Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-17
Family One of Prominence.

evolved the Nan Patterson of the FIoro-
dora sextet" and the Nan Patterson, pris-
oner at the bar
Family One of Prominence.
John r. Patterson, the girls father, found
it necessary to take his family back to
Washington. His children must have that
education and culture which the family
name demanded. The Pattersons were
prominent Mans uncle was a United States
senator-the late J. w. Patterson of New
Hampshire, who served from 1867 to 1873.
Her father, John r. Patterson, has held
many public offices at Washington, and at
the time Nan left the farm to return to the
city for her education he was chief clerk
to the supervising architect of the United
States. The Pattersons were related to the
Randolphs of Virginia In this way the girl
gets the middle name of Randolph, and
not from her mothers side of the family,
as has often been believed
Bright and brimful of vitality, Nan Pat
terson had little trouble mastering her les
sons as a schoolgirl but the life she had
led in the country left little fondness for
books in her mind. and she gave nearly all
of her time to athletic and out door sports,
paying only sufficient attention to her stud
les to grasp the general benefits of each
lesson and make her records good before
the class. The confinement of school hours
and the tedious routine of the study period
were burdens to one whose whole existence
seemed to depend on the open air world
Nan Patterson could jump the rope more
times than any other girl of the neighbour
hood and she was the most robust child in
school,
Became "Stage Struck"
The growth of such children is always
more rapid than that of their playmateS,
who possess less Of the vigorous, athletic
spirit. and this, perhaps, explains the events
in the career of this girl which followed
close upon her schooldays She became
stage struck" She wanted to go out in
the world and make name, win the plaud
its of the world, triumph as an artist, and,
like Glory Quayle in The Christian" earn
a fortune to send home to her parents.
How many girls there are who at six
teen become stage struck, but who tremble
lest their parents learn it and who after a
time turn about to things domestic and
take up the humdrum life of home which
had become oppressive in their longing for
the stage! How many have broken away
and INDUCED in their longings to fail ut
terly before the footlghts! How few have
mad materialiZe the dreams that set Nan
Patterson's head in wild delirium at the
tender age of siXteen
To further upset her mind and miSdirect
her life came her first love affair at this
time and Nan Patterson was helpless In
deciding on any sensible purpose in life.
Grown before her time, ambitious beyond
the lot of most girls. always weary of cir
cumscribed environment and longing for
'the great big world beyond" she listened
to every word her first sweetheart poured
their two lives, and the two lovers, after
building castles In the air during brief
courtship, ran away and were married.
Married at Seventeen.
Nan Patterson thus found herself the
wife Of Leon ]. Martin while she was Just
seventeen years old. Martin was from
Syracuse and Is now employed by a rail-
road on the Pacific slope. Their married
life was unhappy almost from the very
first. The castles they had built like all
such follies of childish courtship, were
too fair to be firm. AS Mrs. Martin Nan
Patterson found herself temporarily es-
tranged from home, for her parents were
never reconciled othe marriage. Her old
longing for the stage came back to her,
and as her domestic unhappiness increased
the girl wife turned not toward her old
home for solace but INDUCED in the hope
of realizing her long cherished dream of
scoring a complete triumph on the stage.
Naturally her earliest attempts were of
such little significance that she has never
figured much in the dramatic reviews of
the daily press and even when she pro-
cured an engagement to sing in the sextet
of the second "Florodora" company she
was practically unknown to stage folk.
But Nan Patterson had at that time been
on the stage sufficiently long to have
caught the craving for a life Of luxury,
or bohemian reVelry during the small hours
of morning, of finery, carriage drives, cham
payne suppers and all those things which
are the essentials of the pace that kills"
Pet Of the Rialto.
Everybody knows what 1t counted for in
those days to be "Florodora Girl as
the term passed Not one Of the sextet
but was a pet Of the Rialto-a Cinderella
Of stagedom. When Nan Patterson went
to the Criterion to live it was to dwell in
the finest of suites. Bedecked in the smart
est frocks of fashion and attended twice
a day by professional hairdressers and
others whose arts employed to fill the
gap between nature and vanity, her dreams
of triumph on the stage were, to her mind,
beginning to realize. Was she not a "Floro-
dora" girl? What more?
1t was an abrupt leap from all this to the
sad and tragic climax in the girls life
The 'F'lorodora" company started on the
road. and Nan Patterson met Frank T.
Young. known throughout the world of
sports as Caesar Young. on the train as
she was going with the company to San
Francisco. A Irritation started during the
trip.
Caesar Young's pockets bulged with