Women who have Risen.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2110, 16 June 1898, Page 3

Women who have Risen.

Many women who have achieved distinct* ion in one field or another of human endeavour have risen from the humblest beginniags by their own unaided gifts and industry.. This is conspicuously the case with our leading actresses and singers. Madame Bernhardt, the queen of tragediennes, was born amid the humblest surroundings, and was considered fortunate when she was a dressmaker and milliner. She still has a weakness for millinery, and until reeeDtly was proprietor and guiding spirit of a millinery shop in Hew York, which bore her name. 4 .Christine Nilsson began life under even less happy conditions than Sarah Bernhardt. She was a poor, bare-footed, shivering mite in the streets when her divine voice first attracted attention and led to her rescue from the direst poverty. Her early days, ir.deed, remind one of the “ incomparable ” Rachel, who earned a few coppers as a child by playing the tambourine in the streets. Adelaide Neilson spent her early years in domestic service, and Mary Anderson is the daughter of a Sacramento farmer. The clever acfcress.who has won her fame as Miss Julia Neilson is the daughter of a lady in reduced circumstances, who kept a London lodging-house. Minuie Hauk, whose voice has been both fame and fortune, is the daughter of a Germau shoemaker ; and Miss Clara Butt is the daughter of parents in very humble circumsfances in Jersey. Miss Braddon (Mrs Maxwell), although the daughter,,©? a solicitor, was content to be a minor member of a travelling company until ‘ Lady Audley’s Secret’ proved to herself and the world that she had a gold ,mine in her pen. Madame Sarah Grand Jived for some time in London lodgings in straitened circumstances until she emancipated herself by her wonderful novel ‘ The Heavenly Twins.’