The Washington times., 1922-04-30

delighted in displaying her power
in entrapping young men. who
deliberately played with their af-
fections and gloated over the suf-
fering she was causing.
demonstrated with her, but
what was the good7 She laughed
at me. called me "Puritanical,"
and demanded to know IL dis
puted her right to get as much
fun as she could out of life. In
her brief career as a film star
she had lured into her clutches
moro than a score Of young men
and had discarded all after
triflins with their affections in
the most heartless fashion.
BECAME TRUE "vAMP."
Finally. she became such a true
vampire that she was absolutely
useless for the sweet and inno-
cent girl parts she had been 40
customed to play-the parts that
had made her famous-and she
drifted down and down until she
became q common frequenter of
dance dens. dope resorts. and
other questionable places where
she was free to exercise her
vamping arts over men with
money to burn.
Today not ono Of her former
friends would recognize her. and
her mother, who dotted on her,
has gone to an early grave un-
able to live down the shame and
grief or the fate that has befallen
her daughter. In almost any
other walk of life that girl would
have grown UP into sweet and
helpful womanhood. exerting her
angelic influence and radiating
sunshine wherever she went, in.
stead Of spreading misery and
pain.
Much the same baneful inf1u.
ence is exerted over men. I re-
call one young man OF educa.
ton and promise, a man who had
served in the war. and came to
the movie profession full OF en-
thusiasm, a man who stood foI
the ideal of complete faithfulness
to ones ideal love.
At first he was received with
mocking incredulity as a being
from another world. but gradually
he was regarded as a man OF
such fine moral fiber that moth
ing he came into contact with
would contaminate him. In think.
ing like that we did not make
sufficient allowance for the pitch.
like defilins qualities of the movie
world.
Very soon he had gone the way
of the others. He had begun to
neglect his young wife, whom he
had idealized up to then. and was
to be found nightly in the COM
pany Of the vampire type OF
women who prefer to live on the
folly of men than to work hard
to earn fame and fortune In
screen work. He. too, drifted out
gradually until he lost the ca
pacity for steady work. and he
is now one of the down-at-heel
hangers-on of the profession. who
is forever being pointed out as
an object lesson of how not to
succeed In movie work.
His wife was as much Of an
idealist as he was. Now she 10
disillusioned and soured and has
lost hope and faith in mankind,
almost also in womankind. I
could multiply these cases mani
fold and show that l have not
exaggerated when I have said that
there is something about the
movie world that mars marriage
and the faithfulness of lovers.
CRAVING FOR DRUGS.
AS for the prevalence of the drug
habit and it's effect in wrecking
the happiness Of those who live
in film.land, 1 am not inclined to
be so dogmatic at the moment.
think some of the tales are exag.
gerated, but 1 am afraid that there
are only too many cases where
men and women who are tempera.
mentally unsuited to the pace a,
which the life of the star is lived,
succumb to the craving for druGs.
and in the course of time become
slaves to the habit.
1t is the craving for excitement
that is their undoing. They seem
to think that dole offers them the
best chance for keeping up the ex-
citement their over-wrought ne
lures crave, and l am afraid that
too many of the older men and
women in the profession who ought
to know better, so far from Eelp-
ing their young brethren TO escape
the pitfalls, take a delight in guild