The Washington times., 1913-02-21
"Too Much Nietzeche and Scho-
penhauer" Is Blamed for
Suicide Of Woman.

QToo much Niet1che and schop-
" enhauer and not enough Of
the wholesome, natural life
that a growing girl de-
mands." is the explanation given by
Miss Frances Starr for the sad suicide
OF the young girl whose unexplained
fascination for an actress led her to take
her life few days ago.
1T seems to have become a habit for
young girls to select some particular
woman in the public eye-usually an
actress-and to place her upon sort Of
pedestal and worship her." Miss Starr
continued. Usually this sort Of worship
Is silly and innocent infatuation from
which the girl RECEIVERS within a few
months. but II the siyf happens to DO
possessed of morbid temperament, the
result of such a dedication may prove
disastrous as in the case Of that young
Pennsylvania girl" So.
Actress Gets Gift
From Youthful Admiref. 20
Miss Starr was seated in her dressing
room at the National Theater, wiping
the makeup from her face. while her
maid replaced the garments Of Dorothy,
which she had worn in the last act Of
THE Case of Becky for a conven-
tional street gown of black broadcloth.
On the stars dressing table there lay
huge bunch of pink sweet peas, tied
with pink satin ribbon. to which was
pinned pink envelope. The whole af-
fair represented several dollars. and as
she pointed to the bunch of fragrant
ha
what we were Just talking about"
She unpinned the. envelope and ex-
tracted therefrom a note, which, az she
had surmised. was from a young girl
who had written a gushing letter, full
of adjectives, to Miss Starr. This girl
had never been any nearer to Miss Starr
than the distance that separates the one
dollar seats from the stage. but she
probable felt that this had given her
the right to send a letter to the actress,
and to bestow flowers upon her.
Possibly this particular young girl
has saved up her allowance money for
week to purchase those flowers, and
economized and scrimped to buy a ticket
for the matinee" said Miss Starr, "and
here am j placed In a position where I
must either be rude. and pay no atten-
ton to the letter and the gift, or l must
write her a letter Of thanks, and by
that means encourage her to go farther
in her silly infatuation.
This girl, like hundreds Of others of
her kind. is wistfully gazing into a life
she knows absolutely nothing about
She just happens TO have chosen me for
her object of alteration. Probably her
room mate worships Ethel Barrymore.
and the girl next to her has an equally
silly affair over Billie Burke It's
sort of sentimental disease. from which
they recover, but which even in its mild
er form is undesirable. and in its most
violent form may prove dangerous, as in
the case of the girl in Philadelphia"
/ asked Miss Starr whether this mall
ady affected many young girls.
Many Girls Victims
Of Strange Infatuation.
You'd be surprised to know of the
large number of letters l receive" she
answered. There isn't day that do
not receive from one to five, sometimes
more. All of them seem to come from
we'll educated, well-to-do girls, IL l may
Judge from the way they are written.
and the stationery used. Some of them
are gushy to the point of being disgust
ing; some of them merely pleasant little
missives, and many of them sim1ly ask
for photographs, or sentiments.
Very frequently some stage-struck
miss, who has recited 'Curfew' or some
other favorite of the amateur. and who
has been told by her friends and family
luv hn ri
writes and asks me to give her letter
to some New York manager for she
feels SIRE that all she needs In order