of Telapsing fever IN a
wretched garnet to which he had retTeated.
On the day after the arrival of this news
she abruptly closed her engagement at the
Southern theatre, and disappeared from
| Memphis. The last
act of her married life being finished, the
dramatized woman revealed herself to her
sister and their friend the clergyman, but
only to say goodbye before returning to
| the South. Her last words IS she started
for Memphis were 81 hope | shall moi
die in theatre, as poor President Lincoln
did" 1t was a presentiment. On the
very night of her temperance as an &C
tress she fell violently ill in the theatre,
and before morning dawned had gone tc
| Join her husband in another world.