The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-16
SAD ENDING OF A
FAMOUS BEAUTY
Died Alone and Neglected in a
Bleak House
TOAST OF TWO CONTINENTS
sylvia Gerrish Was Called the "Girl
With the PoeticaI Legs"-she
Ruined the Son of Judge
Hilton.
TOAST OF TWO CONTINENTS
From the New York World.

From the New York World
woman's life-a life which had drunk
OF the lees all that this old earth's cup
holds of pleasure and bitterness-went out
last Saturday night in the bleak house
on Morris Heights, which, with a de-
cade's neglect and ruin upon it, is still
called 1.-THE Hilton mansion" 1t was
Sylvia Gerrish whose smiles enchanted
thousands She died alone, without a hand
near to ease her going lip to whis-
per a goodbye word.
1t was August. year ago, in the same
bare room where the woman's life ended,
that Henry Graham Hilton, who sacri-
feed everything that he had in the world
for Sylvia Gerrsh breathed his last.
Death found him a wreck as it found
her.
It seems but a few years since Sylvia
Gerrish flashed out of the west and set
the eilded youth of the town agape by
her beauty. But the years count seven
teen when the pages are turned back
The season of 1889 ushered Sylvia Gerrish
down to the footlights of the old Casino
as "Adolph da Valladaldi' in ''rhe Brig
ands" She spoke not a line; simply smiled
at the front row and the boxes, bent
her dimpled knees couple of times and
went up stage again. Yet in the morning
she was famous The critics described her
as 1.-THE girl with the poetical legs And
those legs of hers suddenly danced her
10 the heights of star with the man.
ayers of New York and London bidding
to win her to them
Henry Graham Hilton was in the front
row of the Casino the first night that
Sylvia Gerrish looked over its footlights.
lie was then at the beginning of COM
mercial career, whose course was laid
along a golden route. Son of Judge Hilton,
the executor of the A. T. Stewart estate,
with his fathers position and influence
and riches behind him. there was Moth
ing to stay him He had been married
eight years before to beautiful girl
Agnes Sanxay.
His Wedding Present.
Henry Hilton's wedding present was his
installation as the head of the wholesale
dry gods firm of Hilton. Hughes & Co
So young Hilton was the night of Sylvia
Garrishs debut. He was called one of
tie handsomest men in town. He stood
six feet two or three inches, and was
built like a gladiator. Few men were
Is match in strength
Soon after that no night went by but
the gay restaurants of the theatre dis
trict saw young Hilton and Sylvia Ger
IRISH together Their names and their
association became by words. Sometimes
Fred Hilton. younger brother of Henry,
and Della Fox, made a quartet at mid
night suppers
The summer after Hilton met Sylvia
Gerrish his father mOrtgaeed the Stewart
building to Hetty Green for I,25OOO0 to
fa,. 4l,a ne asrt
Henry Hilton passed out of the firm of
Hilton, Hughes & Co. Sylvia advised him
TO refuse settlement of $4,000, and there
followed tangle of law.
The scandal of it all helped to break
Judge TIlton's heart. 1t broke Mrs Hill
tons although she bore up under the
disgrace until 1901, when she died in.
Paris.
There came brea4. after four years
a break that 1t was thought would keep
Hilton and Sylvia Gerrsh apart forever
She went 10 London, and there she Sc
cured perhaps her greatest success in
(itouche" Her poetical limbs played
havoc with the English Johnnies, and she
sent word back to New York that she
would never return. But she did. Della
Fox crossed the ocean with a truce from
Hilton and the two returned together in
the summer of 1893.
The old life of the pair began anew
and Gerrish was more notable in her
beauty imam ever. f1eT Trip dpiodu
given her a new lease on her good looks.
Hardly had she settled down when she
was taken i'll at the Hotel Marlborough
and the progress of her illness was part
OF the days news. Nobody but Hilton
and her doctors saw her.
Efforts Failed.
Judge Hilton set his soul on breaking
the attachment of his son, but it was
of no use.
Sylvia Gerrish wore only a No. / boot,
and the year the Thistle came across the
Atlantic to lift the cup one of those
slips of leather was nailed to the cut
ter's mast for talisman. Watson drank
the full of it in champagne, and for the
slipper gave it's owner the insignia of the
Royal Yacht Squadron.
In March, 1907, Henry Hilton married
Sylvia Gerrish. few days after the death
of the first Mrs. Hilton. They went to
live in the mansion his father had built
on Morris Heights. When the judge died
in 1899 he had cut his son off with s25,000
but the executors compromised and Hilton
and the actress got enough to have kept
them in luxury 1t went to the winds.
Hilton died 'broke." His wife found a
note among his effects on which she real
ized it is understood, $4,000. This kept her
going until few months ago. Her credit
was gone long before. The fine old home
had been stripped of all its treasures.
In October last 1t was sold, with it's
gardens, under the hammer She and
her brother, George Rollins, could not
have lived there much longer.
George Rollins, the brother, who had
lived with Sylvia Gerrish for years, ran
out of the house Saturday night to get
a doctor. When he returned his sister
was dead. The physician he summoned
said heart disease had killed her and he
saw not trace of beauty in her face
or form.
1t was 4S years ago that Sylvia Gerrish
was born in the little mining camp of
Big Oak Flat, in Calaveras county, Cali
forria. Sylvia Gerrish was her mother
maiden name Her name was Lillian
Rollins