The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-16
METROPOLITAN MELANGE
Personal "reminiscences of a Run
away Pet of the Opera-Bouhe.
DIR. PiersOn in New York-The Livingstone
Fleming Case to Be Compromised
Persons and Events in Gotham.


| Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal
New YORK, June 1.-THE real moral of
Lillian Russelrs steadily degenerating career,
which has just assumed new phase by one
| of the most remarkable escapades on record,
! is the old one, that man cannot take fire
into his bosom without being burned, nor
touch pitch without being deiiled. A person
cannot habtually embody or portray vi
cious character without in time coming to
live its vices in reality.
1t has been my fortune-good or otherwise
to know Lillian Russell well for long
time. Fifteen years ago used to see her al
most every day playing in the park in Chi
cago. Then she was sent to school, and used
to tcddle along with books and lunch basket
with an air that to prophetic eye would
have foreshadowed the charming stage-acting
of her later years. She was then little Nellie
Leonard" and was the child OF happy and
estimable family. As she grew up to woman
hood my acquaintance with her became still
more intimate. We reposed in each other
many little condolences, and am sure her
disposition was not evil or wayward. In
deed, in thought and word and act always
deemed her model of maidenly propriety.
Nor was there any token of unchastity about
her when she went on the stage at Tony Pas.
tors, as a chorus girl in some of his spark
ling but innocent comediettas. She did not
hirt with the male singers and actors, nor
with the loafers at the stage-door. Her
mother and generally formed her escort to
and from the theater. When she visited the
Pacific coast she maintained her reserve even
in that free-and-easy society. She even
refused to appear on the stage in any
sensuous costume, and have before me as l
write a souvenir of our San Francisco visit
in the shape of her photograph-the first one
she ever had taken for public sale. 1t repre-
sents her plainly and modestly though rich
ly, dressed in black, with not a single theat-
rical touch visible. The expression is quiet,
shy and thoughtful. 1t might serve as
model ideal picture of maidenly purity and
innocence.
| Nellie as l always called her, even after
she adopted her pretty stage name, was mar
ried to John Braham when she was only
seventeen, and against the advice of her
friends. Sine thought she loved him, but
was mistaken. She was unsophisticated in
experienced; and he was the first man who
ever paid her any attention. Her heart hut-
| tered with a new sensation; she thought she
was in love- and in a few weeks they were
married. He took her to Boston, and made
her keep house for him in couple of dingy
rooms in an ill-savored quarter of the city.
She endured it bravely for a time, and tried
to love him; but she soon awoke to the
truth, and left him, and returned to her
mother.
| BAD EFFECT OF BAD PLAYS
All the time her beauty had been ripeniug
and her talents developing. Her services
came into great demand. Unfortunately
about this time the present degradation of
popular taste set in. Unhealthy, vicious
plays and operas were put upon the stage.
She had to take part in them, or give up her
profession. In an evil hour she chose
the former alternative, and her downward
course began. 1 remember one evening,
when she vas not singing, we went
together to see "Olivette" par
ticularly indecent and corrupting spectacle
was "ail the rage" | remember well how
her face glowed with bushes as she turned to
me and gasped, under her breath;
"Oh, Lii, Suppose Mr.. - should want
me to go in such piece! Oh, l couldn't |
couldn'tn
| Yet she did, and I saw her and on the first
night she blushed and quivered with shame
in the glare of the footlights But the next
week she was as bold and unconcerned as
any, Then she began to flirt Then in con-
versation with me she talked much about her
various admirers. Then scandal began to
hover about her. Then she lost all regard
| for her good faith in business contracts. Then
her amours became the theme of the coarsest
gossip at the clubs, Finally she, a married
woman eloped with married man.
| No man can take fire into his bosom and
not be burned; nor touch pitch and not be
| deiled.
Why is it that so many of those who are de-
| voted to music, that most exalted and heav-
emily art, should be immoral and proh:g gate?
| The answer is not hard to find The average
opera is moral ulcer, Faust" perhaps the
| finest of them all, merely portrays the seduc-
| ton of a girl by man who has sold his soul
to the devil. "Traviata" is still more beastly.
| ''Rigoletto' is indescribably vile. So it is
with many-not with ALL mind you; but
! these vile ones are the favorites. Now is it
strange that a woman who every night per-
sonates an adultress, or q courJeSan, should
at last come to live the part she plays? Is it
strange that the divine Patti should be a
woman of uncertain morals?
Inc same is true OF dramas HOW can
woman play Camille without at least be-
ing Camille herself? If she uses night after
night the language and conduct of a wanton,
| how can she avoid that familiarity with vice
that will inevitably lead her at last to en-
brace it? So it is not strange to find such
women as Bernhard, the lamented Nelson,
Prescott. and others playing such roles
But there are good and pure actors and ac-
tresses, and they appear in good and pure
plays. Edwin Booth and Bella Pateman
bear regulations above reproach for there is
nothing in Hamlet" or "Richelieu," or
The Lady OF Lyons" to make them other
wise. Mary Anderson lives above the reach
of scandal, and every play she appears in is
pure as the mountain air. Maggie Mitchelps