The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-11-10
A KANSAS FAvoRITE.

AZ Actress Who Could Act Anything
 and Whose Hair Stood the Test.
 The Atchison Gibbs bestirs the mem ory of ancient Kansans with refer ence to Louie Lord, once famous Kan sas actress. Louie Lord and her hus- band and company were to the small towns of Kansas what Henry Irving and Ellen Terry are to the British the ater-the zenith and perfection of dra- matic art.
 The actors of thirty years ago in Kansas were brave beyond conception. They would storm the heights of Shakespeare play with the same intrep- idity with which they skirmished in the field of simple nelodrama. Desdamo- ma, Portia, Topsy, Lady of Lyons, were to Louie Lord such a small tax on her versatility that she passed from one to the other with no effort at all. And Mir. Lord. He was the leading man with | his talented wife. He reminded one of i Bottom, for he could roar like lion or roar like a sucking dove. There are | Kansans with gray on their foreheads who would go all the way, to New York ! If they could hear MT. Lord once more I in his Rip Van Wrinkle. The awakening scene where he cried, ! 70, my ka'nee, my ka'nee!" was worth more than q trip to New York--it was l worth trip to Europe, and his per- formances with the Dutch dialect, be- ing an Trishman himself. was some- thing wonderful.
 The Lord troupe was not of the skurrying one-night kind. They set tied down for week at time in a l country town and made friends with l the people. Every night was a social affair." and often the townspeopIe in- 1 vited them out to dinner. Not infre- quently the last night was the occasion
 of speeches and the star and her hus-
 band would be presented with some
 substantial token of the towns appre-
 citation. <
 Mrs. Lord was not a beautiful wo-
 man, but she had q glorious. head of
 hair. Disputes often ragged over the question of whether or not the rnagnifi- cent cultures which she displayed on
 the stage were composed Of natures
 handiwork or were bought at a store,
 One night in 1875 this question was set tied once for all in the town of Hays fCity. At midnight a fire broke out il, the Gibson house, the hotel in which the
 ords were staying. With some difficult I ty the guests were reached, and Mrs.
 Lord came down ladder clad as she
 had been for slunlber, with great mass. es of hair hanging below her waist. There was no question after that of the 1 genuineness of her waves and ringlets. 1 But the catastrophe which decided the
 hair question was also the source. of considerable idol breaking among the youth of the town, who had pictured the actress as living in an atmosphere
 of thrills and emotions far above the commodities of life. When her be-
 longings were tunbled from her cham
 Der almost the first thing which came to view was fat woolen sock which
 she had been knitting for her rheumat- 1 ic husband.
 l The Lords could boast of percentage l which made them steadily little mon- ey. By the time they left the stage they were uncomfortable circumstances
 or rich, for actors. For long time
 Mrs. Lord had a profitable cattle ranch
 down In southwest Kansas. She had business sense as we'll as dramatic tal- ent.
 l And If this brief review has conveyed
 the impression that she was not really