The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-04-23
HER TRIUMPH.

tan Island are early required to master the
problem of how two parallel lines can meet
West Tenth and West Fourth streets.
John Hopes Ann Eliza was the brightest
girl in Greenwich
Mrs Hope died when the fifth baby was
born, and, besides the youngest, Ann Eliza
had the care of two other children younger
than she, not counting Charley, who was
an Office boy in the dock Office of the steam
ship line where his father was clerk, and
had been for 20 years.
One of the neighbors had a son who was
a clerk in a department store, and he used
to bring the popular songs to Ann Eliza
SO early in their vogue that they would
have them all learned, including parts of
the chorus-.John Hope sang tenor and
Charley bass, curiously enough-long be-
fore the other Greenwichers had the songs
half mastered.
Through the department store clerk-bis
name was Harold Beeckman, and his
Observation-Disclosures had owned a farm of
many acres where Greenwich is now solid
ly bricked up-through Harold, say, a
publisher of songs heard of Ann Eliza, and
after that she received songs by the score
as soon as ever they were printed, and then
Greenwich sang only such songs ss Ann
Eliza made popular.
Harold Beeckman told Ann Eliza one
night that he had quarreled savagely with
the song publisher because the latter had
suggested that he would be willing to pay
Ann Eliza commission on the sale of
songs if she would agree to popularize only
those published by his house.
Ann Eliza regarded Harold with such
sudden deep interest that her big gray eyes
were for once wide open, and the young
man discovered with rapture that the more
one saw of her eyes the 1ovelier they were
and his love became, if possible, more
intense than ever.
Yes" he continued, sfthe idea of that
rude man associating your name with
why, Of course, never go to such places,
but you know what 1 mean, Ann Eliza"
f'Harold, I do not know what you mean
or what you are talking about. For a
minute I thought it was something about
my singing in public on the stage per
haps.''
Harold thought she was joking of course,
and forgot all about the incident a little
later, when they we're all in the par1or
singing together.
Ann Eliza did not forget. She had sew
eral interviews with the publisher, and
then she went to theater and sang with
only the orchestra leader, who played her
accompaniment on piano, and the stage
manager for audience.
She wanted much to tell Harold, because
she would enjoy his horror over what she
was doing, but she knew he would tell,
and she did not quite like the idea of her
father knowing.
So, when the stage manager had told
her to practice half a dozen songs before
her mirror, so that she would know how
to look while singing, and to come back
in a month and he might give her chance
to "do turn, she kept it all secret
But how she practiced
Then one evening she told her father and
Harold that she had accepted engage
ment to sing in a vaudeville theater and
that her enga cement began the next night.
He could not understand, and even when
he found his voice he only repeated in a
shocked tone:
''Why, Ann ElizaI Ann Elizal''
But Harold made up for the others lack
of comment. He drew himself up stifdy-
he was ambitious to become a hoorwalker
and was practicing naughty and digni-
fed mien-and regarded Ann Eliza with
look of mingled scorn and horror before he
exclaimed: "Ann Eliza Hope you shock
and grieve me! Imagine the chagrin of a
Beeckman, who thought of you as his fu-
ture wife, when he hears that you even
contemplate making yourself a show
the public stage
Harold was proud of that speech and OBJ
served with much pride that it caused tears
to come to John Hopes eyes. 1t brought
evidence of quite different kind of emo
ton into Ann Eliza s gray eyes, and they
snapped as she replied: II guess you don't
Beeckman I'm not going to make a
show of myself I'm going to dress just
as do here in the evenings, and sing the
same songs, and''-there was a note of
triumph in her voice now I'm to have
S15 a week to start with and Ss5 if I make
hit Harold started little as he heard
the amount of the salary, but he said:
go your way, Ann Eliza, but return
the ring gave you before you disgrace
yourself for pelf.
He got the ring back so quickly and with
such look that he could not command
another speech at once.
Then John Hope spoke in a fearful.
wondering manner about his honest name
being dragged in the mire and the memory
of his sainted wife being polluted and a
happy home broken up. Harold urged on
John Hopes poor rage until there was
very unhappy scene, ending in Ann Eliza
leaving her home much in the manner of
heroines in melodramas.
If I should tell you the name under
which Ann Eliza made her vaudeville de-
but, I would not have to remind you of
the instantaneous hit she made-how all
New York focked to the theaters where
she sang the simple popular songs of the
street-nor to remind you of the fabulous
pay she received.
Now Harold is her husband and is sup
ported by her in luxurious idleness, and
her father is her manager, having given up
his work in the steamship office at the
same time Harold resigned from the de-
partment store.
Charley works away merrily in the
steamship office and only sees Ann Eliza
Sunday evenings, when they sing popular
songs together in her beautiful apartments.
Harold's baritone and John Hopes tenor
are never heard in these Sunday evening
concerts, for Harold and John are seldom
home evenings.-NeW York Journal.
BIondin Feared a Sprain.