The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-09
A DANCERS MISFORTUNE.
Once the Idol of an Admitting Public, Now q
Starving ParalYtic.

Once the Idol of an Admiring Public, Now a
Starving Paralytic.
New York Tribune.
BY passing through narrow, dirty passage at
No 2l1 Green street one comes upon q row of
tenement houses, some four in number, occupied
principally by miserable French and Italian
families The houses are squaiid beyond meas
ure, and SCARE the unfortunate people who inhabit
thom. A lively interchange of courtesies is fire.
Quently kept up with the occupants of the rear
rooms in the Green street houses. Not the slight
est touch of harmony can be found In these in
teresting conversations, which are carried on in
bad English. mongrel French and vile Italian
with the barking of dogs and the screaming of
haf-Starved children to break the chorus Ere
quent assaults have been made on the founda-
ton of the staircases for firewood, the front
doors having long since disappeared ito bile the
kltte In tn morning" as an old lrishwoman
phrased it.
The melancholy of these surrounding is accent
uated by the fact that on the ground floor of one
of the dwellings once famous dancer lies para
lyzed and starving. She is Ermina Venteroli
whose performances less than il dozen years ago
filed New York playgoers with delight. A the
Union Square Theater, the Comedy Theater
and Niblos Garden she was accustomed to re-
ceive nightly the enthusiastic applause of
thousands. Costly souvenirs were showered up
on her from gay admirers, who We'd with each
other in their efforts to command attention.
In all the great cities of the Union her success
was no less marked. and more than once during
her tour did she refuse offers of marriage from
men who were known to be rich Her success
in the Californian Theater, at San Fran
cisco. was striking that the manager
advanced her pay to $3.50 for each
nights performance. At a performance in a
Philadelphia theater she was suddenly stricken
with paralysis while the stage Since that
time her story has been as melancholy as any
presented in the pages of fiction. In her present
filthy abode there lives also an old mother who
was the faithful companion of her daughter dur
ing the days of her triumph as she now is when
all that is worth living for is gone-health,
beauty and means. The old lady has two grand
children in the house, the orphans OF her son.
One of them. boy of fifteen, who works in a
grocery store, has been sick for weeks the
other, young girl, was engaged, when a Trib-
une reporter called yesterday. in scraping the
bones of some stale meat and peeiing some
small raw potatoes with her finger nails She is
handsome child with dark eyes, intelligent
face, but quite starved looking.
The dancer herself sat in broken chair, Look
ing into vacancy. Her mouth and arms are
paralyzed, and though mistress of half a dozen
languages, she is unable now to utter word;
her utteranee is only confused babble In the
days OF her prime she was handsome, with flow
ing raven locks, deep and lustrous black eyes,
and that classic face which grows to perfection
only beneath Italian skies. She is only thirty
four years old. yet all her upper teeth are gone,
through the effects OF medicine In the height
OF her success she was regarded as handsome,
and was popularity known as THE Black Rock"
She was born in Bologna apd educated in Paris
There, as IN the other principal cities OF Europe,
her successes were as marked as in this country.
The old mother said in broken French: II get
bits of bread and stale fish from friends bet
can't beg. for the police would arrest me.n Here
the old lady, who is seventy years old, began to
cry, and Ermina, seeing her, also burst into q
food OF tears.