The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-18

not, show, ( from personal Sb6ef1atioh, What
intelleoiual eharacteristics her acting may
have displayed to secure for her such bril-
liant, il but temporary, literary friendships Z
Possibly they were only part OF RenofH public
concession 10 tho abstract iden Of popular
success: and in this case there were ample
proofs, by pecuniary result alone; Of a sue
cess not often attained by a public performer.
In strange, Characteristic, ominous contrast
with such exultant strains of triumph. as the
last, are these hopeless, half-insane words,
penned by her in April and in May of 1866,
during her last visit TO New York, and while
she was yet in the full flush Of that ''success'
which destroyed her:-- 4svv r.f,.t1 aft +
''Since my blessed development as me-
dunn am almost constantly under some con-
troll, and q wild, unsettled spirit (whom you
know has held me back from oven the repose
of my studio. So saddened, discouraged,
and detected am / that doubt everything
except God. / doubt myself, doubt my
former convictions, and hesitate painfully
over any little supposed good may have
known or felt. In truth, meet with so little
of those things called Justice truth,
honor, and good, that caststhem out of
my world Of words as foolish dreams and
poetical fancies, not to be thought of in the
remotest way while we live in the form.
There is something about my unmeaning self
which brings out the lie in all have found in
the best book about Right and Wrong.
have to pass my worthless life in learning the
old ideal meaning of these two words. They
are both very shadowy to me. have attached
myself to the phalanx of the disappointed,
the defeated, and the lowly, the sorrowing
and the exiled. They receive me, for they
know me; am one of them. They alone
understand my dumb, passionate language;
they alone answer me tenderly, and believe
in me. In their pale ranks only dare to be
myself. l know God and He knows me. l
DO not fear Him-He is too tender for that.
We are only Father and child. He is the
friend Of all Of me. He does not scorn my
weakness or condemn me. / never tremble
mills presence"
SO ends the story of Adah Isaacs Menken,
as told. by herself. Here is the root from
which sprang the little known good the
widely known errors of all her pitiful life.
Here is natures grim commentary upon the
successful art, adopting crown and ''Immen-
sabilis" for its crest and legend. Such
record, given merely from the surface by the
public chronicler, might merit only the grave
reprobation of the moralist and, perchance,
possess a baleful infatuaton for the many
youthful and ambitions minds that in their
passionate eagerness for the fame and ap-
plnuse of exceptional careers, fancy Tor them
selves possibilities of the triumphs without
the falls of their exemplars. But in this reve-
lation of the breaking heart behind the mot
ley; of the gontler, grander womanhood, tor
tured unto death beneath the mocking tinsel
royalty of the player, what else can there be
than life sermon to those of her sex who
would seek honor by unsexing themselves-an
appeal for Christian charity to the censor who
would, for the sake of earthly justice, dispute
heavenly mercy?
| 'aTrue virtue acts from love, and the great end
| At which she noby aims is to amend;
| How, then, do those mistake who arm her laws
With rigor not their own, and hurt the cause
| They make that goddess, whom they'd have engage
| Our dearest love, In hideous terror rise!
| such may be honest but they can't be WISE"
The friendship here performing its last office
| for the dead pretends no abstract extenua-
ton of those follies which not even the inn
| munities of womanhood nor the sanctity OF
the grave should save from the warning uses
of admonishing morality; but that once fin.
isned, it would invoke secondary sentiment,
thought of human pity for homeless and
unguided sister, who, if she erred greatly
| also suffered much. Who can tell what con.
seriousness of mortal misjudgment, what jus
titled hope of Divine indulgence, spoke IN
the two words which she gave for her epi
| taph ?-'"Thou knowest !"
''We only know that she has gone
From Gods own hand to Gods own handl"