Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-08-05
4 DSNCEI'S MISFORTUNE.

| From Wealth and Fame to Poyerty-Once a
Public Idol Now a Starving ParaIy,ic.
| From the New York Tribune.
By passing through a narrow dirty passage
| at No. 2ll Greene street. one comes upon a
| row OF tenement houses some four in mum Der,
| occupied principally by miserable French
and Italian families The houses are sauaid
beyond measure and so are the unfortunate
people who inhabit them. A lively inter
change of courtesies is frequently kept up
with the occupants of the rear rooms in the
Green street houses. Not the slightest touch
of harmony can bs found in those interesting
conversations, which are carried on in bad
English, mongrel French and vile Italian,
with the barking Of dogs, and the screaming
OF half starved children to break the chorus
Frequent assaults have been made on the
foundation of the staircase for firewood the
front doors having since disappeared 'to bile
the kittle lin tn mornin'," as an old Irish
woman phrased it.
The melancholy of these surroundings is
accentuated by the fact that on the ground
floor of ono of the dwellings a once famous
dancer lies paralyzed, and starving. She is
Ermina Venteroli, whose performances less
than dozen years ago filled New York
playgoers with delight At the Union Square
theatre the Comedy theatre and Niblo's
garden she was accustomed to receive nightly
the enthusiastic applause of thousands Cost
ly souvenirs were showered upon her from
admirers who We'd with each other in their
efforts to command attention.
In all the great cities of the Union her sue
cess was no less marked and more than
once during her tours did she refuse offers
OF marriage from mon who were known TO
be rich. Her success in the California
theatre at San Francisco was so striking that
the manager advanced her pay to $3.50 for
each nights performance. At a performance
in Philadelphia theatre she was suddenly
stricken with paraly ysis while on the stage.
Since that time her story his been as melan-
choly as any presented in the pages of fiction.
In her present filthy abode there lives also |
an old mother who was the faithful compan-
ion Of her daughter during the days OF her |!
triumph as she now is when all that is worth |
living for Is gone-healtb, beauty means. |
The old lady has two grandchildren in the |
house, the orphans OF her son. One of them, |
a boy OF fifteen, who works in grocery store |
has been sick for weeks the other, a young
girl, was engaged when Tribune reporter /
called in scraping the bones of some stale |
meat and peeling some small raw potatoes
with her finger nails. She is IA handsome
child with dark eyes, an intelligent face but
quito starved looking.
The dancer herself sat i'm a broken chair
looking into vacancy. Her mouth and arms
are paralyzed, and though mistress of hair
dozen languages she is unable now to utter
word her utterance is only confused
Dabbe. In the days of her prime, she was
handsome, with flowing raven locks deep
ma lustrods black eyes and that classic face
Nhich grows 10 perfection only beneath
Italian skies. She is only thirty-iour years
I'D yet all her upper teeth are gone, through
he effects OF medicine. In the height OF her
uccess she was regarded as handsome, and