MISS ADA WARD.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 502, 8 May 1909, Page 11

MISS ADA WARD.

! THE ACTRESS-EVAMCELIST. STORY OF HER LIFE. "I'was a sad child," said Miss Ada Ward v to relating' the• story: of her life in the south. "In my home there, were six- children, and ' for/some reason I was never , cared for as much as the others. I was sent to Franco . to bo educated for a governess; the dear nuns of tho\ educational . convent in which I->was placed did- not • interfere with the religion of\their pupils unloss asked to do bo, for they had pupils from, all over tho world. I never; hoard or .uttered a prayer. When I returned home I was met with tho same coldness that had always heen my lot. I was told that I must earn my living as a governess, 'l . saw ..an advertisement for. a tall and , yetingi and beautiful woman to play in amateur theatricals. I went to the man- : ager. He askod mo "How many stalls do ' you think you could fill by the. gentlemen you know?" -Lsaidknow;no.gentlemen; I can fill nana.' • I ~toO you this because it is one of tho first great temptations that comes into the life of a young and innocent : girl who .takes up the stage as; a profession. ,1 was . engaged at; 155.. a - week,'' and. from that moment had plenty of engagements. I gradually .became a good uctress,- and soon was earning a big sum. A Llfo of Excitement. : "I began to drift into the life of excitement; that 'every actress thinks it her duty : to join in when.'shetfirst joins the-profes--i 6ion. would come up in the way I of notes and bouquets and jewels. When 11 was playing : in'London at one of the best' theatres,. some of my .friends said: l 'There is a gentleman who wishes to bo introduced to very. wealthy gentleman whom , you would liko 'as a fnond.' Wo wore introduced. found him a gentleman of culture. Ho began by flattering my pride by presents ,of • bouqnots and' jowels,' and after . X had known him a month he asked mo to • marry him.' . I married him. We.wont to Paris, and travelled about, and he'stil] continued to show me^jby.fhis'sents, that he was a wealthy man. -We went back to London, and I resumed my acting. Ono day a man came to my house and said: 'Miss . Ward,_ would you pay*this bill?.. It • is a bill for-, jewels that your husband bought .before you were married, and I only allowed . •him to have them .on oondition that I could bring the,bill to you after;tho marriago.' . I went to my .husband,, and"ho -laughed in my face, r-.y '■ '< 'Dlsllluilonfd. was.a poor man, without a penny .in the world; his-debts wero mine, and I must pay. Ho said: 'You are a fa- ■ vourite actress.' -Don't you think you could still continue on. tho stage and make sufficient for both of us.' I roftlsed, and ho' became. angry. In those days the husband could tako. all the wife earned, and so ho came to. tho theatre and took "my earnings. I told him I would leavo England, and then he became most frightfully cruel to mo. Oh I I can never describe and never forgot what , I 'suifered with'. that , man during tho' fow ■ months 1 with him : .' I gave him - all I had, until . I found'he was spending it on - others. Thon I divorced him, and was. free of him. I was married and divorced boforo 1 was sixteen years of ago." Drift This was chapter I. of tho actress's story —a sad enough chapter. Chapter 11. was . one. of- drift, ■. She sought aud plimgod into • every kind of excitement, soaking by the deliberate concoction'of emotion to ■ mabo happiness; or-at kaet . gaiety. She spent ..every penny Bhe earned -at the .gambling tables ,of Mcarte ; Carlo, and often had to borrow! from the Prince to return to' her work in London. . Then, ,in South Africa; she met another man, and after long. hesitation . she married him.': This was a good man, and she learned to love him doairiy. Hiev arranged after 'some time that she should go . out to Australia with .her company, :and -no was to follow after settling his anairs in Kimberley. . Ho was to telegraph her to Adelaide, when ho was coming. "Just as I was going upon the stago as Juliet," sl<e said,, "my maoagor brought mo a telegram. .When I came off.after the first act I rushed to my. dressing , room, my . heart beating wildly, to read the telegram.; I opened i it, and it read thus: 'Your husband died at twelve^ o'clock and was buried at three.' I could hardly realiso what had happened. I wm akme again, and I knew for-the first time how- passionately. 1 had loved my husband. Then I w-andered again over the face of tie' earth, embracing every excitemsirt, to' case my heart.. In Paris I saw Sarah Bernhardt in a now piece. I securod it, had it trans- " iated, and prepared to stage it in England." Converted, v > It was when studying this new:part that Miss Ward, in a fortuitous way, and purely out of curiosity, attended a Salvation' Army , meeting; It did not impress her greatly, she confessed, but it interested her. But next'-night,'she relates; .when about to go nut to the opera, a jstiTohg, feeling came over her. She could not go but. That night, in her troubled: rest, she thought in bed of those Salvation lasses, and wondered could she over becomo a good woman. "God. help me," sho cried. It was' the' first prayer die had ever Uttered, aaidvit ; was;answered. Howrit was answered she related. "Next Bight, I sat' in'tho samo seat of tho Army barracks, and I had the same extraordinary feeling that had oomo over me at home, only it was a tiousand tunes intensified. I felt: a? if I was held to' the floor. :Then. I remember no more. It appears that I got .up from my seat ahd.went' and knelt onthe floor, ; : : affid .began 'to sob as if my heart would break. And while I was there a strange thing " . The thing ;whioh Mbs Wani described as . having happened, was the projection on her mind and eye of a mron of the Saviour. She told how it gave her the- vocation whiclr she jow followed, how she,sacrificed all her jewels ! VJi goods to ombraco it, Uie excitement and Mmment that found, vent in the newspapers, »nd ; her complete-conversion. ' Miss Ada Ward is due to airivoin WelJing- : ton from the south this morning.