The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-20
JOAQUIN MELLER'S DAUGHTER.
The Beautiful Sentiments and Dastardly
Acts Of a Long-HaiIed Poet.

NAN16 ALL Va va r
peared an interesting article from the pen OF
Mr. JOAQUIN Miller on the subject of Women
OF the American Stage" This article was a
spirited defense Of young actresses against the
charges of loose morality commonly preferred
against them; it was eloquent, earnest.
and human. Here is one paragraph we liked
especially; sHow / wish to heaven that
every man could only bear in mind that this
girl or that girl who is trying to get forward In
her hard work has a mother at home eagerly
waiting for her. a father whose only hope is this
child. And, even il she has neither-no friend
at all. even-the case is more pitiful still And
so, for the love of God and the honor OF woman
hood, your mother and your sister. do not hold
her back. but help her forward. Hold her fail
ing raIr nanus up IN rnls new. nara, ana expert
mental life, for she is not strong. Her work
.aSas all her strength. She is often pitifully
weak, helpless. In such lease stand oy her
side like O brother. Be a man and she viii be
a woman
We like to find men writing in this vein, and
1t would rejoice US to feel that every man
thought just as Mr.. Miller writes. Yet how
much more eloquent would have been Mr.. Mill
ers appeal for struggling girls of the stage could
he but have known of certain experiences of a
certain young actress in this city last week.
Last Thursday a young woman-posslbiy
twenty-one years of age-presented herself in
the counting room of the Elder Publishing Com
pany and inquired for the editor of Literary Life.
Mr.. Elder, the publisher. answered in the alb
sence Of the editor. The young woman had a
manuscript to sell-she Awas in great need and
she had written a story which she hoped might
bring her some money. She gave her name; she
was the daughter of a famous poet. She had
been educated at q convent. and upon being
graduated therefrom was told that she must
earn her own living; she had taken to the stage
and nv fua ,vNa-. 800 A@@, ~~~-h- rs n
ballet in a Western theater; finally she secured
an engagement with a travelling company, and
she began to feel that perhaps she might some
time achieve a place in the profession she had
ness was bad, and in a few months
the company went to pieces, and
one singing winter day this young
woman found herself In Chicago without employ
ment. without money, without q friend. She
had started from New York at the beginning of
the season with three trunks; now she had none;
landlords and pawn-brokers had taken every
thing. She was thinly clad, cold, hungry, des-
perate. Think of a romans struggling about
the snowy. icy streets of Chicago last week with
her feet clad only in summer slippers.
Mr.. Elder gave this girl $40 and introduced
her to a kindly lady who became interested in
the suffering creatures cause at once. The SYM
pathies of other kind and generous people were
enlisted, and on Saturday night the young
actress started for New York, warmly clad.
with money in her pocket and gratitude in her
heart.
Why had she not applied to her father-the
famous poet-for help2 Because he was, as she
said. half apolegetically, "a very peculiar man,
you know"
She had, at one time when she was sick and
penniless among strangers. made known her con-
dition to him. He wrote her "a stern letter" as
she termed his answer. Then, in her misery
aud despair, she telegrapheG him that If he
would send her $40 she would come to him. The
poet-father declined to receive the telegram; it
was returned, and the daughter had to borrow
the money to pay the charges thereon.
Oh, how Mr.. Joaquin Miller would set this
father up as a target for the scorn of the world,
for it is Mr.. Miller who says to those who are
not fathers or brothers: Hold her failing, fair
hands up in this new. hard and experimental
life. for she is not strong, y = = In such a
case stand by her side-be a man and she will be
a woman"
Grand. noble words, Joaquin Miller; now
search your vocabulary for epithets that may
be welded into anathemas for him who, forget
turns deaf ear and a cold heart to q struggling,
sick, starving and desperate girl-his own
daughter, his own flesh and blood.
Not a word had she to say against that father;
of him she spoke. if not in love, at least apollo
~getically. In all the want and misery the
fathers unnatural harshness had entailed she
did not forget that she was his daughter.
Her name was Maud Miller, her mothers
name was Minnie Myrtle, her fathers name is
Joaquin Miller.
The Poet Was Not Unkind to His Child.
~ Vt -.-.-. vi