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tyfisslintyanrtferDroTer, 77)oms lin!tr
The Actress Who!
Became Mrs. Richard
B r ins ey Sheridan,
Whose Portraits Now
Command $200,000
?4" C HPHE Fair of Bath" is coming
'"' nt fab0 again. After being
l. . ' celebrated in song, story and
paint for more than a century, the portraits
bf fflzabeth Linley, lovely singer, romantic
yride'i'divoted wife, are selling at $200,000
jack, and the demand is greater than the
Supply even at that figure.
, From the picturesque days when Bath
was tn its glory, there has come down to us
hq 'more beautiful figure than that of Eliza
beth Linley, afterward Mrs. Richard Brinsliy
Sheridan. Literally the toast of the town
when tt was frequented by all the best catches
ind showiest beaux in England, the cvanes
tent beauty of the young singer made her a
favorite model for the greatest painters of
the day. Gainsborough, Sir Joshua Reynolds
and others have left unmistakable proofs of
Uer,. charm.
it One of these proofs, a canvas only twenty
right by twenty-five inches, by Gainsborough,
was recentU reported sold out of the Knole
collection by Lord Sackville for the price
"above mentioned. It was painted when Miss
linley was only 14 and her. brother only
two years younger.
it- And since there has been such a revival
ofc admiration for the Maid of Bath, there
has been a quickening of interest, too, in the
town itself '. Not a few there are who have
been speculating on its possible return to
fashion during the reign of King George
end Quen Mary.
w ffhe late King Edward was addicted to
foreign watering resorts. He liked to get
away from home, where he could be free
land at ease on his vacations. But so home
loving are the present sovereigns, and so little
tikely to be interested in the attractions of
Marienbad. Monte Carlo and such places,
that it would be no surprise if they sought to
restore the old prestige of Bath or bring a
newer English resort into fashion.
Ui-
BATH waa always a marrying place. Old dowa
gers took their fair daughters there, assured
that they would meet the most eligible young
, , men. In its heyday It was the universal resort
ef tbe world of wealth and fashion.
t And aome few yeara before our revolutionary war
waa brewing, there began the one romance which has
Always been Inseparably linked with Bath. There
Waa at the time a composer named Linley who ar
ranged the muslo for all affairs of note. He was uni
versally consulted and he became quite a figure In
the watering place, which made its own celebrities and
waa always Jealous of their prestige.
f- And thla musician, Linley, had two daughters,
the elder of whom. Elisabeth, began to be famed not
only for her good looks, but for her lovely voice. Her
Success was widespread, and when her father ar
ranged muslo for church events In other cities she
ires the soloist
" And there came to Bath about this time a poor
Irish family named Bherldan. And both the brothers
and the sisters Bherldan became friends of the Un
isys. r- -V,4, Jwthermore. there waa at the same time a
Cap Lain Matthews a married man of little principle,
who became tone Of the most devoted admirersof the
elder Miss Unity. Olrl-llke. ahe allowed the affair
to ge on until it arot beyond ber control. Her ad
intrer threatened to destroy himself if cut oft from
the pleasure ef her society.
In thla emergenoy Miss Linley found a counselor
fn av rvuuKv Diivriuan oroinM. Hirhsi
tnlrffbars
her preferenoe had
keunger, who. If tbe more brilliant, was likewise the
hKre reokleaa
'iuf isanea to the
Tnere were many secret meetings in romantio
nnoks. when the maid and the dashing young blade.
t kcuased the advances of the bad, bold Captain Mat
t"" , ni 'L . .means of repelling them.
J here' were other meetings, too-and this wm the
LJ?Mfcerjfcim .whola aXtalr-petween. Captauj
THE OREGON SUNDAY
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yrs. Stir
Uttliew and young Sheridan, who had become qyite
Intimate friend,
At laat there cams a time when the young folks
decided the iltuation must be brought to an end.
v .. .. .
mw Vft'&raVtaef'w
ran away to France. Where bherldan ot the money
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Tlte'.St:SGb0.stiaii
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T SEEMS strange that tbe most erotic writers
take so strongly to the scriptures.
There was Wilde, who did Salome in
words, and Strauss, the weirdest of modern
composers, who added what most folks consider the
most outlandish music to the story of the per
verted woman's love for St. John.
There was Wagner, whose own autobiography,
lately published, proves him to have been a liber
tine and a gambler. He put the story of Christ to
music. Only Wagner, bold as he was, did not dare
defy public opinion and called bis hero Parsifal.
Now here is D'Annunzio, worst of all perhaps,
a man of a multiplicity of loves and an un
blushing lack of morals, who has made a play pf
he his secured, to taket the name part, Mile Ru-
umsiein, a auuuci uvieu nu m jjuiuuo ivi uar
pulchritude.
