The San Francisco call., 1898-12-10
FROM FAME'S PINNACLE TO A
 GR|MY PRISON Sad Fall of Jennie
 Potter. NOTED AS A MONOLOGISr WAS A PRoTEGE OF MRS. PHEBE
 HEARST.
NOTED AS A MONOLOGIST
Becomes a Nervous Wreck Through the Use of Drugs and Is Ar rested as a Common
 Disturber.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

CHICAGO, Dec. 9.-Jennie O'Neill Potter, the well-known reader and monologist and erstwhile favorite of the Prince of Wales, first brought to the notice of the world of fashion through the instrumentality of Mrs Phebe Hearst of San Francisco and New York, was in the Harrison-street Police Court this morning after having spent two nights in cell, charged with dis orderly conduct. When her case was called none appeared to prosecute ard she was discharged.
 Miss Potter had not appeared in Chi cago, where she formerly had been greatly appreciated, since 1893, until last November, when she was billed for a vaudeville act at the Great Northern Theater. She appeared for a few min utes on a Sunday night, the first per formance of the week. The uncertain manner, hesitancy and utter inefficient cy of the act caused the audience to shiver with apprehension, and some one missed. Then the curtain was rung down and she was told her services for the remainder of the week would be dispensed with. In some dramatic mo- tices she was spoken of as a ludicrous blunder.
 It was found then that she was a Vic- tim of the drug habit, though she main- tained she was only broken down phy- sically and would be herself again if she could get a rest. She was not heard of again till Wednesday of last week, when she appeared at a benefit arranged by friends, but she was not the Jennie O'Neill Potter of former times and from an artistic point of view proved a rank failure. She seemed to lose heart completely and went from bad to worse till officers were called to take her from her rooms at the Hotel Morrison to a police station. She an nounced this morning she was engaged to wed Walter Beverly Crane, a rich New Yorker and a cousin of Stephen Crane
 When early in her career Miss Potter resolved to win fame and money she went East (she was born and reared in Wisconsin, landing in New York with a scanty wardrobe and $1 in money. By the merest accident Mrs. Hearst heard her read, and, learning her story, took her under her protection. num- Der of readings were arranged among Mrs. Hearsts friends, all of which were artistically, and, for Miss Potter, finan- cially successful. For many years Mrs. Hearst took an interest in the girl, and it was through her influence that a pro- feSSional trip to Europe was under taken. It first proved successful, and for a number of years the trip was taken every summer. The girl who to- day stood in grimy Chicago Police Court had been a guest at the country houses of Sir Emerson Bainbridge and Sir James Joyce, meeting the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Newcastle, the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and many distinguished persons of title and
 H<w 1,t.@ at the Government House in Toronto, and she was one season entertained at Vanderbilts South Carolina country home.
 During the Worlds Fair Miss Potter was made a great deal of. She lived at the Auditorium and seemed to have plenty of money. She addressed the Womans Congress and gave a number of recitals at leading places of amuse- ment to crowded houses