The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-12-29
STRANGER THAN FICTION
The STORY OF ANNIE HTNDIF,s
TWO MARRIAGES.

FIRST Wife, Then a Husband. and
Doth Unions Sanctioned by the
Vhurch-Once a Stage Favorite. Now
IN Retirement, With q History That
Tests Human Evidences.
From the NetO York Sun.
On the Jersey City heights the other dav
there was held funeral which in one re-
spees presented probably the strangest
spectacle ever witnessed in this or any
other country. The funeral brought to-
gesner as mourners not more than a dozen
men and women; but among them were
several who were once famous in an odd
way on the American stage. They gath
cred In the little parlor Of pretty cottage:
1ney sat for while around a handsome
cofhn; they talked in low and sad voices.
saying many good words of the woman who
lay dead among the palms, the roses and the
smilax, and they seemed genuinely sorry for
the chief mourner.
She was striking person in every way.
her face was mascuiinein all its lines: her
eyes were gray, but lit with a kindly ex-
preston; her mouth was firmly cut. and
though her lips quivered with emotion, one
could detect that this mourner was wo-
mau OF great mental force and capabilities.
She was probably between As and so years
OF age. Doubtless she had been in her
prime an excellent type of what is called
the dashingly handsome girl Once. indeed,
audiences in every city in this
country had gazed in wonderment
and admiration upon her, and
perhaps she is not yet entirely forgotten;
but here she was mourner by the side of
her dead-that dead a pretty woman, and
in life the lawful wife of the woman who
now shed tears over her coffin. The wife Of
woman! The expression sounds absurd
yet 1t is absolutely, literally correct. Annie
Ryan, the wife, was dead, and Annie
Hindle, the husband, was burying her. No
stage romance is this, no fable of grotesQue,
but simply proof anew that truth indeed is
stranger than fiction. Listen to the facts,
told as plainly as one can tell a story that
almost surpasses human credence:
When Annie Hindle was years old the
woman who had adopted her, and who gave
thls protegee her own name, put her on the
stage III the pottery district of HEREFORD
shire in England. The little girl sang well
even so early. There was q fearlessness in
her manner that tickled her rough audi
ences, and they made a favorite of her
from the very first. At the outset she sang
tender songs, with love as their theme, but,
as she grew up and Travelled to London, she
enlarged her "repertory." One day, half
in jest, she put on a mans costume and
sang a rollickiDg ditty about wine, women
and the races. A shrewd manager who
listened to her saw a new field open to her. In
a week Annie Hindle was a male imper-
senator, and all London was talking about
the wonderful and minute accuracy of her
mimicry. An American manager bar
gained with her, and about 1867 she came
to New York, to triumph here as COM
pletely as she had triumphed in London.
She was a blonde, about feet 8, with a
plump form, well-shaped hands, small feet,
and closely-cropped hair which, on and off
the stage, she parted on one side, brushing
it away from the temples just as men do.
Her voice was deeper than an alto, yet it
was sweet, and it sang true and with great
expression.
Annie Hindle was the first out-and-out
"male impsrsonator" New York's stage had
ever seen. Ella Wesner had not yet ceased
to dance obscurely 10 the ballet, with her
sister; Blanche Selwyn was unheard of /;
Maggie Weston was yet to come along in
the crowded ranks Of Hindle's imitators.
But in '67 all the glory was Hindle's, all the
novelty was hers, and she got all the money,
was the recipient of as many "mash" notes
as probably ever went TO stage favorite in
this country. Once she compared notes
with II. J. Montague, that cRrelesSly hand
some actor at whose shrine so many silly
women had worshiped; but Hindle's adj
mirers far outnumbered his, and they were
all women, strange as that may seem.
Travelling through America about this
time was Charley Vivian, the English
comique. He was a handsome fellow, q
ready wit, a free spender, great enter
tainer. and an admirable performer Of the
Lingard type. He was famous before he
came here, and on Broadway-for our
Vanity Fair then had variety house on
every third block-he never worked for
less that $3.50 a week His path crossed
Hiudle's one night. She was earning as
much money as he was; she was as famous
in one way as he was in another; their
homes were across the sea, and there was
otherwise much between them. Charley
Vivian speedy fell in love
with . Annie rh aindi on,r,. Nobody Nobody
devoted and they made the courtship brief
Hindle were married by minister In Phila-
delphia. They started at once for the
Pacific coast as happy, apparently, as
pair of young doves. Yet they did not
travel far together. At Denver a little
later Vivian and his wife separated, They
never met again. He told his friends that
their honeymoon had lasted one night.
Hindle has since said that be did not tell the
truth.
"He lived with me, she declared, rather
bitterly. several months-long enough to
black both eyes and otherwi mark me; yet
was good and true wife to him."
Vivian did not get divorce. He had no
cause. Hindle did not seek one, She was
free enough. So they Travelled apart, both
in their own way, busy enough, yet I'M
happy; and In March, 1880, Vivian died in
Leadville. He should have had thousands
of friends. for be it was who founded the
great Order of Elks. Yet he WIS practi-
cally penniless when he died, and they
buried him in an unmarked grave, which
waited seven years before the Elks put
monument over it to the memory Of their
orders founder.
Hindle's strangesu romance came later.
In all her travels she had carried dresser.
Ella Wesner was once high factotum to this
dsshing male impersonator, and half
dozen women since famously known on the
stage had at various times helped to make
upn Hindle and to dress her. In the sum
mer of 1888 Annie Hindles dresser and
faithful companion was pretty little
brunette of 25-a quiet, demure girl, who
made friends wherever she went. She ac-
oompanied Hindie to and from the theater,
and she was o very valuable help to the
singer. One night in June, 1886, Annie
Hindle and Annie Ryan left the Grand
RAPIDS theater, where Hindle was then
engaged. and drove to the Barnard
Lo1ae In room nineteen a minister