In this lattercasd there may be righteous
retribution in plenty. Bumor sayg that D'An
nunzio loves and would marry Mile. Rubinstein.
But she also loves, not the erotio Italian, but a
handsoroe Rusalaateiior. . - - -
JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 83, 191X ?
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for the Journey la one of the unsolved mysterlea. Rut.
at T rate, they fled under the ehaperonare ( m
woman of mature yean and reached the other aid
SCARCELY a saint has been mere painted than
SebaaUan. The atory of his life, fabled or true
es it may be. la picturesque to the last degree.
Also he is described as a model of male beauty.
Brave, adventurous, handsome, martyred all the ele
ments to make p6"werful pictures are there.
The fourteenth century artists did not tall to take
advantage of their opportunities. Nearly all of there
haa left one or more acenes from Et Sebastian's Ute.
None of them, however, showed him as he waa They
all chose the costuming ot their own times, Ignoring
tbe faot that he lived about a thousand ysars before
them.
Maybe It was their pictures that suggested the
Idea of a nay to CAnnunslo. At any rate, when be
bit upon It, he preserved the costuming of the paint
era. And when It came to selecting a person to as
sume the name part, he decided that to have a figure of
sufficient beauty none but Mile. Rubinstein would do.
Even then there arose a difficulty. Mile. Rubin
stein's pulchritude waa much too plump. But D'An
nunslo, nowise dismayed. Induced her to train down.
Possibly as she lost weight she lost Interest also
ffl I' Ann undo. Or, maybe, righteous retribution was
merely getting In Its work. For, hla whole life
through, the Italian has been a short-distance lover.
He sprinted through an affair with lime, Duse that
left the great actress broken-hearted. He soon die
covered that he was not in love with his wife and
got rid of her.
It haa been, literally, off with tbe old love and en
with the new ever since D'Annunzio has been old
enough to get Mis name In the papers. People formerly
were scandalised, but they have got used to it
Much the same It has been with Mile. Rubinstein.
The lovely ballerina has a rich Russian husband, in
addition to her other lovers. So when he heard that
she was getting a divorce to marry the Italian author,
he quickly put a stop to the proceedings.
Little It mattered to the dancer. ,By the time the
divorce business had been ended she had found an
other Idol. The lucky man was Baklanoff, a Russian
tenor, then singing in Paris, where "The Martyrdom
of St Sebastian" was then getting ready for produo-"
lion.
Rumor, or maybe the press agent, had it that
Mile. Rubinstein was tired of being loved and had
taken to loving; that he waa really and thoroughly
Infatuated with the tenor, and that ahe openly pre
ferred him to D'Annunalo, even though ahe waa the
principal figure in the latter' play.
Anyhow, "The Martyrdom of St Sebastian' was
produced. Mile, Rubinstein, waa sufficiently thin for
the name part and another saint had been put on the
boards by a man and a woman far from saintly.
It took a long time to martyr the saint, too, be
cause the opening performance lasted from .1S P. M, -to
1.40 A. M. But the story of his life is not a short
one. He is supposed to have been a statuesque Gaul
. from Narbonne, who was educated . a Christian at
Milan; For the purpose of secretly aiding hla own
persecuted sect, he took service,., according to the
Svocepted etorntta--theomajnrnyj, ;t Undsr, Diocletian -
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t the channel la perfeot aeoreey and aafety.
Nothing hvt' the most hI;h-flojjrn sentiments en
tered Into th affair- Kevertholesalu became apparent
to' the two that they, could not for long to scurrying
about Europe togetner wltttout Incurring 'the risk of
scandal. They decided, therefore, to eplke the guns
of any Kra. Malaprops by a. marriage, which was se
cretly undergone at Calais- f '
Meanwhile rather Linley bad got on the track ot
the, runaways, and ponnood down upon them at
Calala. Ho seems to have appreciated the Innocence
of the flight and to hate accepted the situation with a
good grace, happy that It , was no worse. And the
young people, joyous in hie eomplaiaanoe, neglected to
mention the marriage.
For a year tbe lovers-thoy were, in reality nothing
morehad a hard time of It. Not suspecting that he
had a bride and bridegroom on hla hands. Father
linley closed tola doors upon Sheridan. It la related
that the husband was put to such straits to see his
bride that ho disguised hlmaelf as a driver of a coach
and by that means managed to convey her from place
to puoo aa ahe sang, meanwhlio getuag ta a tew
words on the sly.
