Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-01-31
HER TRIUMPH.

\ She was pretty girl, with look more
N refined than that Of any of the other wait
resses in the leading hotel Of the sleepy
II country town in which she was born. Hcr
n fellow servants were given to gIggiing ana
mo jes.s with commercial travellers ana
SQather male guests Of the house. Thepeopie
y Nth whom she worked did not know what
Ait was that lay behind her large gray eyes.
/ III was disdaia for her vulgar surroundings,
determination to rise above them, con
! tempt for the townspeople, who held their
H, heads above hers because they were better
born and wondered that she, with her as
pirations and powers Of mind, could have
sprung from parents as humble and igno-
y rant ;is hers.
sMy chance will come" she would say
! 10 herself afterany new indignity or slight
= had been bestowed on her by some mem
= her of the absurd s'aristocracy' OF the
harrow community. "But for mothers
. sake cannot leave now. +"
but when she was 20 her mother died.
ind the girl was free to act ON the sugges
/ ton that had been repeatedly made to her
BY managers Of theatrtcal companies play
ing for one night only In the i'll conducted
jttle theater--caIled "opera house '--of
the town.,
She accepted the offer Of one Of these
managers, and she shook the dust Of the
fhtown from her shapely feet, resolving to
rs come back there some day in triumph and.
compel the obeisance Of the vain and mar
row minded villagers who had disdained
& her because of her poverty.
la In less than 70 years she was known in
two hentispheres. Her talents had opened
her way into tile admiration of the peo-
pie, and because they were accompanied
by sense and virtue also into what are
known as the "best houses" She might
have accepted a title in marriage. No door
worth passing WIS closed to her.
Bat the triumph she would relish most
>, keenIy was that which she expected would
attend her first visit to her native town,
since she had left it unknown and by its
Inhabitants despised.
She arranged to appear there for one
+. night only in her best part An actress as
famous had never played in that town or
within 50 miles of it. Most Of the players in
her company wondered why she had caused
herself TO be booked there. She alone knew
that it was for the purpose of Haunting her
famciand her riches in the faces of those
who had looked down on her.
The town when she arrived in 1t had
much the same look it had worn at the
time of her departure almost 10 years be-
fore. There were many of the same faces
about the station and hotel. Some of them
did not seem to have grown day older.
They stared Mt her with such dull rustic
curiosity as they might have shown at the
advent of any Well dressed stranger. Eav-
ing engaged almost a whole floor of the
very hotel IN which she had served food to
i. the guests, she started out to walk around
the town. Almost the first people she met
were n mother and daughter who in the
old days had borne toward her the haugh-
tiest mien. Observing that they recognized
her as they approached, she melted and
prepared to meet them with smile. But
they turned their heads aside and passed
herwith shoulders elevated, their attitudes
saying Enthusiastically: sDon' suppose that
we forget what you once were or that we
shall grant you any more Difference than
we did then, whatever mistake the rest of
the world may have made about you We
know of your birth and parentage."
Ere she had recovered from the anger
into which this meeting had thrown her
she almost ran into another old aequaint-
ance, a worthy stupid grocer who had al
ways been friendly 10 her. He greeted her
pleasantly and stood in some awe of her
beauty and rich attire. ut must be six or
seven years sence you went away" he said.
Where have you been and what have you
been loin all that timer" Here was actu-
ally one of the citizens of her native town
who had not heard of her worldwide re-
nown and who did not know that she was
the actress who was to appear that night
at the local opera house. Before she had
returned to her hotel she found Others
equally ignorant of the noise her powers
and beauty had made in the world and
she found some who, knowing it, yet re-
fused to grant that homage which was
conceded to her in the greatest places of
the earth.
Her audience that night YVES no larger
than was usual MT the ugly little theater.
or the people composing the best society"
I, of the place only such were present as had
come into the community after her depar-
ture from it. In no way did her native
town, which on her account alone had been
mentioned in every leading journal print
ed in English. minister to her triumph, so
objectionable was hersuccess to those who
had known her in her childhood.
II might have known" she thought as
she settled herself in her car seat the next
/. morning, sthat this was n triumph not to
be hoped for. ought to have heeded that
1 observation about no man being prophet
in his own country"
4., She went back TO the metropolis. and she
revcngod herself on the town of her nativ-
Gritty by erasing it from her memory and re-
vising it out of her autobiography .-Ex-
change.