New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-23
Once Queen Of Broadway, Hit
by Train, Dying a Derelict
Policeman Passing Through Hospital Recognizes Kitty
Joyce Toasted Reignng White Light Beauty Years
Ago-Lured from Country Home by Citys Glamour.

from the convent near our big farm
My father did everything for me. lie
bought me fancy turnouts, and | had
the best horses in town. Ny clothes
were the envy of every girl near our
section of Pennsylvania.
But | crayed excitement. ! wanted
to see life. And, like thousands of
other girls who seemed to be abso-
lutely devoid of sense, came to New
York. had money, and could afford
to put up we'll"
The woman, eyes half closed, hesi-
tated Just as a prompting question
was about to be asked she continued:
AT last, | was on Broadway. | was
accepted as a member of a musical
show. could sing, and the manager
said my face would make a hit.
and then | met -" Here she
mentioned the name Of one of the
city's foremost brewers. she showed
letters, she said he wrote her, replete
with expressions of love and undying
loyalty. She fingered the locket loving
ly as she continued:
HE furnished a beautiful home for
me. | had the finest and most exclu-
sive carriages and the best of horses.
Footmen, servants and maids were
ever at my command. Soon | had a
collection of jewelry that was the envy
of all the girls OF my set. | was only
twenty years old, and | had attained
everything my foolish heart had longed
for.
81 was happy for years. - took
me everywhere. My friends were in
Vulnerable. Everybody was lovely to
me. And then little by little | found
that | was losing the love Of the man
that had made all this possible for me.
l struggled desperately to hold him,
but it finally eliminated in an invita-
ton to meet his counsel. | knew then
it was all over | had given up every
thing for him. And | took the settle
ment he offered, even though he had
no reason to fear anything. If | could
not retain his love | could go on low
ing him. No lawsuit and no parading
of my hopeless fight could repay me.
It would cause him pain and embar-
rassment, and loved him too much for
that"
The former Broadway favorite then
related how the settlement money was
soon gone in a desperate effort TO for
get. Slowly, but none the less surely,
the old adage of money brings friends
was forced upon her realization, and
she drifted until she married.
But the other days could not be for
gotten. The desire to see Broadway
now and then could not be mastered.
She did not have the money to visit
the places that once catered to her, but
she had enough to go to the side street
resorts.
Little by little, her will weakened by
the constant overuse Of alcohol, she
practically gave up the fight, permit
ting herself to drift along, hoping and
praying for a kind Providence to end
her suiferings. She admitted she tried
to die several times, but her nerve
failed her and she called help.
The police came to know Kitty
Joyce, and those who knew her never
failed to present her case in the least
possible damaging light when she was
arraigned in court. And then she dis
appeared from the East Side. Now and
then she would be heard from in some
police court, but her address in the
tenement on the West Side was never
disclosed until the accident of Monday
night.
diamond Kitty" they once called
her. Other names they have called her
since. But those in late years who
gained her confidence knew her as a
disllusioned country girl, bitter from
her life on Broadway, too proud to go
back 70 the family that would be only
too happy to have her with them.