The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-08-12
ADELAIDE NELSON'S HOME
A Summer Trip to the Yorkshire Birth
place of the Beautiful Actress.
Humble Birth and Early Life of the Future
Queen of the Stage-As Errand- Girl and Fac
tory Handler Discovery Of Her Birth.

epeCiai correspondence Oh the indianapolis Journal.
LONDON, Aug. 1.-THE American tourist
in the Yorkshire region of England 10 apt
to seek first the village of Haworth
which the fame Of Charlotte Bronte has
made interesting, aud then 60 to Guiseley,
the home of the great actress. Adelaide Nelson.
IL Ia Q trip of seven miles from Bradford to
Guiseley, and the ride through the country Is
exceedingly pleasant. Guiseley, like Haworth,
has grown considerably Of late years, and now
IL is more Of q manufacturing town than q vii
lage. In the girlhood Of the actress it had but
one school-house and TWO churches, but now the
public schools. as we'll as the railroad station,
attest the fact that the place is of Importance as
a manufacturing center. and possesses all the
accessories of a growing town.
No region in England is richer in historic as
ISOLATION than this same Yorkshire country. but
one has to have a knowledge Of its past or be
rich in the personal acquaintance of its accom-
plished historian, MIR. j. Horsford Turner, to
appreciate the fact fully. Mr.. Turner is, by the
way, an old friend of o Yorkshireman whom
we all love, Rev. DR.. Robert Collyer, and he is
consequently genial and hospitable toward all
who are from his friends adopted country. To
know Mr.. Turner and his books is to be fitted to
appreciate Yorkshire, and all things animate
and inanimate in it.
Fortunately for me I had the additional ad-
vantage Of q long-standing acquaintance with
one of Mr.. Turner's gifted townsmen. Mr.. VIM.
Scruton, to whose friendly service 1 am indebted
for much that ] learned of Adelaide Nelson and
her family.
This unprepossessine town OF Guiseley was
her home from her fourth 70 her seventeenth
year, and the few people here who remember
her at all have much to say Of her gentle, win
some ways and her remarkable beauty of per-
son. Her mother and her stepfather moved to
the place from an adjoining town soon after their
marriage. taking with them this little girl, who
thereafter was called Lizzie Bland. Her moth
er's maiden name was Browne and her child had
been styled Lizzie Browne aft ST her.
Dir. Bland was q paper hanger by trade and
was o good workman, so that soon after they
were established in a small habitation in q sec
ton OF the village called Green Bottom, he OBJ
tanned steady employment. In old Yorkshire
woman who knew the household at this time.
said that Mrs. Bland had Q sad. soured nature, buV
that Lizzie was . bonnie lass" with her long
curls, and her eyes that Cooked the love right
out of you and took it to herself" This was the
happiest time of the child's life. before there
were other children 70 divide her mothers atten-
ton, and while she was yet young enough to
feel no care of life. She did not then know that
she was branded with the shame of illeeitimscy.
or that the commonplace man whom she thought
her father was not related to her. Recalling the
lovely being we knew as Adelaide Nelson, and
her appearance In such roles as Juliet
Viola" Cymbeline;' and Pauline it was
hard imagine her the child Of such q home
and such surroundings as were depicted before
us Disenchantment il the portion of all who
go to Guiseley with any hope of finding q bright
background to the early life of this woman,
whose exquisite personality commanded the ad-
mirasion Of all hearts. 1 could not learn of a
romantic incident connected with the young
girls career; / could but recall the pathetic,
wistful look often seen in her great, luminous
| eyes, and understand it in the face of all these
revelations. There was q tightening Of the
| heart-strines as l listened to the kind soul who
chatted with me in subdued sadness OF the little
girl she had known so well, who had gone away
and ;Ss ssSss.a, ssss ., sr1 %s,,,on lady n,.a Al,
I understood thoroughly well before
I had left her old acquaintance,
and could bnt wish that those who have harsh
~ condemned the great actress could have
\ daughter. who was az well q household drudge
and factory girl at one and the SANE time.
"Unquestionably Adelaide Nelson was the
most remarkable product OF this place" ] said
to my friend as we walked away. Yes he
answered. and then. with a deprecating shrug
of the shoulders. he added: land she was not
native to the soil, nor had she more thar half
English blood in her veins" He went on to say
that Mrs Bland had once told him that her
daughter was born at Leeds, and that her
father was q man Of high birth. His name or
any other particular relating to him she would
never tell. and now it was too late 60 hope to
learn anything further Of the parentaee Of heT
gifted child.
Putting all I had gathered of the facts Of Mrs.
| BANDS life together, I concluded that in her
early eirlhood she had been very much In love
with some star actor, who played an engagement
or engagements at Leeds where she was a mem
Der Of q stock company for several years). and
that the little Lizzie was his child. That this
man was fond Of her and of the child 10 attested
| by the letters he wrote her. and which were one
day found and read by the elsven-year-old girl,
WHO came upon them 40 she WAS searching 10 Q
| forbidden bureau-drawer for something to read.
Mrs Bland preserved with Jealous care her
old stage studies and the letters Of her lover
after she had married Mr.. Bland and become the
mother of several children. and she had . diff
cult and awkward role to play when the little
| girl confronted her with the knowledge of her
self which she had gained, and demanded to
know all that was to be told. 1t has been thought
| by many that the girl at that time made her
mother promise never to reveal the name Of her
father. or TO bstray the fact OF her nleg,timacy.
Mrs. Bland kept her promise until her daughter
died, and then she told part Of the truth. She
was anxious to have 1t known that Adelaide in
herited her artistic talentfrom her, and time and
poverty had worked such o halo over her early
career that she now believed she had been .
real actress herself in the days whom she was in
the stock company Of the Leeds thester. She
was always a weak. vain and sentimental wom-
an. but IL is due her to say that she deeply and
devotedly loved her child; in fact, with the per
yersity Of our common human nature, she felt q
far deeper affection for this offspring OF passion
than she did for the legitimate issues of her
very commonplace marriage. The child felt all
this, while she keenly realized her mothers dis
honor. and she never forgot 1t while she lived.
As L look up aud down the village street,
whore she walked day by day. serving her
mother az errand girl. or nurse for the younger
children, / thought of the wonderful courage
and ambition that impelled the poor girl TO
study and strive, believing that her destiny was
TO be different from that of her associates. 1t
is q singular fact, but there is but one place in
| Guisel@y associated with her in the least The
house she lived in in Green Bottom has been torn
away, as also the factory she worked In, long
ago. The parish schoolhouse. where she
studied for q little time and outstripped all her
companions, has been removed, and also the old
church in which she attended Sunday-school.
Strange to add. the house which the famous
actress bought and gave to her mother as soon
as she had earned money-and which she had
once visited-it, too. has been taken away.
The home of Mr.. Padgett. where she was en-
ployei as q nurse, Is the only place there that
can, by any stretch of the imagination, be linked
with her name, aud, unfortunately, 1t was
closed and the family were away. L wanted to
see Mrs. Padgett, who knew the unhappy girl
we'll and had used her influence to keep her
from leaving her family. But the motives