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FronCwrus?irl ?L?dder^Bwddw?ySt?r Pauline Hall Wko Held New York Fascinated for 800 Nignts in *^rminie? and Dropped Dowoi Down, Down to a Tiny Little Part on Broadway THK greatest dramatic success in tbe history of tbe New York stage was tbe famous "800 nicht" run of the light opera "Brminle" at the Casino thirty years ago. Pauline Hall waa tbe prima donna and played the title role of Ertntnle. ?She was tbe dramatic sensation of tbe day; she bad ?limbed to the very top of the ladder of fame?from chorus girl to the most popular opera atar of the hour. And Pauline Hall waa still playing a part in a P.roadway show?unknown anti trivial?when ? she died tbe other day. The great prima donna ot "Erminte" had climbed down the ladder of fame. On this page to-day the woman who held the centre of the New York siege for three years tells of chorus giriti and prima doi?nas she has seen come and go?into poverty, obscurity, disaster. This article was prepared a few days be fore Pauline Hall died. % By Pauline Hall. (In an Interview Juet Boform She Died) A PRETTY girl in our company showed me a new bat yesterday. . She had paid 1250 for it I sani. "Oh, my dear, I wish you had put $235 of that in the bank. You are so young and pretty that you don't need those bird of paradise feathers. When we are old we need the birds of paradise. A little black velvet hat with a buckle would have set off your sweet face as well. I wish I could make you understand that time* brings change. To fortify yourself against that change you need a liberal bank ac count. Begin it now." I might have given her a chapter from my own life if I could have made her stop laughing and listen. I could have told ber that when "Erminie" ran for eight hun dred performances at the Casino I was the toast of the town. Yet two years ago fate cast me for a small part in a comic opera in which another woman was the prima donna. The opera was "Kitty Dar lln'." It lasted for one week at the Ca sino. I couldn't bring myself to play a trivial part in the house that had been the scene of my triumphs. So I resigned be fore we reached New York. I am .not complaining. Thank heaven I ;>m thrifty. But I am glad to have even a small part In a successful play, and to play for a long time in New York. I want to be near my home and my daughter. But my present part is undeniably small. It is what actors call one "aide." That ia, ii Alls a page. No one who haa played the leading part enjoys the transition to a lesser one. But that is what time does. That is the reason I preached the little eermon on thrift to the girl who bought the $250 hat. Click! I draw back the shutter in the camera of thirty years and G see what? piarle Rose, the grand opera prima donna of other days, dying a beggar. She was run over by an automobile while begging In the streets. She who had worn robea of lace and jewels of regal splendor was clothed in dirt and rags. Her home was a downtown hasement. It waa found that she had some money. Thirty five thou sand dollars were credited to her In a hank. But the fear ot being without money made her a miser. Poor Marie Rose! Her later life was a tarnished remnant of what Amd been a glittering career. The voice that had thrilled thousands in the Academy of Music when great operas Were given there was lifted in the quaver of age and men dicancy. She waa of another generation. None survived to tell the reason for her downfall. But we have the sordid, unfor getable facts. No use to shrink from them We must look them la the face, In the eyes. nick! Open the shutter again and we see Mamie Arlington. Twenty year* or so ago her beauty waa a household word. She was, Indeed, the toast of the town. Rut that which sooner ?r later cornea to ?il players came to her. Her popularity ,'<> said the waned. True, hers waa tbe fault that it came so early. Dissipation marked her. One day she leaned over the dumbwaiter, lost her balance and went crashing down. Her beautiful form was found crushed, her lovely face bruised almost beyond recog nition. Click! The shatter opens, revealing Sadie Martlnot. Sadie Martinot. of tbe fair hair and tbe brilliant smile. No smile was so eloquent as Sadie's. Sadie Marti not, of tbe piquant poise of tbe head and ot such toilettes as every woman in her company envied. Sadie, who by ancestry was French enough to look chic in tbe tat ters of a beggar maid. She sang Nanon in the opera of that name before I was tbe Nanon de l'Enclos. It was at the Casino. She was the most fascinating woman I ever knew. The years rplled round. We seldom met. Occasion ally she revealed herself. One saw her in gorgeous gowns at smart restaurants. She had a beautiful house on West End avenue. Then one saw her no more for years. Sometimes she showed a taste for seclusion. There were rumors that she was growing poor. Someone beautiful woman who had been the toast ot multimillionaires was living in a fnrnished room and cooking her own meals. But I had not seen nor beard of ber for years when I read