Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-10-11
THE STRUGGLES OF AN ACTRESS.
safer Toll and Endeavor to Reach Port
and Sink in Harbor."

@Wbom do you consider b finest
French actress that you ever avn
AFT you ask me" replied Mile Rhea,
svhat French actress pleased me most in
6iyEdually, then / can at once reply, Al
NEE DeSclee. All, she was wonderful
And what a strange woman to those VINO
did not know her we'll Her art was Oh
the purest, most natural kind. IL was SO
ike nature that half the time she seemed
not to be acting. You know If you are a
pupil at the c~onservatoire, they do a pc
culiar thing when you have finished your
course. They write your name In a large
book, where hundreds OF names have been
written before, and they make a little
note Of it. When Desclee had finished
what do you think they wrotei Thls:
Not bad looking. Will do for small
parts 1t sounds trifling, does 1t not!
But, as l said before, to be considered
capable of doing minor roles at the Fran
Gals, Is no little thing"
sDid Desclee go to the Francats!"
%She went to half a dozen theatres, ana
she was everywhere abused by the critics,
and often laughed at by the public. IL
made her bitter. She grew to hate the
theatres and the public, but worked on.
Two famous men watched her carefully.
The men were Meilhac and Haleyy.
Soon they wrote Frou Frou, and insisted
ON Desclee for the leading part They
were laughed at, but they got Desclee.
The first night came. In the opening act
the artist, for she was an artist, walked
on TO the stage as il she were In her own
home. Everybody said, she IS not acting;
See how fine her art was. In the second
act the spectators were watching her
closely. When the climax to the third
act electrified them, they stood up from
their seats, waved their handkerchlets,
and shouted. Desclce had won at last. Inc
manager Of the theatre rushed TO her
dressing-room to congratulate her. You
have conquered them he said. She re-
piled bitterly, Is it SOP Well, / hope they
will like me long enough to enable me to
nav for my Frou Frou dresses, which cost
10000 francs
Zone triumph followed another. In
the Princesse Georges she was magnih-
cent. There was no straining for effect
Everything was nature. In the act where
the Princesse Georges discovers her us-
bands perfidy, every actress who had
previously pldgSu tHS PdAb uoSN SPN
the line to the husband, Il forgive you be-
cause l love you, in a most theatric man.
uer, almost shrieking the last half OF the
sentence. Desclee did it eXqulsitely. She
spoke the first three words as if the par
don came from her heart. Then she
waited for a moment as if seeking Tor q
reason, dropped her hands helplessly be-
fore her, ard said quietly, but in tones OF
intense pathos, because l love you 1t
was simplicity itself, and it was nature.
Her triumph was short lived. The dis
ease which afterwards killed her soon fas-
tened upon her. Many n night she acted
when suffering most frightful agony.
Shortly previous to her death she wrote
a letter to a friend, in which she said, Is
it not hard? A lifetime of struggle, toll
and %endeavor; Ireach the port at last and
| sink in harbor.' Believe me when l tell
you that France has no Desclee on her
| stage to -day."-New York Mail and En-
DrpSs