The Hawaiian gazette., 1907-10-04
SHE LOVED MANSFIELD
AND BECAME A NUN

WASHINGTON Sept II. = That
Richard Mansfeld's early life held a
romance that exceeded in pathos any
that he ever portrayed on the stage,
and that its gentle heroine sleeps under
the sod OF the burying ground of a
Washington convent 10 which she re-
tired on forsaking the world years ago,
is a fact little known to the students
of the great actors public career. The
man who was regarded by his audi
ences as a seit-cenJered and wholly
egotistical artist. had from his youth
cherished an affection as unselfish, and
as hopeless as that of Dante for Bea-
trice.
Few of the young pupils of the con-
vent school to whom the popular actor
was an idol, realized that the lovely
nun who taught them daily had a part
in their hero's life-story.
More than twenty years ago, when
young Richard Mans6eld's star had just
risen on the dramatic horizon, the
lovely daughter OF Maryland country
gentleman made her first visit to an
aunt in New York. Fresh from the
quiet of her girlhoOd home, the young
girl entered with childish joy into all
the pleasures offered by the big city
The first visit which she had ever
paid TO a theater was to see the play
in which Mansfield was then making
his first great success.
After the performance one of the
members OF the theater party present.
ed the actor to the young Maryland
girl. From that night Mansfield's fat
was bound up in that of the gentle
girl of whom he spoke henceforth as
the White Rose"
The picture which the pretty country
girl, whose simple white frock con-
trasted as strongly with the elaborate
apparel OF the other women as the
white rose which she had placed in her
hair did with the jeweled tiaras, ap.
pealed TO Mansfeld's artistic sense,
and he singled her out for marked
attention. He found her as lovely in
as she was in person, and
fell as deeply in love as only a man of
his ardent temperament and determine
alton can.
But fate had fixed a barrier between
the actor and the object of his devo-
ton. The family of the young woman,
devout Catholics and proud of their
ancestry, held the stage
and all that pertained to it in abhor-
renee. The father in particular, a
gentleman of a fast disappear
ing type, looked upon his daughters
sutton as being socially on the same
"A, .oln or "
forbade her to receive his attentions.
Forced TO choose between his love
and his art, Mansfield with a grief
which left an ineffaceable impression
on his life and his art, bade farewell
TO his dream of happiness, and con-
tinued with renewed ardor the career
TO which fate had predestined him.
That his affection was returned,
there can be no doubt, for the girl
whom he had loved so ardently, to the
surprise of all her friends, soon after
entered upon a novitiate in a religious
order and on finishing her probation
took the final vows which separated
her forever from the man to whom she
had given her heart
Years ago she became a teacher in
the convent school of the order in this
city. The charm which had made he
a belle in girlhood and her unusual in
tellectual gifts made her one of the
most successful and popular teachers
of the institution, which enjoys a
wide reputation for excellence, and in
which thousands of young women from
all parts of the United States have re-
ceived their education.
That he had never forgotten his
early romance and still cherished a
tender affection for its heroine she
knew. for every engagement which the
actor played in Washington was sig
ralized by the appearance of a box of
white roses, at the convent, sent by
TO the White Rose" of his
early dreams.
When, last spring, death claimed the
nun, Mansfield was grief stricken, and
Il is said that at the time of the last
engagement he played in this city he
visited the graveyard of the convent
and placed a wreath of white roses on
the grave of his early love.