The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-15
SACRIFICED TO SUCCESS
AND sGAnGASxr IE.LINoro
 TO sLACuk MoNsTnR.

.As I look through that curtain of lhase which Iies for the actor only . little way on the othsr stds of the footiights. I seem to zee the audience as . great bleck monster. Trsmend- ous and powerful end dark. 1t seems Ia gigantic personal thing that Can dimiy see wrfths in undulating mos tions. II becomes . great dragon whose heated breath I can feel"
 The above words describe the way the strain and the stress of playing a great emotional part made . gay. harmless. befriiled and bcjewelled .u- Perhaps 1t was the way t appeared to poor Clara B1oodgood. Perhaps 1t would have become so to Margaret IT, fington, who broke down and had to leave her part . week ago in New York. The actor who painted the above word picture of the effect Of his work upon his brain was the first of this seasons collapses of the stags people of whom Margaret Ellington was the second and Clara Hloodgood brtngs up the tragic climax.
 Those near enough the stage to know that the applause and success of q great effort are the strongest of all
 stimulants and that they rive the mo- are not surprised when . new actress sustaining . violent emotionar part falls by the way. To those who know how 1t spurs on always to harder study, greater parts. better acting, and
 how correspondingly there must be | greater reaction of the nerves and more
 letting down to light afterward the
 only wonder is that there are not more. | No one can offer anything Uetter
 than suicidal mania" for the brealk- down of Clara Bloodg0od. Comiug in. Ito the world of the theater from the world of society. she found the dfM- culties that usually beset thu teGe
 Temperament the more difhcuN sd0he [ ing touches of realism" says one crffic
 and. "coming to the theater late in life. she fought with almost insane fearnestness for the art of expression and lost her head for the need of heir
 and critical and proper counsel. ss | Popular report gives this suicide n
 the depression of financial loss and l the comparative failure of her new l play--it fs known that after setting up and furnishing srtistically . beau- l tiful New York home. which she oc. tcupied for q little time with her hus,
 band, William Laimbeer. the trappingl and contentse were sold lately.
 If. Iike Richard Mansfield. it wal the audience that got on the nerves | VL titS AAch1iCa Ah6& iu1ttVh VI LIN beautiful actress. she did not see il Thursday night before she ki{led her.
 self at the Hotel Stafford The cur. tain never went up and the audieucs was told that the actress was i'll.
 l. If it was money losses, that, too was kept in the background. Thfi
 actress made as little fuss as possible | in committing suicide-that money I troubles were likewise things not tt be forced upon ones friends. fin hsl estimation. is best shown in a itt1s I magazine article about her stage careel I which she had written recently.
 "A prominent actor once told me-
 she says. "acting is the only profession in which one can earn ones livfnf while serving ones apprenticeship. had to earn my own living, . fact which few appreciated-and naturai1,
 one does not discuss those things--ant l knew that people got SIS or s20 { lweek for dressing up and walkins
 about creditably. I had done that fol
 several years for nothing, and tn,
 idea of being paid for 1t rather appeal ed to me. That literally was all m, 1 calling for the stage"
 This was all there was to the stor'
 of the society woman taking up tn
 burden of supporting herself when pow
 erty stared her in the face in the oI,
 days. and again her 'and naturally on
 doesn't discuss those things" may elim