The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-06-09
Popular Jennie WOrrelpS
Love For Drink.
From $1,000 a Week to the
WOrkh0uSe on the Island.
First Appearance Of the Talented
Actress in This City.

In full, and the Harlem, N. Y, police
court presented busy appearance. The
attendants looked sleepy, for Magistratre
Crane keeps early court; but his honor
was in frstful temper, and bis frowns
| and glances kept clerks and officers NOV
ing from spot to spot as neryously and
restlessiy as drops OF spilled quicksilver
and with as much intelligence.
The indistinct murmur Of voices died
AWAY and the prisoners jnstled- -one an
other to regain their places in the line.
In the pushing ragged woman lost her
place and found herself for moment
| standing alone. apart from the others.
"Get back therel" cried the attendant.
| The woman grinned at him and allowed
herself to DO pushed into her place with
| the others.
The fumes OF drink had not yet left
her head, and after leering at her fellow
| prisoners for few moments she lurched
| out OF the line again. Then the police
man who had brought her there, rather
than be trobled with keeping her in
| order. took her by the arm and amid the
| grumbling of other policemen who by
| right were ahead Of him, lead her to the
| railing before the magistrate and num-
| bled:
"Drunk and disorderly, your Honor. :"
The woman had black eyes that shone
like glowing Goals in their pallid setting
-startHpgly bright eyes, yet strangely re-
| pulsive-and beyond that there was moth
ing remarkable In her appearance, save
her air of utter degradation. she came
| from the gutter, and the impress Of the
| gutter was upon her. Her hair was gray
| and thin, her skin wrinkled, she was old,
| very old, and her eyes were wonderful
how they burned and glowed
The magistrate looked at the paper, held
| Ii close To his eyes and frowned. The
name was blurred and he could not make
| II out.
"Your manner" he asked In a perfume
tory manner. The woman coug he'd, look
ed up at him, then cast down her eyes
and asid:
Jennie Worrell /"
The frown left the magistrates face,
and he sat up straight. He looked at the
woman for a moment, and then he looked
over her heud into vacancy and repeated
softly:
"Jennie WorrelI."
The woman clntched the railing,
swayed unsteadily for q moment, and
with leer, said:
''Hard to believe, isn'tvpr judge?"
The magistrate started, looked at her
again, slowly signed his name upon the
paper, end then hesitated between writ
"Ien days" They are kee3, those
habituees OF the police courts and the
woman knew what was in the magis-
trate's mind.
"I've got no home, Your Honor, she
said quickly. Thereupon he promptly
wrote "Ten days." and the woman, with
a gratiHed lser was led away.
Thirty years ago ell New York was
talking OF beautiful girl whom they
called the "Queen of Burlesque." She
was young and had diamonds and lovers
and fame, and her name was Jennie
hn had hx.fn NAk g..
women attain, and-but let me tell you
the story:
Many years ago there was a sprightly
clown who travelled from place to place
over the island Of England making the
people laugh, and winning money and
fame for himself. His name was William
worreil, and when, in the early forties,
he came TO this country, he found that
every circus proprietor knew him and
wanted him.
Billy Worrell married an actress, who
bore him three beautiful daughters
Sophie, Irene, and Jennie. Born Of
parents whose only life was between the
greenroom and the footlights, and
breathing in infancy the atmosphere of
the circus and the stage, il was only
natural that these girls should develop at
an early age, strong powers Of mimIcry.
fondness for music and dancing and a
weakness for display.
In 1858 the Worrells. father, mother
and the girls, who were then ten, niue,
and eight years old, respectively, went to
California, where, at 'sThe Wiilows,n a
pleasure resort near San Francisco, they
sang and danced, and became exceed
ingly popular.
In those days when the land was net
oyerrun with vaudeville performers, pop
ularity meant more to the people of the
stage than II does today. The Worrell
sisters, for instance, wefe made honorary
mem bers OF the fire department of the set
tlement In which they were performing,
rode In full uniform with the old machine
on gala occasions, were feteo, praised, in.
vlted every where ana smiled upon by all
the little world in which they moved.
About this time spectacular burlesque
made its way into this country from
England, and an old theatrical manager
named Tom Mcguire induced the Worrelis
to take IL up. Billv worrell thereupon
took lease of the Olympic Theater and
produced 1.-The Invisible Prince" IL had
immediate success and the Worrells be-
came rich. In 1865 the three sisters were
induced to come East, and on April 80
they appeared in New York I'm what was
then known.as Woods Theater, alterward
Harrigan & Hart's Theater Comique, to.
day gone and forgotten, with nothing
but deserted structure on Broadway
neur Astor place called sold London
Streets" to mark tho spot where il
st ood.
Of the three sisters, Jennie, who was
the youngest, was the prettiest, the live
liest, the most bewitching and the most
popular. She was still very young, bot
her ngure was developed to mature pro-
portions, while the roguish twinkle OF
her eve ana the deviltry and abandon OF
far beyond her yeals. This pretty erea.
ture, just past 17--there were no Gerrys
In those days, you must remem ber-had
ell the seductive manners Of a French
danseuse of twice her age, and the result
was that the town went wild over her.
In critical analysis Of her ability,
Colonel II. Allston Brown wrote in the
New York Clirper, then an authority on
theatrical meters, "Sbe excels IL light
comedy ana t,t esque, and is one of the
best clog dancers ever seen in this city.
she has considerable histronic ability,
and is clever farce actfess. Nature has
been prodigal In her gifts 10 this saucy
little girl, and the ifarudent little crea-
ture has been smeri enough to improve
these gifts. Her voice Il sweet ana ex-