The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1914-09-29
PINK LINEN FROCk
BY DOROTHY DIX.

BY DOROTHY DIX.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
"Wha-a-at," cried the Angel, who
had backed the new musical extrava-
ganza, THE Queen of the CannibaI
Isles" Lorraine torrance going to
leave the STAGE in the midst of the big
gest Broadly ay success in years? Is
she crazy, or what?"
She is woman replied the man.,
ager, succinctly, as If that explained
everything. He glanced around the,
little Office whose walls were literally
covered with the photographs of
actresses-prima donnas, tragedy
queens, eccentric old women In COM
edy parts. dashing soubrettes, .wistful-
eyed engelues-and sighed. He had
had much experience Of the ways of
women.
Such a voice." went on the Angel,
goomily reminiscent, always made
me think Of birds singing in golden
dawn, or-er-er-something like that, you
know, 1t was 80 full of the Joy of
living. Then her gaiety and humor-
SO spontaneous, so fresh, and that lit
tie way she had, so demurely wicked,
by George. 1t was about the most
fetching thing / ever saw"
1T takes a saint to play the devil"
commented the manager, grimly.
"And to think of her being fool
enough to throw everything up right
now" continued the Angel. why, she's
got success-it's in her very hand"
Well" observed the manager, ."if,
when Heaven gives a woman tempera-
ment, 1t would also endow her with
little reason, it would have saved me
from becoming bald so early In life,
and would have made the show bust.
ness safer and more agreeable occu.
patton"
What does she say?" inquired the
| Angel
The manager fished a letter out
from under pile on his desk, and be.
gun to read aloud: Sorry she can't
renew her contract with us, but she is
going to leave the stage. Hopes II
| WOl 0lodPpOAllt u6, dIlu tlldt W0 Will
have no trouble in finding substitute
for her in The Queen but she's
found out that there's something bet
ter than the tinsel Of the stage, and
more worth striving for than fame and
money"
Wish she'd tip me off to what It
is" put in the Angel, parenthetically.
I'm short" continued the manager.
summarizing the lengthy letter, "she
has determined to leave the stage,
and stay at home with hubby-you
know that In real life she is Mrs.
James Benton--and darn his socks
ard cook his dinners"
Where is she?" asked the Angel.
"Oh." responded the manager. at
some little iron mine down in Ala
bama, where her husband is manager
for company. It's a gay metropolis
that consists Of company store.
with the post Office In one corner.
and an interesting population of a
thousand negro and Italian laborers,
with perhaps two other men beside
her husband who wear collars and
speaks English, and where the excit-
ing event of the day is the change of
shifts, when the day laborers go off
and the night hands come on. At
least that is the aIluring description
that Miss torrance gave me Of the
place when she explained how she
came to leave her happy home for
New York and comic onera
"She won't stay there" exclaimed
the Angel, bringing his fist down on
the desk with thump Good God,
think Of a woman like that being
buried alive in such hole. She'll
be back in two months begging for
her old part, aud we will make her
pay for giving us this attack Of heart
failure"
Don't count on her too much"
warned the manager, she's a woman,
you know"
While the two men in the little
Broadway Office were settling her fate,
the woman of whom they spoke was
standing on a great pile of Stag. send
ing her voice out in roulade of song
that silenced. for very shame, the
hooking birds in the nearby clean
ders At last, wearied, she stopped,
and turning to the great ugly bulldog
that crouched at her feet she cried
whimsically:
What. Tige, not round of ap-
plause? Don't you know. sir, that
was my big Broadway hit, and was
good for three curtain calls every
night?" But the faithful dumb ami
NAL only licked her hand by way of
reply. and with something like sob
she caught her fingers in his collar
and started homeward It was all SO
typical of her fate. she told herself
She had wanted fame, and glitter and
glare. and she had gotten only dumb
devotion
Five years before she had married
Jim Benton, who had taken her from
an uncongenial home, where a shrew-
ish and vulgar stepmother had made
life well-nigh unbearable for the girl,
whose nature was as highly strung
and sensitive as a violin She had
loved, as we'll as her unawakened
heart could. the big, silent, strong
man, who yearned over her with
ceaseless tenderness, and for awhile
she had been happy enough in the lit
tie cottage at the mines where they
had gone to live. BY and by however,
she begun to grow restless, to feel the
stirring within her of unguessed
forces and powers and to know, as
genius must always know, that 1t must
find expression or die.
She was intensely, vibrantly alive,
and she had never lived She wanted
to know, to feel. to see, to measure
her beauty against other women's, to
try the splendid power of her glorious
voice, and to sway men and women
with it. She yearned and hungered
but names to her. and to be part of
the wild tide of life that sweeps
through a great city. For long time
she fought against her desire, but In
the end 1t conquered her. The deadly
monotony of the life she led, the
WOdA y 5dh0A05S VI lilo laCc6 Snc hAoW
SO well, the oft-told tales OF places
where nothing happens, got upon her
nerves until she felt that she must
either commit suicide or end life In a
madhouse. Then, summoning her
courage, she went to her husband and
told him of her longings, her despair. +,
''It isn't that / don't love you." she
said, hurrying over the words that
she knew wounded him like stones