WHICH IS WHICH?

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1970, 4 January 1907, Page 1

WHICH IS WHICH?

STRANGE STORY OF fAIPEK SON. VIM ON. A NEW ZFA LAND GIRL’S ADVENTURES. (Special Correspondent.)

10 Jjlll\ , i\OV. -■>. ■- From tho lips of a New Zoalaiu d Itirl I have had this week an extra I ordinary story of hardship, adversit; , | and cruel imposture, of which shi ’ | claims to have been tho victim. Sin I is Miss H. Maudo-iSinitli, of Napier 3 ' 19 years of age, and a reciter by pro 1 'fossion, hor stage iiaindviiieiiig. H.em.i.quette Aiaude. Bricdly, her storv i: l that while travelling i'n America hoi i luggage, money, and papers were [ stolen by a Californian girl, who i came on to London with her ticket, adopted her name, and impersonated | her in that country', while she herself was left stranded in America, and had a long and bitter fight with poverty, until she could earn enough .to bring her across to London. I It so happens that the other “Miss Maude-Sniith” came under my I notice several months ago—in May last, I fancy. She wrote to give me particulars of her doings in America, stating that she was a Napier girl, and had gone to America as an elocutionist. My address had been supplied to her by Air. —— (a well- | known Australian actor), and she i thought the New Zealand papers plight care to have some account of her experiences. >BllO went on to tell me how she had toured in America with the English Opera Singers’ Quartette, how she had won a gold medal for elocution at San Francisco in competition with 500 reciters from all over the States, liow President Roosevelt had presented the medal in person, and various other details of interest. As I had no reason to doubt the lady’s houa-fides, I wrote a paragraph embodying these details, and sent it on to New Zealand. The sequel is supplied by the little U-year-ol reciter, who claims to lie the real Miss Maiide-Siiiith. She arrived in London a few weeks ago and was interviewed last Monday by the Daily Mirror, and told a story which, up to a certain point, was identical with the one given to me some months ago by the other girl. - ihe point at which they diverged "'as, it seems, the point at which the two girls had parted company in I America. Puzzled by the discrepan- I lies in the two accounts, 1 sought in interview with the new arrival. J the explanation she gave was cor- t ainly remarkable. She states that the girl who wrote to m clast May ( vas not a New Zealander at all, but 1 nntiv oof Los Angelos, California. ( I hey had met at San Francisco, in lie elocutionary competition, and uul afterwards travelled eastwards ogether as far as Denver. The morung after they reached Denver the Californian girl absconded with Miss ilaude-Siiiith’s ' luggage three ranks in all, containing hor clothes er stage costumes, her ticket for ,opdon, and, in fact, almost every- o liing that she possessed. The little e few Zealander was left stranded in f strange land, with nothing but the lothes slio was wearing and a few C ilver coins. “If the proprietor of ho hotel had not been very kind.’’ he says, “I could not have recovered ram this blow.”

A hard struggle for existence folowed. She worked her way by stage: 3 Chicago, and then to New York inking a little money by giving ]eni 'iis in reciting and in physical cub lie. lint pupils were scarce, and er little store of money often ran ry. “I could not make onougl: loney to live upon,” she said, ‘‘boi ays 1. went without food. 1 have ved for three days on one nickel lid). Three nights running I slept a doorsteps in bitter cold, snowy eathor. 1 had never seen snow be, >re! When I arrived in New York i was after three in the morning, nd 1 had (July half a dollar in my ockot. That was not enough to get in a decent night’s lodging, so I just lent the night in the waiting-room t the station. I did that scores ot mes in the course of my journey.’’ “In New York I fell ill, and had ) go into hospital. Afterwards X at an engagement to play the part ■ Alary Lister in “The Marriage William Ashe,” Airs. Humphrey ord’s_ play, \Vhon I had been in ew York for five months X had lough money to bring me to Lonon, but found London almost as bad 3 America. 1 arrived curly in Sepnnber, and could get nothing to do. ’hen I bad got to the last of my oney 1 was given a trial perforunco at the London Alusic Hall in bored i tch. That was last Saturday, nd I have since been offered a •ial at the Canterbury Music Hall, diicli I hope will lead to an engageent.” -

‘‘it was only tlie other day,” slie added, “that I found 1 had been impersonated here in London. It is evident that the Californian girl not only travelled on my ticket ,but she used my namo over here as well as my luggage and money. The details she gave to you about her career were really the details of my own career. It was 1 who won the competition in San Francisco, and veeeived the gold medal from the hands of President Roosevelt. I'nforiunately, it was stolen, so that it is now m the possession of my ‘double.’ It was I, and not she, who appealed with the English Opera Singers. I left New Zealand in 1904, with only £lO in my pocket, determined to work my way to London as a reciter. My people did not want me to go at all, but my mind was set on it, and 1 went. I earned money by reciting on the steamers. I we it to Honolulu, and then to Vancouver, where I appeared with the English. Quartette. Afterwards I travelled about the States. At San Francisco 1 was almost penniless, and when I. entered for the big competition tli-j only preparation I could make in the way of toilet was to slip round the back of an empty house and wash nrv face! I recited “Laska,” and to my intense surprise I was adjudged tile winner out of 500 competitors, avd received the medal. It was then that I met the Californian girl, who afteiwards robbed and inipcisonated me. After she disappeared 1 wrote to her mother at Los Angeles, asking her -f. she could tell me- her daughter's .whereabouts. I got a sail letter hi reply from the mother, stating tlir.t her daughter had run away from home with a Jewish mail, and had not been heard of since. Where she is now I have no idea.” —Auckland Star.