The morning call., 1890-11-30
BRILLIANT
But ERRA4Ic.
Meteoric Career Of Adah Isaacs
. Menken.
4 Priceless Collection Of Photographs Of
The Celebrated Actress.
Dickens, SWInburne, Charles Reade, Ma
poIeon iii and Alexander Dumas All
Worshiped at Her Shrine.
Special TO THE MORNING CALL

New YORK, Nov GA New York mill
ienaire has just added to his rapidly growing
collection of photographs 200 portraits of
Adah Isaacs Menken, an actress who once
had at her feet the most noted men on. two
continents. It's doubtful if any one person
has ever faced camera more often than
did this remarkable woman. At least 250
different likenesses of her were in existence
dozen years ago. One of our chief photog-
raphers, when he kept his headquarters at
Birmingham, England, must have made
fully 1GO negatives Of the most eccentric and
daring genius the American stage has ever
produced. The collector who has made this
valuable purchase is Henry Gilsey, mem
Der of the rich Gilsey family, who own the
GIsey House, the Fifth-avenue Theater,
Hermann's and plenty Of other Broadway
lots.
Probably you could not tempt Henry
Gilsey to part with those pictures Tor. tReiT
weight in gold. Two of them. indeed. hs
considers priceless, yet they would bring
big sum from either ftwo men whom Eu-
rope holds in high esteem. Algernon
Charles Swinburne, the poet and The
younger Dumas are those men. Swinburne
has not yet ceased to regret the wild days
of his youth, when he posed with Menken
before French photographer. and Jew
days later found the tell-tale result on sale
in Paris shep-windOws. When the portrait
got to London he stopped its sale, but 1t
was months before he heard the last gibes
of his literary friends. The younger Dumas
would have an interest In Mr. Gilsey's
curios because the elder Dumas Is repre-
sented in one Of the photographs with the
actress curly head affectionately reposing
on the great n0velst'S shoulder.
Adah Isaacs Menken was, l am going to
boldly say, the first. the cleverest and the
greatest of all the American actresses who
found liaiS0ns ara sensational exploits the
keystone to fortune. She, was as brilliant
as she was handsome, as handsome as she
was daring, and yet she was woman OF lin-
common mentality and an actress OF amazing
power. She was the iirst female to play
"Mazeppa" and she was
THE BEST OF ALL MAzEPPAs,
Too. though hundreds have followed her.
She was a Louisiana girl and was born
about 1855 From her youth she was
beauty, with pearly teeth, large lustrous
eyes. rich red lips and dark wavy hair.
There was story that she was born jew
ess, but this she once denied. At 20 she was
a ballet-dancer, at % she was fnl-fedged
trAyedienne and at "a she was. a wife for the
he} a,.s tiIIe. This husbands name was
Alexander Isaacs Menken. She married him
in Nashville. When she left him soon after
ward she took with her forever enough of
his name to make it famous the world over.
She had not long to wait for new love.
Chance threw in her path that physical
giant and noted fighter, John T.. Heenan.
He was man to tempt any woman, and
Menken gave him her heart on the moment
1t is said that their marriage occurred at
Rock Cottage, r0ad-houSe in this city,
within six months of the date of her sepa-
a time-loDg enough to bring male child
into the world, at least-and then they
quarreled and Heenan deserted her.
She mourned him. but, woman like, she
had her revenge. Heenan was preparing
for his great fight with Sayers when Adah
came TO the Old Bowery billed rs " Mrs.
John G. Keenan," She never missed a
trick. The big pugilist was inexpressibly
enraged, but he Was as powerlesS as II one
of his own right-handers had knocked him
out. Tie actress went through the North
still advertised as Mrs. Heenan, during war
times, sometimes getting into hot water for
expressing her secession sentiments too
freely. Confederate flags decorated her
rooms wherever she Travelled, and at Balti-
marshaPs guard to quell her Southern ardor.
Heenan sailed for England then. During
his absence Menken married for the third
time. r. II. Newell, the "Orpheus c.
Kerr" of 0ld-time journalism, was her
spouse this time. He was as brilliant as
she was erratic, and, knowing her frailty,
he stipulated before their union
THAT SHE sHoULD QUIT THE STAGE.
She gave him her promise. and they were
wed in 1863 Yet in six months she was
PLAYING "MaZeppa" and The French Spy"
before the CaiforHians. She appeared
sixty nights, and ''Orpheus c. Kerr saw her
with rrrgret,. but with no power to prevent
her. Then followed her separation from the
journalist, and her attachment for James
Barklev. the gambler-a morose man. but a
deep thinker and passionate lover. He was
flush in those days. and SO was Menken. for
her California engagement had netled her
over $4,000. But her am mbiti0n was unSatis-
fed. Europe was her next objective point
Stories of her beauty, of her eccentricity, Of
her daring had already reached London. and
she followed the tales IN person. Barkley
sailed with her, while Kerr came back to
New York, disconsolate, as he may well.
have been, for Menken had not taken pains
to divorce him.
:. In London Menken and Barkley took up
their quarters at the Westminster Hotel.
There, in this bon-ton house OF the worlds
metropolis, the American actress gave
breakfasts, dinners and reunions that
would tax Belmonts purse or a Sayarin's
skill. There, while Barkiey paid the bills
and made no murmur, Adah lsaacs Menken
toasted Dickens, Swinburne, Charles Reade,
John Oxrnford, Fechter, George. Sand, the
Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Yelling
Watts Phillipps, Belle Boyd and host of
other but less brilliant lights. She held
them captive by her seductive personality
alone, remember, for she had not then ap-
peared before them on the stage. They
hniled her as brilliant woman, and she
1t,s ynA hair h liz lyfn hntv
much all this cost her. She refused to
dwell upon the details. The purpose, not
the price, moved her. Swinburne, the little
poet, bobbed his red head up and down be-
fore her, and was tue warmest of her adOr-
ers. Dickens praised her literary skill-not
her poems, which in after years were pro-
duced in Europe in half dozen languages.
This was the woman, who had sung in her
"INFELICIA":
/ look along the coiumned years,
And see lfe's riven fame;
just where 1t fell, amid the jeers
or sc1Ininl LIPS, whose mocking sneers
To break the sleep OF pain.
can but own my life is vain,
desert void Of peace;
missed the goal sought to gain,
missed the measures OF the strain
That luils fames fever In the brain
And bids earth's tumult cease.
Myselfi alas for theme so poor
A theme but ricn IN fear;
stand wreck on errors shore,
A specter not within the DOOR,
A houseess shadow evermore-
An exile lingering here.
THIS WAS THE WOMAN
Whose diuners Dickens helped to eat,
whose champagne SwinbHrne helped to
drink. She had her team with llveried
coachman and footman, aud a horses head
surmounting four aces for crest Chow
Barkley must have smiled at that grim sa-
tire, and when she drove out in her brOug-
Iiffla lii halIn