, 1891-06-17
A CHECKERED CAREER.
Ups and Downs in the Life of
Mabel Townsend.
The Legal Heiress to Estates
Worth 100000.
Now a Bar Maid in a Port
Richmond Saloon.

New YORK, June l6.-There is an
English woman keeping house at a Ger
man beer garden and hummer hotel at
Port Richmond who TWO wears ago had
her threat cut by her English military Of
fcer husband, and who is legal heiress to
a castle and 500, 600 in Ireland and an
estate in Wiltshire, England, worth $780,
900. She makes beds, prepares dinners
and serves beer all day long, yet she is an
educated English gentlewoman and re-
lated to some of the best blood in Ireland
and England. Her name is Mabel Town
send. She came to this country a year
ago in search Of her relative, MIR. Jessup,
a stock broker. who bad often been very
kind to her and who lived for the most
part at the Fifth Avenue hotel. He was
a widower, and he had frequently asked
her to come and take charge of his house.
especially when he knew how badly she
was being treated by her husband.
In company with her cousin, Lady
Mary Teliord she embarked for this city.
Arrived in New York, her first thought
was to make tor the Fifth Avenue hotel,
where she hoped to find Mr.. .Jessup.
whom she expected would meet her with
open arms; but he was dead. Mrs.
Townsend, however, Is not a woman
without resources. She applied for aud
obtained a position as head chambermaid
in a downtown house. which she left only
a few weeks ago to take the position she
now holds. Mrs. Townsend's history is a
romantic one.
She of an old and highly
esteemed theatrical family, and is closely
related to the present proprietor of Glen
arm Castle, North of Ireland. of which.
in fact, she Is sole heir by entail Her
maiden name, by which for mani years
she has been known all over England, is
Mabel Bellew. For some time she was at
the Princess theater, London. 10 the COM
pany of Miss Grace Hawthorne. and pre-
vious TO that she had been playing the
principal roles in one OF Wilson Barrett's
provincial companies. Her mind is a
s~torehOuse of theatrical anecdotes. She
has played leading lady to such great
actors as Charles Dillon, Gustayus Brooke,
Barry Sullivan, Forrest, Knowles and
Others, She played Hamlet before she
was IA years OF age.
Some years ago her mother. sister OF
the present owner of the Glenarm castle,
died, and left her 10000. She retired
from the stage and married Can't. Hackett
Townsend, a younG military officer. Capt.
Townsend spent all her money and left
her with her baby girl, very often In a
condition bordering on destitution. Be
sides this. he was married to and MAIN
tanned upon the money three other wives
in different parts of London. This is
history. 1t all came out during the trial
two years ago, and was printed in full in
the English newspapers
At last poor Mrs. Townsend found it
necessary to resume her old profession, in
order to keep the wolf from the door. A
woman of commanding presence. very
handsome, ~clearcut features, piercing
black eyes and a pleasant manner, she was
not long IN getting an engagement,
and soon had resumed her old position
on the stage. Meanwhile her daughter
had become quite a little celebrity on the
variety stage, as Birdie Brightling, one of
the best female performers on the banjo
in Europe Finding that. despite his
rascality, his wife was able to hold her
owen, Capt Townsend set to work to take
out his revenge. He first cOnnIved at the
uIn Of his daughter by a common soldier
while she was playing an engagement at
Chatham, and then he proceeded to get
his wife out of the way. After many at
temDts to murder her he at length sue
ceeded so far hat she barely escaped with
her life. She bears u scar across her throat
which will remain so long as she lives. and
the beautiful voice with which she charmed
many hearts and filed many eyes with
tears is now but a broken. withered organ;
the pipes are aut, the chords are rent
asunder.
For two DAYS and nights her friends
had missed her, and when they found her
lying in a ditch, into which her dastardlY
husband had dragged and thrown her
alter his crime was committed, a miracle
alone had saved her life. At the time of
the attempted murder she was wearing a
big sealskin wrap, for she was at the time
playing with Grace H~awthorne's COM
pany at the Princess theater, and the
nights We're chilly. When she was found
with her throat gasnei from ear to ear 1t
was also found that the collar of her wrap
had sopped up the blood, and, as it be.
came coagulated, had acted as a bandage.
stopping the bleeding in a most eifectual
manner. She had become an old woman
She recovered sufficiently to appear
against and denounce the scoundrel who
had tried to kill her, and with her throat
barred before the British jurymen they had
no hesitation IN finding him guilty, nor
had the judge any in sentencing him to
fourteen years at hard labor. Then her
mind ave way and she bad to 90 to an
insane asylum
Mrs. Townsend Is a PLAYWRIGHT of no
mean skill. She was the first to drama
tie Miss Braddon's story, East Lynne,
and her version was always PLAYED by
Miss Heath, the wife of Wilson Barrett.
She has at the present time three PLAYA