Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-10
FAMOUS WOMEN OF HISTORY.
SARAH BERNFIARDT.
J.
By WILLIS ]. ABBOT.

Like the other great French TRACE
dfenne Rachel. Sarah Bernhardt was born
a Jewess though she was educated In the
Roman Catholic faith. Her parentage
was somewhat obscure-not to say 'mys-
FERROUS She describes her mother as "a
Dutch Jewess but of her father she
spoke little and. seemingly. knew. less. 1t
is fair to presume that he was a French
man and a Catholic. This composite par
entage sometimes proved embarrassing.
After the Franco-Prussian war Bern
hardt's enemies charged that she was a
Gefman-an assertion which her accent
seemed to strengthen. She had to vaunt
her mothers Holland descent to escape
Kissing In Russia. where religious preju-
dice runs high. she was accused of being
Jewess, and was forced to call upon
the shade of her Catholic father to rescue
her popularity.
Whatever her ancestry. Sarah was born
for the stage. She herself seldom doubt
ed this. though she did remark con-
templatfvely that she Intended to be a
nun unless she could be an actress at the
.Comedie Franchise. But the coulisses
claimed her and the Convent lost mos;
remarkable novice.
Student at Age of Fifteen.
When barely fifteen she was entered
as a student at the Conservatoire. the
great dramatic school of Paris. and with
in three years made her debut at the
Coincide Franchise. Though horribly
frightened, according to her own report,
she made moderate hit. That is to say,
the dramatic critics. those arbiters of
French dramatic success. all mentioned
her name and were not particularly IL
nattlred in their references to her acting,
though the audience laughed at her thin
arms. But her stay at the Coincide was
brief. lin a fit of temper of the sort that
has characterized her through life she
slapped the face of the leading lady,
Leading ladies re not made to be thus
used. and the presumptuous girl was
promptly banished.
In 1870. her association with the Come
die having been renewed, she broke it
in penalties. But she never worried about
money. OFTEN broke" She could al
ways replenish her purse by tours
abroad. The Paris theaters were. of
course, ever open to her. but the two
Americas were her FL Dorado. Her earn
ings there were prodigious, and through
South America, where the Gallo strain
was strong, her progress was fairly re-
gal. The herOines of the French classic
drama and the modern. and perhaps
more DlCTDlO " pes, Ihe NdIllille dHU
la Tcsca.'' engaged her genius. and
every great French dramats' from RAJ
cine to Rostand has found her his most
brilliant interpreter. Committing thou
sand follies, she has won ten thousand
triumphs.
Never Cared for the Theater.
In her autobiogra phy-which reads sus-
piciously like the handiwork of a Pari-
sian journalist-she repeatedly declares
that she never cared for the theater.
Yet when advancing age compelled her
to give up sustained performances she
went into vaudeville There is a Curl
Gus similarity in the parts she has
chosen for herself since she was strong
enough to choose. AS one critic puts 1t:
I'm all her dramatic flights Sarah has
courted death. Throughout her astound-
ing career she has died in all STYLES.
She has jumped into the river and ended;
she has been extinguished by poisons:
she has succumbed to tuberculosis; she
has been shot into kingdom come. She