The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-03-16
WHY THEY SEPARATED
Becky Sharp Asks Mckee Ran
kin About His Wife.
NOW In Mr.. MANSFIELD'S COMPANY.

They Disagreed Over Their Property
gether They Made S1Os, 900 Out OF
''The Danites.''
Everywhere I've been this week I've
heard Topeka people ask "What is the
matter with Mckee Rankin anyway, has
he become dissipated?"
And again there have been references
to his desertion of his wife.
Going back to my schoolgirl days
when grease paint and the footlights
cast for me long to be remembered halo
around Rankin, his wife Kitty Blanchard,
John Mccullough. Maggie Mitchell and
others, something of the old stage hero
worship came back, and determined to
go and see MIR. Rankin and ask him if he
really deserted his wife for another
woman.
l found him in small room on the
second floor of the National hotel. He
was just saying good bye to Prof. James
Black, who had been 10 see him in behalf
of Topeka girl who wanted advice
about stage career.
She had sent to ask Rankin about
teacher of dramatic art.
Rankin said: "a more colossal fraud
never cursed the people of this country
than the alleged teachers of dramatic
art; the way to go on the stage is to go
on" and as his piercing brown eyes
lighted up with enthusiasm, could see
no traces of the dissipation, l, with his
other friends, had feared for him.
1t was the old Rankin with the single
exception that he had grown slightly
gray and stout, little too stout for the
| Sandy MCGEE that had delighted my
youthful imagination, but just right for
Bill Sykes and Jean Cadeaux
'.Mr. Rankin, Pm going to ask you
some very impertinent questions, and of
course you won't feel compelled to ans
wer them"
"Ask away, young woman"
81 want to know if you deserted your
wife for another woman, and if you
share in the belief that it has been a Jo-
nah for your
"O,I see; you have been reading copy
of what that donkey at Kansas City said
about me. Well, Pll tell you all about
| that. The world, that is, our world, knows
that we were separated, but there was
never any talk of another woman till l
got new leading lady. Naturally. some
one had to say that she had taken my
wife's place in my affections
II do not pose as Joseph, nor even as
a correct man, but the unkind re-
Election cast upon the young
lady was unjust and unmerited
but would have been the same whoever
I chose
Mrs. Rankin and 1 had made a good
deal of money and you know that prop
erty and kind friends are potent factors
sometimes in dividing families.
"We had both. Our trouble rose over
property and we had lots of friends to
help it on. 1t ended this way: / decided
| I hod fo Iii
l started away from her house l had the
clothes on my back, and l did not GO
with another woman. My wife and
both regret our trouble now, and see
where we should have been governed
differently, but as usual, it is too late"
"Where is your wife, now?"
"She is member of Richard Mans
| fields company"
Mr.. Rankin here INDUCED in some per.
sonal "reminiscences, and speaking of hi;
age said:
81 was born on Feb 6, 1874, in the lit.
tie town of Sandwich, the county seat o.
Essex county, Canada; village that was
ready to be fenced in then and is smaller
now than it was then"
Were any of your family actors?"
"No; my father was a politician, fol
many years member of the Canadian
parliament. My mothers grandmother
was sister of Tecum5eh and COlOne
Mckee, of the war of 1912, was my
grandfather"
"Do you remember the first play yor
ever SAW"
90 yes, it was Otnello. Gustavu
Brook played it and hid behind the sid
of the box during the fighting scene.
"That was at Buffalo, and I made M