The times., 1898-01-09
Mrs. Jack Bloodgood a Dancer to
Support Her Husband.
HE IS A HOPELESS INVALID
She Was Once IReigning Belle in
New York society and He One OF
Poverty Came She Took Dancing
:. Lessons and Got an Engagement.

y
For her husband, once the habitue ol
half the clubs in New York, is il
deaths shadow. His wife's days are
| spent in one ceaseless chase from sick
bed to footlights. His, in tossing on q
| fevered pillow, holding her hand when
she is there and looking forward to hei
! return when she is at the theater, Foi
| hers is the task of earning the money
with which she hopes TO nurse her hus-
band back TO health and strength.
Their means are gone.
Everybody in society knows the
| Bloodgoods. Theirs is one of the old
est and proudest names in all New
| York. Time was when they were sup
| posed to have millions. John Blood
| good, ST., died last summer, leaving a
very muh involved estate. His son
Jack had to give up his pretty home at
No. 8 West Ninth street, where he had
lived with his pretty young wife, and
they took a modest little apartment at
No. So Clinton place.
The summer before Jack was in Paris
with Mrs. Bloodgood. One day in July
he caught a very heavy cold. 1t re-
suited in the grip, and his condition
went from bad TO worse.
You had better go back to America
right away" said the French physi
clan. You can get just as good care
there
He arrived just before Christmas. ac-
companied by his mother. Mrs. John
Bloodgood, ST.. who went to live at the
Hanover, Fifth avenue and Fifteenth
street The rigor of the winter was
too much for the young man. The
dreaded disease attacked him again
and he went to the Presbyterian Hos
pital. The physicians diagnosed his
case as acute Bright's disease. and
shook their heads when Mrs. Blood
good asked if there was hope of cure
For three weeks he tossed on his bed.
His wife could hardly see him. She
had determined to go on the stage. It
was only a small part that she could
get at that-something to say in the
first act and little dance in the sec
ond. And yet tstook all her time TO re-
hearse. She was to be Elodie, the
dancing girl, in The Conquerors" at
the Empire. Her husband begged her
not to act He could not realize she
must work to pay for his care and the
private room at the hospital. Finally
he could stand ii no longer.
I'm so lonesome here he sighed.
Come and take me home"
That was Tuesday afternoon. That
night Mrs Rloodgood was to make her
debut AT / p. IN. she left her husband
for the theater. At midnight she was
back again. She had been before the |
footlights for the first time in her life. |
playing for money. The sick mans |
eyes lighted up when he saw her.
Was it success?" was his first |
question.
The next day he was taken home DR. |
Delafield was called in. He found the
young man sinking rapidly. The NOV
ing had been great drain on the little
he had. There was a trained |
nurse on hand waiting for him, But
the wife must do all the little things
for the invalid-the smoothing OF the
pillow. the pouring of the medicine, the |
the little talks, the preparation
Of the mouthful of food the doctor al
owed.
That was by day. AT night she was
at the theater. The audience watched
the young woman, and in the rather
bold scene where some of the charac-
-ers dance everybody noticed that she
edged toward the background and ney-
.r lifted her skirts above her ankles
All day long Thursday her husband
lad sinking spells, Once they thought
lis heart had stopped beating alto
yether. 1t fluttered into life again
when the wife returned from the the
ter. For an hour she sat talking with
lin. His eyes brightened in q few
minutes the nurse noticed change for |
he better Yesterday he was much
Il feel stronger today" he said,
than 1 have for weeks. Perhaps it's
ecause I'm home again
But he doesn't know what is the
latter with himself. The doctor has
OF dared to tell him.
The doctor says he will never be
ell again. said the nurse. though he {
lay live for years. All we can do is {
, watch him when he has these sink
lg spells and get him out as best we |
,ay''
Il would not have entered the pro-
ession," says Mrs. Bloodgood, were
not almost a question of necessity. !
il the spare time / have / must give
, my sick husband. My part is Il u
nall one, and 1 am thankful that it is.
l fail the ensuing fall is not likely a
, harm me so much as if 1 had de- y
ended from loftier heights J
If merely physical qualifications @
Iean success on the stage, Mrs. Blood i,
ood has them a-plenty. She is tall,
ither slender. but remarkably grace /.
H. She has youth. beauty and intel =
gence. Her hair is blond and her eyes d
re blue. She has the bearing of
rinceSS and the heart Oh a woman. III
1t was not so long ago that this young J
oman was Clara Stevens daughter of fl
le old Stevens family. Her mother t,
as Anna Sutton, sister of Mrs. Ely q,
Mrs. Lloyd Aspinwall and :,
RS. Walter Crosby All We're in the "
refront of society in New York -
OF romantic temperament, at seven
en- Clara Stevens thought she had | III
und her ideal. He was William |
avemeyer. They eiOped, but the q
edded life was not as the young girl
I'd pictured. In a year She had Sc t,
red a divorce. Then John X Blood h.
,od, son of the Wall street man. met
I'd wooed her. The marriage was a
cial event. gl, III
The crash of last August sent John al
oodgood e Co. TO the wall The young
IN had never been in business. His Il
her had died comparatively poor, in af
.ad of q millionaire. The young fell re
Y. who had never done days work
his life, had to leave some of his |
lbs and seek a position. He found | .
e that gave him a modest income. =,
t it was not enough. His wife de- 0
ed to become an actress. She took
sons of Franklin Sargent with that ma
ent, and sought positions eyery
ere. At last her perseverance got
an engagement with the Frohmans.
'h' Morning. Evening .and Sunday i,