At laat It became apparent that they wore not to
be balked and their marrlaa; became a reality. 8UU
tbe course of true love was not to run smooth, because
Captain Matthews was so wroth over what ho re
garded aa a betrayal that he published a most lm-
fiudent challenge in a Bath newspaper. Sheridan took
t up and they fought a duel, which did not end until
they had repaired to the dim lighted parlor of aa
Inn, where the coming playwright broke the military
man's sword.
That made another insult to bo revenged and they
fought another duel In which the captain poked
eherldan ao hard In the rlba that ho nearly died. But
his wit and sisters pulled him through by good nursing,
and ho thereupon began to pursue literature with some
hope of success.
All through thla affair, which la not outdone In
any play, the part taken by Miss . Linley la strik
ingly similar to that of the character her husband
afterward created. Lydla Languish. There waa always
a penslvenesa, a romantic melancholy in the attitude
of the young woman that made her seem romantic,
even to her own day and generation.
And If ahe waa Indeed the model after which her
husband fashioned Lydla Languish, it waa not the
first time she waa presented in a Bath play: for the year
before ahe met Bherldan she figured as Miss Linnet la
Foote'a satire. "The Maid of Bath."
It was not by any means a playful paraphrase,
because the Maid of Bath was jilted by a stony
hearted bachelor, Mr. Flint. This latter, in real life,
was Walter Long, who had been- one of Mlsa Ltnley's
admirers, but who, at 61. finally decided not to trust
himself to matrimony. In gratitude for being allowed
to retain his Joys of single cussedneao Mr. Long paid
over to Miaa Linley the substantial sum of.iSOOO It
didn't make much of a dent In Mr. Long's fortune, be
cause he waa worth about 1250.000, a tremendous for
tune in thoee daya. But it waa quite a substantial dot
for the girl. Money in thoee days, would buy about
ten time! what It will now. and $15,000 waa by no
means to be snQ6Kd3 ftt .
What with her substantial earnings as a singer
and her income from this dot, Mrs. S".,",,!".
a much more favorable position, financially, than her
young husband. But with both of them it was Prel?
Tmafter of the heart, and they were t least a. weU
h elderly gentleman who paiKea at
satisfied as the elderly gentleman
playing the nriaegroom. m -"r'A aK
for all. he stayed a bachelor until be reached t5,
when h, reined from the world In unmarred and
unmarried peace and contentment.
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he rose to high favor, becoming commander of the
first cohort at Milan. His religion discovered, how
ever, he waa ordered' to be executed and was aup
posedirahot tp death by a troop of archers. This
episode, by the way, Is the one most generally painted.
When left lor dead, a Christian woman, Irene,
found that he atlll retained a epark of Ufa and, taking .
him to her horns, nursed him back, to life. After that
the Christiana wanted to keep him In concealment.
Wut he would have none of tnat He went straight
before the emperor and, announcing his recovery, made
an open profession of-his religion, A.t,
This time Diocletian ordered him beaten to death
with clubs. That there might be no further mis
carriage of Roman Justice, the sentence was carried
out in an amphitheater and the corpse was flung Into
'"Ne'tne
Christian woman, who caused it to be placed in tne
catacomb which still bears fcla name.
His martyrdom occurred on January Vt, 28, the
date that is still observed with ta .feait day the
Latins. But the Greeks, with their seeming deter,
mlnatlon not to have thetr calendar in the least like
any of the others, celebrate December IS aa the 4ay
; ' sarfardaathe modern church la concerned, it Is
one of the earliest feast daya; being celebrated In the
fourth eentury. Later, St, Sebastian came to be known ;
as the patron saint against the plague; and It is re
lated that in (80 a pestilence in Rome was ended byj
the dedication, to hUn, of as altar la the church of St
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An tbe world new knows what a success Richard .
Brlnsley Sheridan became. It la Just aa well knew
that not a , little of his aucoess he . owed to the
Fair Maid of Bath, than whom there waa never a
more oonacientloua helpmeet and, adviser. The eooen
tricltlea ef gentua were never eaay to live) with, and
they certainly were hot la the caae of Sheridan, The
romantio young lover began to get testy before he
waa very far along in life. The older and more suc
cessful be became the more crabbed he grew.
