Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-06-11
LYDIA THOMPsON,s HUSBAND.

LYDIA TH0MPSON'S HUSBAND.
New Ysrk Dramatic News.l
Our London correspondent writes
us that the deed of separation be.
tween Alexander Henderson and
Lydia Thompson has been drawn
up, and that in it Mrs. Henderson
is allowed a small maintenance for
herself and her child.
Henderson is well remembered in
the United States as lean, Ca
daverous man of maryelously uu-
certain age, looking as much like
thirty as he did like sixty. In spite
of his bloodless, expressionless face,
the cruel droop Of his eye, and his
amazing cold-heartedness, Hender-
son is said to have been one of the
most successful Don Juans of the
present generation. His career has
been of the strangest and most un.
usual sort, though his face betrays
no sign either of his character or
his experiences. Born of a respect
able family in the north of En-
gland, he obtained employment in
the London General Postofiice as a
clerk, While there engaged, he
married a Miss Moon, by whom he
had one daughter. After a couple
Of years of married life Henderson
left England, abandoned his wife
and child, and emigrated to Aus
tralia, toward which El Dorado
thousands of the better class of
Englishmen made pilgrimage. Ar
irving in Melbourne with very
modest resources, he contributed
largely to the establishment of a
postal service iu the country. AL
ways fond of horsehesh, he soon
cut the responsibilities Of the post
office and set up livery stable,
which did an enormous business.
Acquiring a fortune rapidly, he
gave his penchant for Bohemian
society free rein, and shortly
launched out as a theatrical man
ager, taking small companies
through the diggings with varying
success After making aud losing
two or three fortunes, he esta6.
lished connection with two sisters,
afterward famous as condolences,
and managed their business while
he absorbed their duplicate affec-
tions. In the capacity Of their en-
trepreneur he returned to England
and settled himself in Liverpool,
all this time utterly obliYious of the
delicate wife and infant daughter
he had abandoned some seventeen
years before. 1t was while man.
aging the Prince Of Wales Theater
in Liverpool that he became ac.
quainted with Lydia Thompson,
who at the time was a widow, her
husband, Tilbury, having been
thrown off his horse, while hunting,
with the result of breaking his
neck. She had been a very sue
cessful danseuse, that being her
original relation to the stage.
When Henderson met her he was
in fair circumstances, doing an ex-
cellent business at the Prince ofI
Wales, a cozy little. bandhox of a
place. Recognizing the availability
of Lydia Thompson as a means Of
making money, he soon dropped
the second of his Australian ac.
quaintances, the first having
"bolted" with a colonel of dra-
goons.
Foolishly flushed by his success,
Henderson determined to migrate
from the Prince of Wales to a !
larger house; so he built the Alex
dra aud dropped every shilling he
had ever made. 1t was at this
crisis of his fortunes that Lydia
Thompson, who, cold and unfeeling
to everybody and everything else,
idolized him with a passionate de-
votion, came to his rescue. Rails
ing all the money she could her
self, assisting him to obtain credit,
and working desperately to achieve
complete success, she organized the
burlesque company which, thanks
to the sagacity Of Mr.. Sam Colville,
was first presented to the public at
Woods Museum.
The history of the Thompson
troupe in this country, and Of its
repeated triumphs, need not now be
told. All the money made by Ly.
dia Thompson went into Hender-
sons pocket and stayed there.
But the worst feature Of his be.
hayior was this: though she mani
Tested her love for him in every
possible way; though she endured
his Indifference in silent anguish;
though she nursea him through |