Smyrna times., 1901-11-06
COPPER
AND GOLD
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

six miles south of Sheffield, in York
shirt, England, in the heart of the
South Yorkshire coal district.
1t is a rough class of people with
whom a general practitioner generally
has to deal in such a district, though
there are some very big swells in the
neighborhood, to be sure. Still, as is al
ways the case in life among the rough
est and most uncouth, one sometimes
finds a gentle flower.
Such a sweet exception was little
Elsie Underhill, to whose bedside l
was called professionally on the even
ing of Nov. %, 1873. 1t is long while |
ago, and l doubt much if any of the |
persons connected with the little story |
1 am about to tell, should any of them |
still be surviving, will remember DR.. |
Newman. At any rate, not one of those
who knew me will be hurt, and the one
person against whom l shall have much
to say is so mean and contemplate, i'll
my opinion, that care little for his.
1t was a poor little home | was call
ed to in Church street, where Elsie's
parents lived, but very different from
the dirty, carelessly kept cottages and
small houses in the vicinity. But l am
not going to weary you with a descrip-.
ton. l was met by the dear, old kind
ly faced mother at the door, where, be-
fore taking me up stairs to the tiny
room where lay her suffering daugh-
ter, she told me something of her his
tory.
Elsie was only just turned nineteen,
but she had already made herself a
reputation which was honorable and
ennobling The years before, when
just turned sixteen, being a pretty and
we'll developed girl, with more than
the average amount of intelligence, she
had obtained an engagement at the To-
cal theater, where she had appeared in
the character of Jeanie Deans in An
drew Halliday's adaptation of Sir Wal
ter Scott's novel, "The Heart of Mid
lothian" She had attracted a great
deal of attention. The local CORE
spondent of a London theatrical paper,
The Hornet, then the property of Ste
phen Fiske, had spoken highly of her,
and more than one London manager
had visited Rotterdam to see her act.
There were stock companies in those
days.
Among the many young fellows who
had become infatuated by her beauty
was one Horace Wilmington, the son of
a physician in Sheffield, a very rich
man. This young mans attentions were
very marked. He obtained an intro
ductiOn to the young girls parents,
and through them to Elsie. And then
he began a serious courtship.
In every way his manner and appar-
ent object were decidedly honorable
Only one thing he Omitted-he did not
take her to his own home
In order to be near the man who had
completely won her heart she refused
more than one lucrative offer to go tt
London, where she would have at once
been on the highroad to fame, and ac
cepted an engagement at the Sheffield
Theater Royal, which, being close Il
her own home, she could also reacl
very easily. Here her Opportunitie
were wider than in Rotterdam, it Il
true, and here she succeeded in in
creasing her already high reputation
She remained in Sheffield two seasons
playing during the summer series o
travelling engagements throughout th
northern counties.
Then came a proposal from a grea
London manager which was so goo
that she could not afford to neglect i
Her aged mother went with her to til
city of smoke and fog, and in Septen
her. 1873, she made her debut before
London audience at the Princess the;
ter. Less than a month later her healt
entirely gave way, and she found
necessary to throw up her engagemeI
and return with her mother to the Ii
tie home in Rotterdam in which 81
had breathed her earliest breath.
So much her mother told me, the
took me up to see her daughter
Did say just now that she was su
fering? That was hardly the case. 81
was dying of rapid consumption. 81
was too weak to suffer much physica
ly, but the broken heart was giving h
exquisite torture.
Such a lovely girl have rarely see
Brown curling hair swept back fro
the sweet face and long dark lash
shaded the blue gray eyes that were {
intelligence and had been wont to
her audiences with blind enthusiasm
The little room in which she lay WI
filed with delicate feminine knic
knacks, "reminiscences of her favori
roles, souvenirs of her profession
friends, all arranged about the roc
with gentle, thoughtful love by b
stricken mother. But most interesti
OF all was rather curious thing har
ing above her pillow on the bedpost
narrow blue ribbon. 1t was son