Show IN STRANGE LANDS Mrs Potters Experience Among V the Oriental Princes A Visit to Her Home in London Sao Talks of the Rsjahs of India Hindoo Ladies Indian Girls Who Quote Shakespeare ST PETEI BUHG Oct 2 18921 see that MrsJames Brown Potter about to go to America IV spent a most delightful evening i i eve-ning with her not long ago at ber homo in London and had a long chat with her about her experience since she left America some I years ago Mrs Potters London home is I one of the prettiest little cottages you can I imagine It is situated In St Johns Wood i about an hours ride by cab from Charing Cross and her little house is surrounded j by beautiful villas and it is curiously furnished with the plunder which Mrs Potter has gathered from the four quarters j of the world where she has been acting I during the past few years Entering a wide hall you are confronted by a gigantic I black ostrich over six feet high which was shot by one of Mr Potters admirers during dur-ing her stay in South Africa and pros pro-s ntedto her The parlors at the right are filled with souvenirs from Japan Australia Aus-tralia and Ceylon Around the wall near the ceiling there is a frieze of red black and gold embroidery from north India and upon the sofas are the rich silk stuffs which formed the dresses of Japanese dal mios in the days of the past Chairs and tables of rio black teak wood given Mrs Potter in Canton China standside by side with low seats of ebony inlaid withmother ofpearl which she got from the pashas of Egypt and tho walls are artistically hung with all sorts of curios some beautiful some ugly and each having a story or reminiscence connected with it That long sword there over the mantle was brought in to Mrs Potter one day at Canton dripping drip-ping with human blood It was used to cut off the heads of nineteen pirates by the Chinese executioner during nor stay and though Mrs Potter refused the invitation or an iingiian oincer to attend toe execution execu-tion she was presented with this trophy by her friend who went alone to tho scene and bought this sword after the beheading as a present for her Near the sword there are other knives of all sorts of shapes from the Damascus blade to theTurkish scim itei and in other parts of the room alii sorts of weapons from the old matchlock rifle whIch you still find In tho interior of China to the boomerang and the queer shields of the natives of Australia Both in the parlors ana in the dining room there are greatTquantitie3 of rare eastern embroideries old rugs cover the floors and the dining chairs are of teakwood from Chin a Tbe sideboard and mantels are filled with fine porcelains from Japan andChina andthe rich lacquer of Toklo vies in its colorswith taO splendidly carved brass of Benares on the Ganges The house in fact isalmost an oriental museum in its furnishings but the things are so exquisitely i exquis-itely arranged that it is most beautiful and homelike S SS Mrs James Brown Potter looks no older now than she did that night when slit shocked Washington society by reciting Ostler Joe at oneof Secretary Whitneys hari sociables She isthe same oleri derj3cautiful da keyed girl and she has thoiame attractive convorsat1oa powers I which made her one of the leading figures u S I n V a of New Yorks four hundred before she went upon the stage During our chat I asked her to toll me how she camo to recite Ostler Joe that night and I was surprised sur-prised hear her say that she gave it at the request of Secretary Whitney himself Said she There was nothing particularly wrongIu the poem and many worse things are recited and played every year upon the stage I had recited It several times in New York and it had been greatly applauded ap-plauded there I had not the slightest idea that it would create the sensation it did andI would never haverecited it bad 1 not been ur < ed to do BO I was visiting at Mrs Secretary Sec-retary Whitneys when she gave this charity char-ity entertainment which was mothered you Know by Mrs President Cleveland I was asked to take part and I was in doubt us to what piece to select when Secretary Whitney and Senator Eugene Hale urged me to recite Ostler Joe and it was at their request that I did so They knew I am sure now that it would create a sensation sensa-tion and it did so I can assure you I saw that tho moment lopened mYmouth but I could not po back then audi wont on and il I dont believe have ever reoited batter than I did that night I felt that I was in the presence of an audience inimical to me andrall the combativeness of my nature was roused I threw my whole soul into It IV tried to put myself in the place of the poet I and the situation absorbed me I know 1 recited it well but as I sat down there was a dead silence The next day the papers were full of it and I was looked upon as one of themost audaciously wIcKed women of the land Ihave not recited the poem from that day to this though I have been repeatedly asked to do son Mrs James Brown Potter is the only American woman who has overacted suo cessfully in the far east and there hardly a woman in the world who has appeared before sucha strange variety audiences as she has As we looked over her curios from the many ands of the orient I asked her to tellane something of her eastern experiences ex-periences She replied that they were delightful de-lightful and some of the happiest days of her life had been passed among the Indiana of Hindooatan and that she was thinking seriously of returning to India during vho coming year She showed me photographs V of herself taken in front of the famous Taj Mahal at Agra This Is the finest temple of the world It Is of the purest of w hito marble and is of vast extent but it is put together as delicately as a jewel and its doors are a lacework of the most delicate marble carvings One of the finest gardens gar-dens in tho world surrounds it and there ia a long marble aqueduct In which fountains foun-tains play running through this up to it It is at the foot of this aqueduct that Mrs Potter stands in the picture with the Taj as a background Another photograph represents rep-resents her tent life in Bombay and a third shows her as she sits in Delhi among the turbaned jewelers and bargainsas you do in India everything