Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-04-15
ELSI E..

LLC1L.
| l was practicing medicine at the
time in Rotterdam, large, struo-
| Cling town six miles south of Sheffield
in Yorkshire, England, in the heart of
the South Yorkshire coal district.
1t is a rough class of people with
whom a general practitioner generally
has to deal in such a district, though
there are some very big swells in the
nelghbOrhoOd to be sure. Still, as is
! always the case in life, among the
! rough est and most uncouth one some
times finds a gentle flower.
Such sweet exception was little
Elsie Underhill, to whose bedside
! was called professionally on the even
ing of Feb. %, 1873. 1t is long while
ago and | doubt much if any of the
persons connected with the little story
| am about to tell (should any of them
still be surviving) will remember Dr.
Newman. At any rate not one of
those who knew me will be hurt and
the one person against whom | shall
have much TO say is SO mean and con-
temptible in my opinion that | care lit
tie for his.
1t was poor little home was called
to i'll Church street, where Elsie's par
ents lived, but very different from the
dirty, careieosly kept cottages and
small houses i'll the vicinity. But |
am not going to weary you with a de-
scription. was met by the dear, old,
kindly faced mother at the door, where,
before taking me upstairs to the tiny
room! where lay her suffering daugh-
ter, she told me something of her his
tory.
Elsie was only just turned 10, but
she had already made herself a repu-
tatiOn which was honorable and en-
nobling. Three years before, when
just turned 10, being a pretty and
well-developed girl, with more than
the average amount of intelligence,
she had obtained an engagement at .,
local theater, where she had appeared
in the character of Jeanne Deans in
Andrew Halliday's adaptation of Sir
Walter SCOTS novel The Heart of
Midlothian. She had attracted a
great deal of attention. The local
sp0nGcnt Of Il London theatrical
paper, The Hornet, then the property
of Stephen Fiske, had spoken highly
of her and more than one London
manager had visited Rotterdam to see
Ter act. There were stock companies
in those days.
Among the many young fellows who
had become infatuated by her beauty
was one Horace Wilmington, the son Of
physician in Sheffield, a very rich
man. This young mans attentions
were very marked. He obtained an
introduction to the young girls par
ents, and through them to Elsie And
then he began a serious courtship.
In every way his manner and appar-
ent object were decidedly honorable.
Only one thing he omitted-he did
not take her to his own home.
In order to be near the man who
had completely won her heart she re-
fused more than one lucrative offer to
20 to London, where she would have
at once been on the high road to fame,
Sheffield Theater Royal, which being
close to her own home she could also
reach very easily. Here her opportu-
mites were wider than in Rotterdam,
it is true, and here she succeeded in
increasing her already high reputa-
ton. She remained in Sheffield two
seasons, playing during the summer a
series of travelling engagements
throughout the northern counties.
Then came proposal from a great
London manager, which was so good
that she could not afford to neglect it.
Her aged mother went with her to the
city of smoke and fog and in Septem-
Der, 1873, she made her debut before
a London audience at the Princess
theater. Less than a month later her
health entirely gave way and she
found it necessary to throw up her
engagement and return with Ter
mother to the little home in Rother-
ham in which she had breathed her
earliest breath.
So much her mother told me- then
took me up to see her daughter
Did say just now that she was suf-
fering? That was hardly the case.
She was dying of rapid consumption.
She was too weak to suffer much phys
ically, but the broken heart was Civ
ing her exqu; lite torture.
Such a lovely girl have rarely seen.
Brown curling hair swept back from
the sweet face and long dark lashes
shaded the blue-gray eyes that were
all intelligence and had been wont to
I'LL her audiences with blind enthu-
siaSm.
The little room in which she lay was
filled with delicate feminine knick-
knacks, "reminiscences Of her favofite
roles, souvenirs of her professional
friends, all arranged about the room
with gentle, thoughtful love by her
stricken mother. But most interest
ing of all was a rather curious thing
hanging above her pillow on the bed
post by a narrow blue ribbon. 1t was
something that would attract the at
tention Of the least observant.
A large gold split ring, elegantly
chased and evidently of antique man
ufacture, to which was suspended a
common copper English penny piece.
The combination was so homogeneous,
SO Iudicrous, that / could not refrain
from taking it in my hand to examine.
@Oh, please don't touch that" ex-
claimed the dying girl, at is all
haye!"
Then there was story to it!
T L.