Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-10-31
A Long Way >.

9 manner, he gives a very. perfect imita-
ton of an adoring husband. He had
never been much of a money maker,
but he never seemed a parasite except
ing that he basked in Rella's success.
He guarded her from over-exertion,
kept annoying visitors away, saw that
! she met the right people. He had been
her manage for a long time, cOmbtn-
l ing hat with one Of those Indefinite
+ Jobs connected with the production end
< of the theater.
! He and Rella got along very well
: together. Yes, lovely homes, trips
abroad, two charming daughters, and
!, an adoring husband. There was little
left to wish for. Rella Stevens had
come a long way.
1 had met Rella Stevens fifteen years
before, when she was just beginning
her career. She was the ingenue with
Higher and Higher" then and had
!. made q very real impression on the
critics. I had been sent to get q sugar
!, plum of an interview. Rella Stevens
and I had talked pleasantly enough,
!, skimming not even the cream. I had
been horribly frightened. I had just
started to write, and there were SO
many others who had come to the city
to be writerS-who knew more about
graceful phrases. What if I couldn't
| do an interview at all!
!. Rella Stevens had talked pretty
platitudes and I had listened, being
just one step too sophisticated for 8
note book. And q wonderfully kind
editor had printed it. I had predicted
that Rella would get ahead. And
Rella had got to be a star.
Later found that this had been hel
first interview, and that she had been
frightened, too. The story she told
me then was the story she always told
-sketchy bits about youth in q small
town and first struggles-the usual
things.
In the years we had grown to be
good friends, considering that we were
both busy and miles apart in every
thing. We saw each other at teas
given for celebrities. We had lunch
} cons, the two of us, occasionally, at the
. Ritz or Plaza-Rella's treats, these
luncheons!-and / had had dinner with
her when she was alone at home OF
was having only a few friends in.
Yes, l had got to know Rella quite
well-knew what books she was read
ing, whom she was seeing, the plays
| she liked ~best-which mean that ]
knew nothing about her at all.
, Now, at tea, for no reaSon at all
excepting perhaps that she wanted te
: talk about herself differently than she
: usually talked, wanted to come through
: the bisque doll personality she haC
built up SO carefully through the years
-Rella stopped pulling OF the invisible
imperfectiOn at her finger nails edge
t and told me the side of her story thai
: she never told.
Funny Rella unused, the thing.
r we say for publication. Success. Hare
5 work. Oh, of course, long hours, thai
sort Of thing. But then / might have
' worked just as hard and had no sue
l cess at all. With me it's been undoubt.
edly more than fifty per cent luck
though I'd never say that for publ.
every day, waiting on me in shops ]
see lovelier girls than l ever was. Anc
for years before l went on the stage
a I was beautiful and no m ever paie
any attention. Wouldn't they laugh
the public, if I told them that a funny
. little fat woman with piggy eyes, a tai
t WOma whose nose was too sharp, anC
half a dozen love letters were, in a way
the cause of my SucceSS-anyhOW, the
start of it. Yet, if it hadn't been fol
I them"
l wish you could visualize Rells
Stevens as she looked when she talked
to me. 1t would make it easier fol-
you to see her as she must have looked
in the days she told me about. She
has a lovely dignity, wide, calm eyes
with curious quirks at the corners that
mean t~ragedy-and humor. Her nost
: is almost straight, with an interesting
: though almost imperceptible dip to it
and her cheek bones are high, giving
a foreign piquancy to her face, anc
there is about her a stiffness that peo-
pie lke-almOSt a sense as II she were
waiting for something.
Rella had been born in Tenth street
J%asonville, Mo. I can see Tenth street
now, as she told me about it. Not ever
important enough for a name. The
cottages in Tenth street were dilapi-
dated, with occasionally a new fiat
roof bungalow to help out. In sum
in the best yards and flowers in some
and bright red swings in a few as ar
added color note. Some of the lawns
were unkempt and brown. Rella's was
one of these.
Rella never remembered her father
He died when she was a little girl
went out completely, having neither
debts nor assets, unless you count {
partly paid for cottage, an inexperi.
enced widow, and a daughter VIII
seemed all legs and eyes-a tadpole O.
a child.
Mrs. Hoffman did the one thing {
widow in Jasonville, Mo-, could do de,
Gently. She took in boarders."
There was generally a couple in tn,
front room upstairs, and the coupl,
: usually %quarreled pretty steadily. Per
y haps the uninteresting room had some
E thing to do with 1t. The other roomer
were usually men who worked in 9TH,
yards" or in n of the neighborinl
: factories.
When the three rooms upstairs wer
all occupied, which was infrequent
Rella and her mother occupied tn,
90 O. couch, which opened up, in the from
room downstairs, the "parlor." Whel
IL a room upstairs wa empty they tool
n that. Rella was forever transform,
:. her few possessions, her hair ribbons
:" her little handkerchiefs, her decen
. white cotton panties, from the bureau
= CT an upstairs room to the drawer il
IF the combination golden oak bookcas
and writing desk, which was the par
k- lor's piece de resistance.
= Rella wasn't unhappy. She had n
special ambitions. She went to schoo
- 49, - H. - .-s-.-- IL