The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1906-12-20
Sylvia Gerrish Dies On Nor
ris Heights
Her Smile Once Enchanted Thou
sands of People I'm Metropolis
During Reign.
STORIES ABOUT HER CAREER


bitterness-went out last Saturday
night in the bleak house on Morris
Heights, which with a decades
neglect and ruin upon 1t, is still
called "the Hilton mansion" 1t was
Sylvia Gerrish who died there-the
Sylvia Gerrish whose smiles enchant-
ed thousands. She died alone, with
out a hand near to ease her going or
lip to whisper a goodbye word
II was August, a year ago, In the
same bare room where the woman's
life ended. that Henry Graham Hill
ton. who sacrificed everything that
he had in the world for Sylvia Ger
IRISH, breathed his last Death found
him wreck as 1t found her.
Il seems but few years since
Sylvia Gerrish flashed out Of the
west and set the gilded youth of the
town agape by her beauty. But the
years count seventeen when the pages
are turned back, The season OF 1889
ushered Sylvia Gerrish down to the
footlights of the old Casino as Adolph
da Va.hadalid in 1.-THE Brigands." She
spoke not line: simply smiled at the
front row and boxes, bent her dim
pied knees a couple of times and went
up stage again. Yet In the morning
she was famous. The critics described
her as "the girl with the poetical
legs" And those legs of hers sud
denly danced her to the heights of a
star, with the managers 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. He was then at the be-
ginning Of a commercial career.
whose course was laid along golden
route. Son OF Judge Hilton, the ex-
ecutor of the A. T. Stewart estate,
with his fathers position and in
fiuence and riches behind him, there
was nothing to stay him. He had
been married eight years before TO a
beautiful girl. Agnes Sanxay.
Henry Hilton's wedding present
was his installation as the head of
the wholesale dry goods firm of Hill
ton, Hughes & Co.
So young Hilton was the night OF
Sylvia Gerrish's debut. He was called
one Of the handsomest men in town.
He stood six feet two or three inches,
and was built like a gladiator. Few
men were his match in strength.
Soon after that no night went by
but the gay restaurants of the theater
district saw young Hilton and Sylvia
Gerrish together, their names and
their association became by-words
Sometimes Fred Hilton, younger
brother of Henry. and Della Fox
made a quartet at midnight suppers.
The summer after Hilton met
Sylvia Gerrish his father mortgaged
the Stewart building to Hetty Green
for s1.250! 1000 to pay for the sons
extravaganza. and Henry Hilton
passed out of the firm of Hilton.
Hughes & Co. Sylvia advised him to
refuse settlement OF $25, 00D, and
there followed a tangle of law.
The scandal of Il all helped to
break Judge Hilton's heart. 1t broke
Mrs. Hilton's, although she bore up
under the disgrace until 1901, when
she died in Paris.
There came a break after four
years. break that II was thought
would keep Hilton and Sylvia Ger
irish apart forever. She went 40
London. and there she secured per-
haps her greatest success in "Ni-
touche." 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 al
truce from Hilton, and the two re-
turned together in the summer OF
1898.
The Old life OF the pair began anew
and Gerrish was more notable in her
beauty than ever. Her trip abroad
had given her new lease on her
good looks. Hardly had she settled
down when she was taken III at the
Hotel Marlborough, and the progress
of her illness was part of the days
news. Nobody but Hilton and her
doctors saw her.
Judge Hilton set his soul on break
ing the attachment OF his son, but II i
was of no use.
Sylvia Gerrish wore only a No. I !
boot and the year the Thistle came
across the Atlantic TO Gift the cup
one of those slips of leather wasl
nailed to the cutters mast for tails
man. Watson drank the full OF II |
In champagne, and for the slipper
gave its owner the insignia of the
Royal Yacht Squadron.
In March 1901 Henry Hilton mar
ried Sylvia Gerrish. a 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 of with s25. 900, but the
executors compromised. and Hilton