The Savannah morning news., 1903-03-01
NEW YORK TOPICS
SOME CURRENT GOSSIP FROM THE
METROPOLIS.

A Hint of the Interesting Life Story
of One of the Best known Ac-
tresses Now on the American
Stage - How Blanche walsh,
Though Never Accused of Crime,
Did All Her Early studying for
Stage Life While Living Behind
Prison Walls - Her Distaste for
East Side Surroundings and the
Local Politics in which Her
Fathers Existence Was Sub
mersed-HOw Timothy "Dry Dol
lar" Sullivan Reproved Her for
What He Thought Was Gum Chew
ing.
New York, Feb. 2S.-The dramatic
ambition of Blanche Walsh, the ac-
tress who is making hit just now in
rolstoy's Resurrection" was born
and long nurtured in prison, and it is
due to this circumstance, in part, per-
haps, that she is able to portray so
well the plays leading character, a
degraded Russian woman, who passed
a large part of her life behind the
bars.
Blanche Walsh never was a crimi-
nal, though, and, in the main, her pris-
on life was not unpleasant, for it was
as warden's daughter of the old Tombs
or city prison of New York that she
dwelt in a building devoted to wrong
doors during all her childhood years.
The story of her struggle to leave
the atmosphere in which her life had
its beginning and to work out for her
self an artistic career would be quite
as interesting as any of the success
stories told of the men who have built
trunk railway lines or formed vast
combinations.
To those who know this story it is
a marvellous one, truly.
Her father was a Tammany poll
tician, and by no means of the best
grade. He lived on the lower East
Side, and controlled so many votes
that the organizat ton gave him the
Tombs to keep. Through the intimate
knowledge of the lives of petty Of
tenders he was able to gain as war
den, he increased his political value
many fold, and kept his place till
Tammany went out of power in the
nineties.
His daughter would have become an
actress, probably, if her youth had
been passed elsewhere than amid East
Side and prison surroundings, but
there is no doubt that her persever-
ance as dramatic student was en-
HANGED by her desire to get away from
the sordid life she was forced to see
daily as a child.
Long before she was able to tread
the boards her one aim was to change
her surroundings, and long before that
time, too, this became known in the
neighborhood, much to her fathers
dismay, who foresaw through it a
possible falling off in his own political
prestige.
Timothy DRY Dollar Sullivan,
whose fame is now somewhat waning,
was the first person outside the war
den's family to discover the girls am
billions and purposes.
Sullivan was a guest in the warden's
private parlor one evening when
Blanche was in her teens. She was
memorizing a scene from a Shakes
pearian play when called to help en-
tertain the company" and, finding
Sullivan's talk on local politics too
dull to listen to, she repeated softly to
herself as she listened to it's murmur,
the stately phrases she had been con-
ming.
Accustomed to general attention
whenever he opened his mouth, Sulli-
van was annoyed by the girls indif-
ference. Misinterpreting the movement
of her lips he spoke sharply about the |
bad manners of girls who chewed gum.
This made the young woman indig-
nant.
1--WE never chewed gum in all my
life she declared with spirit.
"Aw," broke in her father. incau-
tiously, that's so, Mr., Sullivan; she's
Chewin' scenes, not gum
This mystified the Tammany leader,
and the story of "Fatty's" girls plans
and hopes had to be told. Sullivan
spread the news, of course, much to
the embarrassment of the Walsh fam
ular with the daughters of her fathers
constituents" owing to her lack of
sympathy with them, and from that
time her popularity declined steadily.
There was one person, however, who
believed in the young woman's hopes,
and who helped them all she could.
This was her mother.
Day after day, in fine weather, Mrs.
Walsh and her daughter would go to
the roof of the Tombs the elder with
her knitting or her sewing, and the
younger with her beloved Shakespeare
Whenever the girl wished it, the
mother would drop her work and take
the book to hear" the daughters rec