Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1893-11-16

profession, and yet, 1t is said, that no one
who saw her as Mrs. Beverly, Julia. Portfa.
Ophelia or Juliet, could ever forget the
fascination which held them spell-bound.
NOR was 1t only the thoughtless crowd
whom she charmed; among her admirers
were Barry Cornwall, Campbell and Chris
topher North In England, and as equally
ludiclous critics on this side of the water.
Sir Walter Scott said that she had great
energy mingled with and chastened by cor.
rect taste and that for his part he had seen
nothing 50 good since Mrs. Siddons. Even
Christopher North, ever chsry Of praise,
wrote: Her attitude, her whole person.
al demeanor Is beautiful"
1t was in 1888 that she made her debut
In the fremont theatre, Boston, and TO ali
who heard her the ecstasy of those nights
comes back at the sound of her name,
Every girl who could wore Fanny KEN.
ble cnrls and the Harvard students OF
that day are not ashamed, In their old
age to recall how they turned their steps
Bostonward each night and filed the pit,
and how In the day they hung about the
fremont house to see their fayorite start
on her morning ride.
In the same spirit. Thackeray said to her
years after 1--WE We're all of us in love
with you and had your portrait by Law
renee in our rooms"
Fanny kemble's career, as an actress.
came to an untimely end BY her marriage
with Mr. Pierce Butler of Philadelphia in
1884. After few years of married life
she returned to England and resumed her
profession. They had been hard years,
and she was greatly shattered, heartsick
and anxious for the children she had left
on the other side Of the ocean.
With youth and beauty and prestige
gone, 1t was hard to begin again, but she
toilcd on, until her father retiring from
the field, she felt at liberty to give read
ings which was much less distasteful to
her than acting. She approached her new
work with humble reverence for Shakes
peare, whose prtestess she was and therein
lay her success. These readings, especial
ly the ones given in America, were so
profitable that Mrs. kemble was placed in
comfortable circumstances and enabled To
pass her time alternately in England and
America, with an occasional summer in
Switzerland-.the land Of her mothers
birth.
Her marriage was all miserable mis-
take. which even she was forced TO admit
Every detail Of life in American cities was
dlstastetul to her, and al her husband,
southern estate matters were still worse
Southern people, customs and climate were
uncougenlal. and when she found that her
husbands = property consisted Of slaves her
grief and Indignation could only be ex.
pressed by long and vehement treatise
against negro slavery" which she dared
not give to the public. In spite of many
friends. her life was very lonely.
She had been brought up from childhood
among bright, artistic and literary people.
Among the frequenters at the kembe
home had been the brothers college friends,
Alfred Tennyson, Arthur Hallam and Will
lam IhacAeray, and after Fanny's brilliant
dtbW, she came into familiar intercourse
VITA the best society In England. These
lost companions she bitterly mourned, and
sought solace in employment She has
given laughable account Of her vain at
tempt 70 school the children who were
already schooled, 10 fete the laborers on
the fourth Of July with wine and beer
which they would not touch and TO visit
the poor who did not exist" and later, in
bitterness of soul, she wrote: You have
no idea of the intellectual dearth aud
drouth in which | am existing at present !;
no one that belong to takes any interest
in literary pursuits"
And in noticing Mrs. kemble's life one
should never forget that she had been
from childhood great reader and thinker
and had written considerable poetry and
prose One of her plays, written when
she was seventeen, Macready declared to
be full Of power, poetry and pathos", and
he also called her. Zone Of the most re-
markAble women Of the present day." Her
Residence on Georgian Plantation" as
pathetic as Uncle Toms Cabin" her
notes upon some Of Shakespeare's plays
aud upon the stage, especially those upon
the Dramatic and Theatrical" are all " orth
reading, bur best Of all are the Records
of Her Girlhood and Later Life" which,
aside from their personal interest, prove
To us the strength of her friendship, for
the material was gathered from letters
written to her girlhood friend, Miss St.
Leger, through forty years. She was most
fervent In religion, many friends saying
that had she been a man, she would have
been minister
In Boston, her best friend was DR..
Claiming and in Philadelphia, DR.. Fur
ness. while she delighted in the society
and ministrations Of Phillips Brooks, who
once said Il think she is the best woman
| have ever known"
Her devotion to her family was unsur-
passed All that she had was theirs. all
that she dId was for them. The whole
value and meaning Of life to me-" she says,
'!les In the single sense of conscience
duty"
And now, as the curtsin falls, the last
of the nine MUSES. comes dancing before
the Neutrality-suspicious. who, in the person
of Fanny Elsler, was born in Vienna in
ISL, and danced in all the cities of the
continent and America, proving by her
noble character and intellectual attain
ments that a ddRseuSe may still be
woman.