There were many times when Mr. Sheridan had not
only to calm a turbulent nature, but to ehift for her
self socially. 'Bath was a gayplaoe. The idea ef re
maining secluded In it waa not thought ot There
was a round of pleaaure. Into which evesy one was
auppoaed to enter. ;
In thla atmosphere tt waa to be expected that a
beautiful wife who went about without bar Husband
would get herself talked about Mra Sheridan cer
tainly waa There were stories that her heart had
yielded to a handsome young Irish officer. Bod, as
tbe whole, there la ample evidence that tbe world
Ukee to gossip about a handsome woman and none
whatever that Mm Sheridan "waa anything hot a
model wife. Anyhow, ahe was ao amiable and the
times were so loose that no one has ever had the
heart to be erosa with her whatever ahe aid,
As for Sheridan, he rose te the most brilliant
heights only to die a disappointed pauper. Ha wrote
wonderfully successful pi aye j he made a tTortune eat
of the management ot Drery Lane Theater. Ho was
among the moat noted parliamentarians ef hla day,
an orator whose brilllanCo commanded the reapeot
and admiration ef auch giants aa Pitt and Burke. He
became an ardent adherent te the then prince) of
Wales, and he waa the peer ef any df the great men
ef the time. Tot the best position he waa able to
secure waa that of treasurer of the navy, and when
his fortunes, were beginning to decline Drury Lane
Theater burned and left him overburdened with debts.
Little wonder that he died, a wreck from worry and
dissipation, ,a abort time afterward, .
Like Sheridan, Bath Itself deplined from a peattlea
of almost unprecedented Wealth, fashion and popu
larity. In fact It almost went with Sheridan, for
his death in lll fell in the oonoludlng half eentary
of Its heyday.
It was atlll the universal watering place In Dickens'
time. He went there as a young reporter, and he
afterward made trips there when he had attained a
commanding popularity. Nothing about Bath has been
more universally enjoyed than his descriptions of the
visits of Mr. Pickwick, Samlvel Waller, eta But
the present generation haa never aeen the real Bath.
It waa In the height of ita glory more than half a
century before SheridSn'a time.
Aa early aa 1706 It was that Beau Nash descended
upon Bath, whoso "king" he was to become. He waa
the big, boorish aon of a part owner of a glassworks.
In addition to being grossly rude, he was a fop and a
gambler. He had found it Impossible to stay la the
army, had sold the commission hla father had pur
chased for him at a personal sacrifice and had then,
aa a last recourse, taken to the gaming tabla
From the moment he began to gamble Beau Nash
was la clover. He could gratify hia Inordinate
vanity by the moat magnificent of clothes, and he did
so. He became the rage, though an Ill-born boor, and
he ruled Bath with an Iron band. He secured mnaie
for the pump house, he caused the famous "assembly
rooms" to be built, he made the women qttlt wearing
aprons. and the men boots in publio places and he
substituted canea for swords. Furthermore, he made
popular the custom of early morning hatha well
knowing that fresh air, exercise and cleanliness were
the beat cures for the night diversions.
All of Beau Nash's reforms were quite ahrewdly
dealgned to establish ths popularity of Bath, to make
It not only a desirable but a safe place of amusement t
fashionable England spent a , part of Ita year at
Bath. The only thing that didn't endure was the
gaming table. Beau Nash made that popular else
but parliament placed it under the baa,
BEAU BECOMES A BORE
With no other source of Income, Beau Nash went
into a decline and became a garrulous old bore, who
prated of the time when he was the ruler ot fashion
until he was ST. Then fate mercifully removed him.
It was the Victorian era that saw the gradual
decline of Bath. Of recent years it has been but a
shadow of its former self, a quaint place where people
go to get a real view of the settings of the stories
they have read of it
Now perhaps, It is to come into ita own again.
Not only sentiment, but strong commercial consider
ations would make It wise for the new British rulers
to make Bath fashionable again. Millions of British
dollars are going abroad each year that could be Just
as well kept at home, and the . millions of American
dollars that are going to the fashionable watering
places of continental Europe might be diverted te
Bath if it should become England's summer capital.
Stranger thlnga have happened, and the aentlment
that attaches to the old place through such romancea
aa that of Miss Linley and Sheridan may be no small
factor In reylvlng Its lost glories.
Sample, of Irrigation
SVTT In Arlsona, where there; are thousands ef
a 1 icraa o arid lands that are worthless ithii
Irrigation, ie a'aample of what the forethought
mi ingenuity of man oan do.
. Near the town If Bis bee a settler from one ot 11
the eastern state was working in a mine, and he
noticed the waste water flowing away from it He
, eaw that water could be utilized, H selected a aeo
tion of land In a lower level a considerable distance
from the mine and entered tt as hla homestead. As
time and his earnings would permit, he conitruoted
a flume to carry the waste water to his land, where
he had It distributed in such a manner that Instead
of his property being an arid waste, as thousands
of other acres were all about him, it would produce
crops that were equal to those grown where the
country was favored with considerable" rainfall.
- His farm today Is one of the finest In that section.
And it la atlll. watered by the stream of Waste from
' the mine, Carried to his ranch by flumes and culverts,
and other- persons are seeking" to secure control of
streams,' which will be carried to a lower level, where
the moisture will, make the soil as fertile aa It would
:ha.U there. .was , the ordinary rainfall. '