The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-29

| pay even nomlnal lees. The first duty
 of the city is to give to all of its
 
 own well groomed' look and unmlstak- able air of distinction.
 These children, boys and girls in about equal numbers. and aged somewhere be- tween and Is, are representative little i den'zens of the surrounding slums than which there are few worse in London Did you harken you would discover that what they are listening to so greedily | IS one of Kiplings stories or poems, or
 mayhap chapter from Kenneth Ora l hams Golden Age" or from that inn l mortal classic, Peter Pan.' Occasonal- 1 ly however, the woman who, you notice is wearing the red cross. ceases to read
 and. instead, talks earnestly to these slum kids about their own lives and how they can be made sweeter-talks in
 which she tries her hardest to instil
 into them what she calls sense of Ire | spoHsibility'-or perhaps dwells on some l phase of the great war or some other everyday topic which is likely to inter- est them.
 The woman Is Suzanne Sheldon. the American actress. Born in Rutland Vt she has achieved too large a measure of fame on both sides of the Atlantic, es- 1 recially in London to make it necessary 1 to introduce her to readers of her own nationality. She was educated partly in 1 Germany and partly in France, and | speaks the language of couple of other
 countries but she remains a loyal daugh- | ter of the Stars and Stripes She began
 her stage career in London as super under Sir Henry Irving, whose warm l Friendship she gained, and she is best known. perhaps, by reason of her per formnnce, first in America and then in
 England. of the part of "Huguette" in
 Justin Huntly McCarthy's famous play
 ''lf I Were King the title of which, by
 the bye, she herself suggested. Since
 then she literally has played man,
 parts notably with Laurence Irving in Bonnie D4nGee' and with Oscar Asche In "kismet.' and, in the United States with both Ellen Terry and Lady Forbes | Robertson. Her last appearance on our own side of the water was in "The | Twelve Pound Look" one of the cleverest of all Sir James Barrie's playlets.
 l The delightful way in which Suzanne | Sheldon is befriending and trying to make better little citizens of her small 1 slum proteges. many of whom are the children of soldiers, is only one of the | several forms of war work Yn which this American woman is engaged One of
 the others is nursing, and an especially
 trying form of nursing. at the London
 hospital, which is now filled to over | flowing with wounded soldiers and also | at two maternity hospitals. She pays l regular visits. too, to St. Dunstan's house
 the wonderful institution for the Brit ish fighting men who have been blinded l for life on the battlefield. It was found- l ed by c. Arthur Pearson. who formerly
 was one of the livest wires in the whole l London publishing world. but who is now | blind himself. The mission in which 1t | is housed was given to Pearson by Otto
 Kahn, the American millionaire.
 Her Other Activities
 You would think that the activities al-
 ready mentioned (and her little friends of the slums alone are no small handfuD would take up all of any one woman s 1 time, but meanwhile Suzanne Sheldon is 1 also playing hostess pretty constantly and
 proving mighty good friend to various young Americans who have crossed the Atlantic to help Britain in the Dig Job l she now has on her hands.
 You should just hear the letters from l the mothers and the fathers of some of 1 these boys that she read to me-not by any means in the spirit of the gratified Samaritan. but just in that of a woman who. having known sorrow herself is plumb glad to get the chance to make | somebody else's heart a bit less achy. And mighty sac and anxious are the l hearts of some of these American moth CTS, who can't understand why their l boys, too. need to endanger their lives | in the great worIG conflict. Probably few people--least of all in the United States have any Idea how many young Ameri- cans are now wearing khaki and what a prominent rart many of them are taking in the fighting.
 Suzanne Sheldon knows, and she has been getting up every morning at 10 minutes to 6 of late to cook real American breakfast for her soldier guests and by pretty nearly every post she manages to tell one or another of their families whatever news there may be to relate about their ''boy"-news that, more often than not, the boy himself has quite forgotten to send. The Ameri- can worran's foolish dining room," as she calls it. where these breakfasts and other meals often prepared by the hos tess own hands are discussed, Is quite wonderful one. It is paneled in old oak. and the table. fashioned of the same wood, once served it's turn in a monkish refectory, and dates back to 1500.
 Suzanne Sheldon herself Is real "dea-." Fair haired and good looking. she Is an out and out good sort of an essentially American type. She knows "everybcdy" and has no end of good stories to tell of many celebrities. She has had her own war adventures. one may mention. and not unexacting ones. In orde- to convoy American woman friend who speaks neither Dutch nor German, and whose husband, a war cor respondent, was in Germany. Miss Shel- don travelled with the former as far as the Dutch-Gcrman frontier There 1t was expected that communications from the husband would be found. if not himself. tut nothing of the sort happened. Tn or der to telephone, Suzanne Sheldon crossed the German frontier. and was promptly arrested. And remained vir- tual prisoner for a bit over month, meanwhile being "interrogated" two or three times a day. At the outset, no doubt, she was in real danger.
 Work In German Hospital
 Later she nursed in one of the Ger man war hospitals. She did the same kind of nursing that she is now doing at the London hospital. namely, minis tering to the cases of men whose nerves have been destroyed on the bat tlefield. either temporarily or perma- nentiy. Some of these cases are terri-