The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-16

turn skeptics and cynics, and those to whom 1t
is not made declare such experience incredible.
Emotional the adventurer must he. And what
miracles she works through her emotions! She
may never have been on the stage. but she is
more accomplished actress than most profession
al players. She owes less to nature than to art
and artifce. Her acting is her fortune, aud
spie ndid acting 1t is, though confined to SO Inn
tied an audience-an audience generally OF one.
What attitudes, what Joys, what sorrows, what
caresses what tears! They are scarcely simu-
lated. for while they last they are felt as the
actress feels Camille or Parthenia on the scene.
How frequently deceived and outraged men have
gone to her, blasting words on their lips and saw
agery in their hearts, to end with pity, forgive
ness and love, to find themselves. not strong and
stern they fancied, but overcome and weep
ing in her peridious arms. Such an angelic
devil, such devish angel as she can be, sur
passes credence Has there ever been man
whom woman could not dupe; could not make
blind before radiantly damning factss Think OF
Julius Caesar, the greatest and completest of his
kind, wholly subdued and wheedled by Cleopa-
ira, queen of adventuresses-even more than
Eeypts queen.
The adventurer is apt to be very intelligent
albeit her education may De limited. Her daily
life, her constant intercourse with the worldliest
phases of the world, her ceaseless struggle for
self preservation, render her singularly shrewd
and sharpen her instincts to n dangerous point
Her knowledge Of man is consummate, and she
uses her knowledge mercilessiy to her own self
ish ends. She thinks herself justified Perhaps
she is; for in the beginning she has generally
been wronged and she wreaks vengeance
many for the wickedness or one. She does not
always follow devious ways by any means. Now
and then she passes from sort of outlawry and
odious disrepute into a circle of the elect. This
she does by marriage-her favorite game-re
tablishng herself fully and slipping if by
magic, out of her uHwholesome antecedents.
Her magnetism wins victories for her against
odds She is ever moving; she goes from here
San Francisco to New Orleans. from New Or
leans to Cincinnati, from Cincinnati to Wash
Ington, from Washington to Philadelphia,
from Philadelphia to Boston, from Boston back,
to New York. How can she afford to travel SO
widely? The directors of the leading railways
may be enamored of her, and have granted her
free passes; or she may fascinate conductors
that they cannot demand her tickets. When
she gains desirable husband after her regular
and irregular connections, she gains him sud
denly. and in fresh field. having left hundreds
of miles behind her latest transgressions and
most unsavory scandals. Many worthy men here
and elsewhere have to-day Quondam adventures
for wives. and never dream Of the dreadful truth.
Happy is their ignorance Who would disturb
it2 Permanent prosperity has reformed the
wavward women, and they dwell with evenness
in the odor of sanctity.
When the adventurer fails altogether to make
some lucky hit, at which she is always aiming,
when she keeps slipping back she loses self-con
fidence, and often seeks oblivion in the grave.
She knows better how to die than to live. The
courage of desperation is readily summoned;
and when all the sky in her life grows dead she
cuts the cable and drifts out on the shoreless,
mysterious sea.