The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-01-29
MILE. MANoN.

MILE. MANoN.
developed a touching constancy to one type
of fbeeuty. It is an innocent, saintlike,
vestal type. Cleo had it. So has Manon.
With it's innocence, it's rounded outlines
and its absence of lines and shadows, it is
yet expressive of tenderness and intelli-
gence.
TO all her charms of person Manon adds
mystery. Nobody knows for certain who
she is or where she came from.
1t is rumored hat she is a Polish count
ess, that there was a terrible scandal in
her family and hat her husband sent her
adrift into the world. Rumor has even
had it that the countess wa not the inno-
cent party in the scandal.
On all this Manon sheds no light. She
is averse, or very ingeniously affects to be
averse, to all publicity, except such as she
gains from her theatrical appearances. She
does not parade her mother or her virtue or
make public her bills for underwear, all
of which things have been lone by other
feminine idols.
Paris worships her with a frenzy of de-
votion. Stated sensuality feasts it's eyes
upon an ideal Of innocence. Cleo owed her
vogue to the same causes. Manon far out
shines her.
You cannot turn without seeing her
photographs staring at you from every win
dow, and you hear songs sung to her and
see hats and garments named after her.
When the beautiful of Paris
drives in the Bots do Boulogne everybody
stares and chatters and smiles with the
satisfaction of having. seen her as she sits,
cold and sad eyed and beautiful, in her cost
I, f,,na Il, Io. c+1,p nj, m op1,i,,oo no Er 1.-
She looks neither to the right nor to the
left, and the crowd and the passing car
riages in the crowded Avenue DIES Acacias
have no interest for her. She is as impas-
sive as the sphinx and as beautiful as a
summer sky.
When she is on the stage at Olympia, she
sings a little in a soft, cultured voice,
songs with a heartbreak in them, and she
raises her arms and dances a little, just a
little. All Of this wouldn tamount to any
thing if any other woman did it, but Ma
non is Manon, and it wouldn't make any
difference what she did, or if she didn't do
anything at ALL She has enough of charm
and magnetism and mystery to satisfy the
childlike yet woefully wicked boulevard
Ter, and her success is all that she or her
managers can wish.
S14So o40 O-Ao - IhR9S 49, -" WV
white, with her slim young shoulders bare.
She carries a Cupid's bow and some roses
and she holds them up In her bare arms
and sings a little love song with a sad re-
Train. Her face is childlike and her eyes
are very sorrowful, and the mems faces
grow red and they lean forward so that they
may not lose a breath or a look.
Then she appears in a Spanish matadore
costume, all yellow satin and gold spangles
and with a little black velvet cap. The
costume frankly reveals her soft, rounded
girl fgsre, and she sings a little song of
! Spain, of the bulls and the toreadors and
the Spanish maiden who loved not wisely
but too we'll, and Manor smiles a little
and all the boulevardiers are grateful and
nestle in their seats and gaze the harder.
After this she comes out like some weird
creature of the sea, with only a fish net
skirt. Her fine hair is all tumbling over
her shoulders and tbeNwaist of the costume
is no waist at all, but a strip of cloth and
a strap.
You wonder how long it will stay on.
Manon swings III a swing and huns a
little air about the sea.
This is her masterpiece, and the boule-
vardiers murmur "Charmante, char
mantel'' and come again another night.
1t used to be Merode and Otero, but one
never hears of them now-only OF Manon.
Merode has grown deadly tiresome, for
there is no variety at all to her, and her
photographs are all alike n so numer-
Gus.
La Belle Otero is vulgar and coarse and
common, and tho French sicken of that
sort of thing. When she rode in the Bots,
she ogled all the men she passed and gazed