Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-10-14
COPPER
AND GOLD

~O~OVO~V~O~SV
was practicing medicine at the time
Rotterdam. Il large. struggling town
X miles south of Sheffield, in York.
Dirt. England. in the heart of the
Duth Yorkshire coal district.
1t is a rough class of people with
HON general practitioner generally
bs to deal in such a district, though
here are some very big swells in the
eiShborhood, to be sure. Still. as is al
lays the case in life among the rough
t and most uncouth, one sometimes
bids gentle flower.
Such a sweet exception was little
Isle Underhill. to whose bedside
Fl as called professionally on the even.
e of Nov. 30. 1873. 1t is Il long While
30. and l doubt much if any of the
rsOns connected with the little story
am about to tell, should any of them
Ill be surviving, will remember DR..
Aewman. At any rate. not one of those
no knew me will be hurt. and the one
rSon against whom I shall have much
say is so mean and contemplate, in
ii was n poor little home l was call
to in Church street, where Elsie's
|hrents lived, but very different from
Il dirty, carelessly kept cottages and
BALL houses in the vicinity. But l am
Nd going to weary you with descrip-
on. l was met by the dear. old kind
faced mother at the door, where, be-
re taking me up stairs to the tiny
pm where lay her suffering dauGh-
n she told me something of her his
ry.
#Elsie was only just turned nineteen,
"lt she had already made herself
#putation which was honorable and
anobling. The years before. when
st turned sixteen. being a pretty and
ell developed girl, with more than
e average amount of intelligence, shr
la obtained an engagement at the
theater, where she had appeared .
e character of Jeanne Deans in An
Few Halliday'S adaptation of Sir Wal
r SCOTS novel, The Heart of Mid
thian.'' She had attracted great
fal OF attention. The local CORE
ondent of n London theatrical paper
he Hornet. then the property of Ste
ben Fiske, had spoken highly of her,
hd more than one London manager
d visited Rotterdam to see her act.
here were stock companies in those
ys.
Among the many young fellows who
ID become infatuated by her beauty
rs one Horace Wellington, the son Of
physician in Sheffield. a very rich
an. This young mans attentions were
Try marked. He obtained an intro
lction TO the young girls parents.
ID through them to Elsie. And then
began n serious cOurtship.
N every way his manner and appar-
t object were decidedly honorable.
hly one thing he omittcd-he did not
Ike her to his own homo.
II order to be near the man who had
implicitly won her heart she refused
pre- than one lucrative offer to so to
bndon. where she would have at once
en- OH the highroad to fame. and &C
n pied an engagement at the Sheffield
" heater Royal, which, being close to
T own home, she could also reach
~ easily. Here her opportunitit.'
I'll pre- wider than in Rotterdam, it is
ne, and here she succeeded in in
" Easing her already high reputation.
C remained in Sheffield two seasons,
hying during the summer 4 series of
dwelling enga gements throughout the
rthern counties.
Then came n proposal from a great
bndon manager which was so good
hit she could not afford to neglect it,
pr aged mother went with her to the
V of smoke and fog, and in Septem-
IL, 1873, she made her debut before Il
ndon audience at the Princess thea
Less than a month later her health
|Itirely gave way, and she found it
" cessary to throw up her engagement
d return with her mother to the lit
home in Rotterdam in which she
ID breathed her earliest breath.
So much her mother told me, then
Blk me up to see her daughter.
Did / say just now that she was suf-
" ling? That was hardly the case. She
5 dying of rapid consumption. She
S too weak to suffer much physical
but the broken heart was giving her
quisite torture.
6uch lovely girl I have rarely seen.
own curling hair swept back from
sweet face and long dark lashes
bded the blue gray eyes that were all
diligence and had been wont to fill
audiences with blind enthusiasm.
The little room in which she lay was
ed with delicate feminine knick-
acks, "reminiscences of her favorite
es, souvenirs of her professional
ends, all arranged about the room
tn gentle, thoughtful love by her
icken mother. But most interesting
al was rather curious thing hang
above her pillow on the bedpost by
barrow blue ribbon. 1t was some