Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-07-20
MARY ANpERsoN,s HOME.
How She Lives Happy In England and Has
No Desire for stage Life.


An English correspondent thus de-
scribes a recent meeting with Mrs. de
Navarro MARY Anderson) at Tunbridge
Wells:
at was In the drawing-room OF one OF
the pretty country houses on the hill
slopes above Tunbridge Wells that l
met Mr.. and Mrs de Navarro day or
two ago. OF course | had beard dim
rBmors that Mary Anderson was com
pletely broken down In health, that she
was "a wreck Of her former self, list
less. pale and-a favorlte society phrase
gone Off altogether.
ut was, therefore, with considerable
surprise that looked up to the radiant
woman entering the room, her figure as
queenly as ever, her face as beautiful
and flushed with the healthy tinge that
follows an outdoor life In pure air and
pleasant surroundings, and her eyes
flashing with happiness and high spirits.
Her dress was elegant, but very simple:
she wears the close-ftting sage-green
costume with the uneQualed grace we
have learned to appreciate since we saw
Miss Mary Anderson as Galatea, but
which IS considered TO go only with
the cllnging draperieS Of ancient Greece.
"Mrs. do Navarro, though she has
left the stage, has not lost her interest
in her art, nor does she affect to look
down upon it from 'the heights by great
men reached and kept or to regard her
past career with sublime indifference.
She is tired of acting; the eternal
'make-believe,' the sham grief and
wrath and happiness grew intolerable to
her, as she went on delIghting others,
but never for q moment forgetting, even
amid the most enthusiastic applause,
how far short her representation Of a
character fell Of the ideal she had
formed Of it.
"'The applause, often raised at a
moment when it altogether destroyed
the effect OF a scene.' she says, in her
low, musical voice, never delighted or
helped me. But 1 tell you where l was
stirred. When the audience was per-
fectly silent, the hush, the silence was
more to me than the loudest applause.
Even more than the audience, her col
leagues on the stage were often source
of disappointment to her. You con-
ceive scene, after thinking long, seri-
ously about it. You think howl should
be acted. You go to the theatre full of
enthusiasm and try to impart something
it to those with whom you act. A
few hours afterward you 90 home tired
and with all your spirits quenched.
They cannot, or will not, see 1t; all
efforts have been in vain; you feel that
it is hopeless.
"To see Mary Anderson on the stage
was an artistic pleasure. To see her in
private life and to listen to her as she
talks is far greater one. She is SIM
nle and natural as any child; and even
while she is saying that we are all born
actors, and regrets that fact, we think
that if the study of acting brings about
such results as are eXemplitied In the
woman before you, whose every gest-
ure and every movement is perfect
grace, the better for art and the worse
for nature.
"The end of it all was that Miss An
derson, after terrible breakdown In
consequence Of overwork, from which
she has Just recovered to complete
health, fled from the stage, and will
give no ear to the host OF theatrical
managers as eager as ever to offer her
the most brilliant engagements. Mr..
de Navarro, If his wife expressed the
wish to return to the stage, would never
think of preventing her. He has far
too much of the artists soul not to SYM
pathize to the full with the longings to
express in acting, or painting or music
what stirs the heart and mind. But
no, she had the choice between a public
life Of triumph and success and very
simple retired home life. She has
chosen the latter, and is radiantly hap
by in IL.