The times., 1899-05-07

ing's friends are numberleSs. the report
will be the best Of good news. There
was something more than ordinarily pa
thetic in the fall of one who had pos
sessed so much power-had done so much
to make histrionic history. There is some
thing equally glorious in his sudden rise.
The success of "Robespierre" in London,
with its consequent return of power to two
great old men is a notable event that
will be felt wherever there is art or ap
probation of art.
Under any and all circumstances that
species of newspaper editing known as
yellow journalism" is funny, but some
times examples of its workings pass the
bounds of mere humor and become SO alb
surd that commissions are often in wait
for the man who reads. In a prominent
New York publication last Sunday there
appeared a maudlin article regarding Della
Fox, and both its neglect of fact and its
style were so ridiculous as to challenge
laughter. In part the story ran:
Della Fox is dangerously i'll. perhaps dying.
She has left her company and the stage and gone
back to her humble home in st. Louis. Ii her
physicians right and. though there are three
OF them, they agree in this, she has but a few
months-it may be only few d1ys-to live
The Little Host company, OF which Miss Fox
is the head has practically disbanded eve
have some dates for one night stands in New
England. We will fill them if Miss Fox is able
TO RETURN says the manager. and he says il
as one who speaks of what will never be. The
company is nothing without The Little Host
and it is believed that The Little Host is
dying.
On Monday she left for st. Lois The doctors
had advised this as gently circumstances would
permit. They did say .honIe is the best place
to ~ie," but that is wha: they meant, and Della
Fox understood and went. II is nearly ten years
since Della Fox left a quiet little home the
North Side TO 20 upon the stage. Ten years OF
professional success; ten years as Queen of Bo-
hemia; ten years of the widest gayeties OF the
Rialto-and Della Fox is dyiny-dying of
the pace that kills. "She might get
well even now il she wanted to and
mincnt specialist OF this city. But you know
how little Della Fox cares. She cared much.
That is just the trouble. She was always so in
different II l told her there was million dol
lars waiting for her the street, l don't
believe she'd go after it. Della doesn't care to
live
4.
1t isa plain, poor. little home which Della Fox
left for the stage, and to which she has gone back
to die. Her friends saying in understones
that trembe ''lt were better she had never
left it. Poor Dela."
Tnls mournful, Laura -Libbey ef-
fusion must have cost the man who wrote
il a great effort. There is the splash of
tears and the rustic of crepe in its SEN
tences. All through it shows how fearfully
wrought UP its author was and how 1t
panied him to typewrite the lines that
sealed the doom of one so well known and
so well loved. There are no marks 10 plant
the horrible suspicion that the proprietor
OF the paper in which the story appeared
had three cuts of Della Fox and some va
cant space which he ordered the police re-
porter TO fill II nothing else happened up
to the hour before going to press. The ar
ticle is very soul-stirring, very heart-rend-
ing and very pretty-if true.
Unfortunately it is to be feared that some
bold bad press agent has been going
through that process vulgarly known as
playing it on the innocent, guileless
scribe of the daily to which reference is
made There must be some idea that the
youth in question has been grossly de-
ceived. and that upon false foundation
he has allowed his riotous Imagination to
construct all sorts OF fantasies. In the
first place Della Fox is not dying. She
has been indisposed, and, as the Mirror"
tersely puts 1t, has gone to st. Louis to
recuperate'' If she and Hugh Chilyers
make up their quarrel there is no reason
why she should not live to play pinochle
with her grandchildren in years to come.
Nothing foreseen should prevent her COM
DetlnS WIN the uitiilOIleS VI hdle SidAlol
and Madame Janauschek. So much for the
plot of this scrawlers story.
The bits of color interpolated are beau
tifrl. but unluckily they will bear no closer
inspection than the rest. The humble
home" in st. Louis is one OF the most Law
ishly fitted and expensive residences own
ed by actresses in this country. Miss Fox
built 1t herself at a startling cost. The
manager of THE Little Host" is an ex-
H.. IrfnN
emotion il his mother-in-law broke out
with the measles. And the quiet little
home" which the singer left was fiat
over a photograph gallery. in which Mr.
Fox pere operated. The remark about the
million dollars across the street may also
be allowed to be a trifie exaggerated. And
pathetic as is the idea of Miss Fox caring
SO little for life that she willingly en-
ploys three practitioners at once. the effect
is lessened by the knowledge that she
finally gave up all of them. Even the
charm in the picture of the stars friends
surrendering ''the gayeties of the Rialto"
to fill that busy street with "undertones
that tremble" loses weight when one real
ICES that not many of these bon vivantes
would express their sorrow in the excel
lent English used by this journalistic Ana
Mas.
Della Fox has ceased to be of interest as
n figure in the theatrical world, but the
average reader may find something melan-
choly in the evident simplicity of the New
York scribe. At any rate, the story will
serve to show precisely how much faith
may be placed in the dramatic news pub
lished in sundry of Gothams best-known
papers.
The announcement that Maude Adams
shortly is to be seen here In one-half the
title role of Romeo and Juliet" has
aroused quite discussion in local theatri-
cal circles as to her ability to play the
r,nrt Most Of Mashinptnn' critics Sc an