The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-12
THE STAGE STRUCK" GIRL
From the Louisville courier-Journal.

From the Louisville CourierJournal.
 New York calls attention once
 4 more to the infrequency of the success of the "stage-struck" young woman of gentle birth upon the stage
 Lansing Rowan's career was dupli- cate of that of Bettina Girard. who died in the gutter a number of years ago after having run the gamut of the ex- periences that measure the distance between the shelter of a home of wealth, culture and refinement and the bitter brutalities of the street. Beautiful Lansing Rowan" in the heydey of youth that was cut short by dissipation Poor Lansing Rowan" in later days of penury, even beggary, and sodden debauchery, was the daughter of Jerome Rowan, banker and country capitalist in Batavia, N. Y. She attended a finishing school in New York, where she completed her education, and from which she might
  reign as belle, and rate as heiress, in a social world somewhat circumscribed yet offering the compensations and consultations of prominence in small town life that are often more highly appreciated by the larger world than by those to whom they are a birth right.
 Amateur theatricals, in which she gave evidence of talent, turned the head of the pretty country girl while she was visiting a schoolmate in Chicago. Her beauty and poise recommended her to the managers. Much to the chagrin of her parents, she secured an engage ment in company headed by Lewis Morrison and scored instantaneous suc- cess.
 It seemed probable for a time that Lansing Brown, as she called herself because MT. Rowan so strongly objected to her stage career, was to prove an exception to the rule that society girls do not make brilliant actresses. But it soon became apparent that it was the life of the stage-as seen by the wo- man from the conventional world-that appealed to her. Stage folks have lit- tie patience with the waster who ex- poets to lead a gay life and trade upon a dubious reputation and former so- cial position, and the stage has no room Flor idlers.
 The public soon lost sight of Lansing Brown" When she sought to attract attention to herself by the bizarre eX- pedient of sending a challenge to James J. Corbett after he had whipped the champion, John l.. Sullivan, many theatergoers had forgotten her. To Je- rome Rowan, who had up to that time borne his sorrow and humiliation, that was the last straw. He read the freak story in the morning papers and shot himself.
 A beggar and inebriate during the last years of her life, "beautiful Lan- sing Rowan" is dead at the age of 40. She would have been buried. from the pauper ward in a New York hospital. in the Potter's field, if the Actors Fund had not been employed to give her a grave in the actors lot in Brooklyn cemetery.
 To paraphrase a familiar quotation, true skill Tn actlng comes rom art, not chance, as those move easier who have learned to dance.
 While actors may sometimes be born, they are oftener made by hard work by close and continuous application to the details of acting; by study of the stage and its traditions; by acquies- cence to the demands of demanding vocation.
 Women from humber walks of life with no more talent than Bettna Gi- rard. Lansing Rowan, or even Mrs. Pot ter, had to begin with have succeeded. Women as well born as either of the three, but coming to the stage from a different atmosphere, and viewing it from a different angle, have become famous actresses.
 l The stage struck society girl goes to ! the bottom of the toboggan slide. while 1 others no better equipped are climbing to the top of the ladder. because she looks upon the stage as an immunity bath rather than a workshop and has