The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-08-20
SELLING JEWELS.
Lily Langtry Forced to Dispose
OF Her Diamonds.
What Has Become of $1O,OO0,-
900 She Made.
TO AMERICA AGAIN.
Will Try to Retrieve Fortunes in
New Play.
To Be Written or Her Early
Stage Experiences.
AMERICA


efforts and in her own right, but who
has not a thousand dollars left.
How she made the money is known
.-of all who care to inquire. How she
spent it is another question. In one
evening she won $4,000 from the
bank at Monte Carlo. How much she
lost during a hundred other evening!
is not recorded.
The splendid triumphs of her race
horses are a part of the turf history
of two continents. The cost of her
stables, her Jockeys. trainers, and
wagers is not so interesting. But il
might help to account for a part OF
the ~s1O,OOO,OOO that she made and
lost.
Ten million dollarsl 1t is a kingIy
fortune. and yet the woman who made
and lost il, has yielded nothing of her
courage, nothing of her hope. She
has not even changed her mode of
living Today she is the most eX-
travagant. the most liberal. the least
worried woman of her age and race.
She is bankrupt. but she is merry. She
IS getting old, but her spirit is unter-
Siied- What did she do with 100000
900? What of value did she buy with
ft2 How much was souandered? What
is left to her of value2 She has lost
it all Her fame reaches around the
world. So far as the world knows
she has her fame. But she is growing
old and poverty is no longer a remote
possibility
Lily Langtry. h British beauty, the
sum and flower of all they have sent
us. is broke.
That means that she is financially
decrepit. You know how old she
is. don't you? Most people do.
years have passed since her
birth Most people know that she
achieved fame by slipping a chunk of
ice under the collar of Prince Albert
49, - IL Il 49,.
into the region of his diaphragm, and
Lily. the Jersey wonder. the a%dventur-
Gus woman became a celebrity.
Albert Edward, who was Prince of
Wales, is kim now But his accession
hasn't helped the Langtry to a notice
able extent She was a pretty woman
a long time ago and the way h bit
holes in the furniture and in the seem
cry convinced nearly everybody that
she vas a great actress. Now she is
broke and means to return to America
TO get enough money out of the trip
to Justify her retirement.
The sale of the Langtry gems. said
to be the most aluable in all of Eu-
rope outside of the inherited baubles
Of royalty, has convinced the majority
of Langtry's followers that the strange
ly beautiful a~dventuress has reached
the END of her string" There was
never a critic and never a public that
agreed to agree that Mrs. Langtry was
a capable actress. In many ways she
go
Beautiful Certainly, but hat was all,
unless audacity, a cunning knowledge
of human nature, and a positive gem
JUS for choosing and picking" weak
lings can be counted in her favor.
Since the beginning of her public
career she has made more than SO, 000,-
poo. At best she is and has always
been a mediocre actress. But she has
made more money than Bernhardt,
Duse, Marlowe, or anybody, so far as
the figures can be verified.
In the matter of histrionic art the
Langtry was the coarsest exemplar
that Britain ever sent US. But she did
make more money than any of her pre-
5ecessors OF rlyds In the course of
ed. over SO, 600. 900. Now she is broke
Mrs. Lillian Langtry De Bath
Is to make one more desperate attempt
to loosen a decent slice of the currency
of the United States next season.; that
she is. in other words, to make a last
stand, tax a last chance, attempt a
last coup. and offer herself as the most
attractive bit on the theatrical bargain !
unite is proved in the announce
ments concerning her new play
According to her present plans h
is to appear in a decentralization of her
early experiences in this ountry The
piece is to be called Talked About"
and its central character is said to pic
ture the life of a certain eccentric mil
lionaire who dangled at the trail of her
gowns to the sensational delight of
press and public. This millionaire may
and may not be Fred Gerhard, but Mrs.
Langtry declares that no power on
earth. as she looks upon the PROPOSE
tion now. can prevent her playing the
play as written-nOt even the influence
of the man who is most talked about
in Talked About"
Neither will she listen to the advice
of her friends, who declare that the
production of the play will revive h
scandal of which the piece is a dram
Rtization. But the Langtry declares
that she has a1NEa We 6nnR nc Ehn /
pleased. and that she is altogether too
Did to change ner habits now.
Hence the Langtry's farewell tour is
TO be a dramatic exploitation of those
adventures which made her early tri-
umphs possible and easy. She figures
a s~candalous dramatization of her
pay is the only one that interests
her. since. to quote the v~ernacular. |
is all in" She was never an act
ress in the dignifed. scholarly sense. but
she brought to America the styles of
the Bon Marche. the money of Euro
pean mobiles. and the prestige of having
a chunk of ice under the neck
band of the British heir apparent.
What has the Jersey Lily done with
$4,000 900 that she has won from
world during her public career?
is a question cas- to answer, but
not so easy to understand. In the first
Universally known as the most gen
woman in the profession" No
man or woman in her company was
aver permitted to suffer the expert
of poverty. The critics may say
hat she is a bad actress Actors and
actresses will say that she is the most
generous, the most unselfish, the most
noble spendthrift that
stage ever knew. She was the despair
thrifty managers and the delight
II every man and woman rtuna
enough to serve in her I
Much of her S1O,OOO.0OO went to-
making her tours enjoyable, not
or herself alone, but for each and
member. no matter how humble,
4 her company Special trains, spe-