that she was a patient in the psycho pathic ward of Bellevue. I went to Bellevue at once. I said to the physician at the head of the psychopathic ward: "Doctor, there isn't anything the matter with her" He said, "Oh, yes, there Is." But Miss Marti not talked so reasonably that I wax sure tbe expert was mis taken. I went to t)ie office of the Actors' Fund and told of ber plight. Tbe Fund arranged to have her taken to Amltyville. In a short while I went to Amltyville and induced the au thorltles to let ber go home with me. She waa living quietly with me in Yonkers for two weeks. Then she burst into r. frightful state and accused me of having conspired with her husband and tbe Fund to put her Ih an asylum. I heard no more from her until late this Summer. The super intendent of a hospital in Washington wrote me that ?the had been found wandering about the streets ot that city and that her mind waa unbalanced. He said she was In the charity ward, he wrote me because he had found "m'y name In her address book. I wrote him that he could get all tbe Information de sired from the Actors' Fund. Pauline Hall While Play ing the Title Role of Er minie in its 800 Nights' Run at th? Casino He said Click! The shutter closes upon Sadie Martlnot and opens upon Ellta Procter Otis. She is the daughter of a Cleveland banker, granddaughter of a banker of Boston, niece of the Mayor of Cleveland, Charlea A. Otis, Who waa at one time a partner of Mark Hanna. She la a grand niece of Senator Redfleld Proctor, of Ver mont, and a lineal descendant of the Eng lish poet, Adelaide Proctor. John Stetaon, the manager, said there was a fortune In her laugh. A few will remember hei debut In "The Crust of Society." She was a star and a celebrated character actress Hut things went wrong. They kept on go ing wrong. Two year? ago a subscription waa taken up for her In the profession She has become an agent tor s typewrit ing machine. Close the ?Mutter and open It. We aee Pauline Hall, ? lie Former Sur, in Her Little Pert in Current Play. Miss Hall 1? the Standing Figure with e Hat On. M IM?, lateraatlnaal Feature Ser? I. ? Inr. f Oreat Rrttala Rlf4.t. ?<?. ?-? ', Florence Sch ene k, the Virginia Beauty, Who Died a Pauper. Corona Riccardo. Don't you remember ? hat a dream of dark beauty she was in the barge in "Ben Hur?" And how the town acclaimed her in the title role of Marta of the Lowlands? But time's wheel whirled round and round. Corona van ished from Broadway. Persons who knew her occasionally asked each other about her when they met. Then they forgot. ?They remembered only when the dis patches from Kansas City told of a white \ Frankie Bailey in the Heyday of Her Popularity at Weber & Field? squaw dying ta a cheap fur? ntehett room in that city. Her Indian husband mourned over her! Pearl Eytinge captivated tbe town when she revealed her beauty tn the bath in "Tbe Clemenceau Case." She died ooor and forgotten. Cliek! That exquisite beauty ia Florence Schenck. She ran away from her home in Norfolk with Charles Wilson, who man aged race horses of a Vender? bilt. She was the most conspic uous figure in the show girli groups in several musical come dies. But cafe life undermined her health. \ She disappeared and was found living in a rear room of an Eighth avenue saloon. She aaaa hungry and penniless. The high arched feet that had worn silk gause stock ings and velvet slippers were ?tockingless. She wore a pair of men's shoes she had found in the gutter. She died In agony on the train while her parents who bad dis carded her were takjtng her back to the home from which she had fled. I last heard of- Frankie Bailey, whose beautiful figure made her the toast of the town while she was in Weber and Fields Music Hall, as a saleswoman in a cigar store, afflicted with rheumatiam and living in a basement. Mabel Bouton died on Blackwell's Island. I have heard that Marie Jansen, who had the most beautiful dark eyes In the world, sunk from prima donna to visiting seam stress. Why these chsnges in fortune? Who knows? Sometimes tbe cause is extravagance, as with my little friend who paid 1260 for a hat. Sometimos It Is the grip of drink ani dmr.1, as, with unhappy Florence SchenrV. Sometimes. I doubt not at all. it Is lrrk. If t wem to sinn It up I should say It is lark to holding power. They do not hiM to their advantages. They loose their hold upon themselves. Tn the play where I now have the smnll part of Cissy Oray. the author introduces me as a "has been'* In these words: "That's cissy Oray. There was a MM when she was the toast of this town. She had a carriage and pair?that was in the day before the autos?and her coachman and footman had a house In town and a place In the country. And when she went to London she almost married a Duke. When she lost her looks she lost her friends?at least, her gentlemen 'rlends. And then?goodnight bank account." To sum up further. Tnoee to whom tlm" brings the cruel and hopeless changes are those who have been spendthrifts Spend thrifts of their time, of their money, ol themselvea.