nt to the
hardest rider. Deceived herself by men, she finally arrived at that
stage of life known in theatrical circles as "wised up."

Coming to New York, she attracted the attention of a prominent
theatrical manager, and was given a part, in which she happened to make
a hit. This was enough to immediately establish her reputation on the
metropolitan stage. The fact that before reaching the age of womanhood,
she had had more escapades than most women have in their entire lives,
was not generally known in Manhattan, nor was there a mark upon her
face or a single coarse mannerism to betray it. She was soft voiced,
very pretty, very girlish, yet she was no fool. Her success did not
turn her head or blind her to her shortcomings as an actress. She
realized that in order to maintain her position she must have some
influence outside of her own ability, so she laid plans to entangle in
her net a hard-headed, blunt and supposedly soubrette-proof theatre
manager. He fell victim to her charms, and in his cold, stolid way,
gave her what love there was in him. Still not satisfied, she played
two ends against the middle, and finding a young man of wealth and
position, who could give her in his youth an exuberance of joy utterly
apart from the character of the theatrical manager, she allowed him to
shower her with presents. When his money was gone, she cast him aside
and demurely resumed her relations with the unsuspecting theatre
manager. The jilted lover became crazed, and one night at a restaurant,
attempted to murder them both.

From that time on, her career was a succession of brilliant coups in
gaining the confidence and love, not to say the money, of men of all
ages, and all walks of life. Her powers of fascination were as potent
as her professions of reform were insincere. She never made an honest
effort to be an honest woman, she never tried to do the square thing.
Yet, like other women of her type, she found all sorts of excuses for
her wrongdoing. She pretended that she was persecuted, a victim of
circumstances, and was ever ready to explain away the viciousness of
character, which was really responsible for her troubles.

In spite of her success on the stage, she was an indifferent actress.
Her lack of true feeling, her abuse of the dramatic temperament in her
private affairs, had been such as to make it impossible for her
sincerely to impress audiences with genuine emotional power, and
therefore, despite the influenc