Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-29
HAS SURE WAY
TO PUBLICITY
HER PLAY UNN0TICED; At
TEMPTED SUICIDE
Regime Martial Takes Two lnetfec-
tual Shots at Herself Upon
Learning Her Production
Was to Be Withdrawn
Special Gable to The Herald.

Special Gable to The Herald
PARIS, 14pril 2S.-Regine Martial, the
playwright, has just drawn more atten-
tion to herself than any of her plays
ever did by attempting to commit sui
eide and fortunately failing. But she
says that she is going to begin over
again the first chance she gets, SO that
all fears of a tragedy are not yet
averted.
Mile. Martial after writing number
of curtain-lifters, wrote her first Dig
play, "Sacha," last year and brought
it out only ftw weeks ago at the Gym
nase in Paris. She had more at stake
than the ambition to make a success, for
there was in her past a shady spot
which she hoped to wipe out by an
artists triumph Five years ago she was
accused of having sent to a rival some
tiny fish hooks in antipyrine capsules,
III order to kill her The woman escaped
but Mile. Martial though protesting that
she was in no way connected with the
attempt, was tried and condemned TO
prison. On coming out again into the
world she felt that one thing alone could
efface this ignominy. and that only as
an artist could she raise her head again.
She then started work on "Sacha" in
the hope of not only assuring her
future but restoring her fair fame.
The Story Behind 1t All
The play was Russian psychological
study, for Mile. Martial claims to know
Russian life and character down to the
ground, having spent much of her life
in St Petersburg So far as the CRITICS
were concerned the recent Inauguration
of "Sacha" was success; but the pub
lie did not appreciate it particularly
and at the end of three weeks the man
ager of the Gymnase warned her that ne
- fa1y 4 nff 10 c n -
CINE Martial left the theater in the mid
die of the performance during which she
had heard this news, and, going home,
sent away her maid, went to her study,
and, taking out a revolver shot twice
at herself. The maid hearing the reports
and the sound of n fall, ran into the
room and found her mistress lying on
the floor bathed in blood. One shot had
missed it's mark and struck picture
on the wall: another had passed through
her left arm and entered the shoulder
Z i"I,eave mel Leave me!' the unhappy
woman cried, seizing the pistol again
st missed twice. but l shall succeed this
time!" The maid wrenched the weapon
from his mistress hand and then ran
for help. Regime Martial was nearly un-
conscious from loss of blood, but the
wound was bound up and next day the
ball was extracted. she is now pro-
nounced out of danger.
She Was a Bad Shot
Her friends are surrounding her con-
stantly in the fear that she will carry
out her threat of making another at
tempt on herself. In the meanwhile
"Sacha" has been taken off the boards
of the Gymnase.
Although Regime Martial's friends all
insist that disappointment about her
play was the only cause of her rash
act, there are reports afloat in the
theatrical world that this was the least
of her troubles. 1t is said that it was
her own history which she had repre-
sented in "Sacha," and that her hero,
whose name she had given to the play
was indeed the man she loved, who had
possessed all the qualities and all the
brutalities which she represented, and
had finally abandoned her after win
ming er affection so that she has never
been able to forget him. Some claim
that it was despair at seeing her own
life enacted before her in her play,
others pretend that the mysterious Or
iginal of "Sacha" was dead and Regime
Martial had just heard the news and
acted in fit of dispair. But her lips
are sealed on the subject and all eX-
ternal evidence supports only the YER
sion that she grieved at not being hailed
as one of the greatest playwrights OF
her time.