you buy Said Mrs Potter 1 cant tellyou how much I liked Indiaand how queer were myexperiencea Were We have no idea of thelife customs cus-toms Intellgence and Jiospitalityof those people t The English colonies there lira largeand you will find no better society in the world than you will in Calcutta and Bombay The most of thoa officers of the English government come of tthe betterEnglish families and it may 8urpriseQu toiinow that you find as ihloducated and welldresj d > people jn Jiiia anywhere in the world They lead luxurlousjlifo ted and every family has tf score oc more of servants 1 had something liKe twentyfive servants while XwasiniCarcutta and the most of these were men Calcutta a magnific eut city and as the center of the government of Indlait i has good theaters I acted there for a whole winter and we did very well l was often asked to act before the rajahs of India their private theaters andfor tho aloe parties given by them These rajahs J t > 0 S C OV r 1 11 V V VS V SV are often immensely wealthy and they think nothing of hiring a theatrical troupa and opening the theater exclusively for their guests They pay in such cases so much a night and I often made from 15000 to 2u000 rupees a night for such playing A rupee Is about 33 cents so this was from 5000 to 66000 which was not at all bad This said Mrs Potter as she picked up a beautiful writing desk of silver enamel vas a present from the Mnrara jah of Hyderabad one of the most famous of Indias native rulers I was entertained at his palace and I had an experience in this that even the English rarely have IS received many presents of jewelry and S other things from the rajahs and I was admitted ad-mitted to their womens apartments and conversed with their wives I acted allover all-over India and was successful everywhere I went and I had a great success in Bombay Bom-bay I recited here and In other places before be-fore the high caste Indian ladies in their zenanas and I can tell you that many of these ladies are as well educated as we are They nearly all speak English and 1 found that many of them could quote ShaUespeuro I as well as I could In Bombay while was acting there an unprecedented thing occurred I oc-curred in the coming to the theatre of a large number of these high caste ladies We had about twenty boxes latticed off for them and they came into these out of their covered carriages with veils over their faces When they got Into the boxes they were shut out I from the view of the men in the audience and they peeped at the stage through the holes in the lattice work While I was in Bombay I visited the Indian Sorosis club which had been organized by Mrs Dr Ryder an American lady and which is made up of high caste native ladies and which is much like our Sorosis in New York I made many friends among these V ladieo and I correspond with them quite regularly How did you como to go out to India Mrs Potter I asked I was called there from Australia was the reply Mr Bellow and myself were offered a very good engagement in Australia Austra-lia when wowere in London and we went there and succeeded beyond our hopes Now India China and Japan get the most of theic English actors from Australia end a success Australia is to these countries like a success in London would be to the provinces I Tell me something about Australian theaters and Australian audiences Mrs I Potter S3id I The Australians are the greatest theatregoers in the world was the ro I ply They have magnificent buildings and the best of stage machinery They know just what thoywant and they have excellent judgment as to what is good There are a number of gooa sized cities andlplayed eleven months lc three cities alone traveled allover Australia went to the gold regions and had success everywhere every-where r can get an engagement any time I want itthere and 1consider the country neo the beat paying amusement countries coun-tries in the world I went from it to > Cey lon and played at Colombofor several V week and then wont on to Hlndooitan How didyou like China andsJupan Very much indeed replied Mrs potter Pot-ter Coming from Calcutta we sailed to Sin aporo nd enang and thence toHong Kong There Is a good theatre hereanda large English population The island of Hone Kong belongs tqJBngland though all the laborers and many of morphsnta there are Chinamen You go about in jinrikshas and ia chairs carried on the backs of men and people all go to the theatre in this way There are comparatively compara-tively few carriages but every one has his jihrlksha which is 55 sort of V a baby carriage on wheels pulled bya barelogged Chinaman Wound tie same thing in Japsrr anUI got C 1 0 V V to like this way of riding very much From Hong Kong went to the big Chinese city of Canton Thisplace has about a million or so inhabitants but there are few English Eng-lish in it The next big city I played In was Shanghai which the foreigners call the Paris of the east It has good theatres I ana a great numoerof English Americans and French It has many rich people living liv-ing in it andyou need as good clothes to appear in the AngloShanghai society as you do in Londoa society 1 acted hare for some time and then went to Japan sailed across the inland sea and landed first at Naguski The trip from Shanghai Is eo delightful de-lightful one and Nagsski is oub of the prettiest cities in the wortd It has about one hundred and fifty thousand people and the ffapauese housesin which these live are built around the sides of great hills which slope down into a beautiful bay From here I went t Kobe another big townand then on to Yokohama and Tokio At Tokio I played before the mikado at his palace and he gave me a Japanese pug dog which I have named after him Mutsuhito When I played in Tokio we had to keep thejplay going all day and we began to act at 7 oclock In the morning and it was not until dark that we stopped In both China and Japan they keep the theatres open all day and in Tokiothe families who came brought their lunches with them and the seats were nearly all on the floor the Japs squatting down and sitting either on their heels or crosslegged The stage was on a pivot and when it was necessary to change from one scene to another the stage was rolled around ana the scenery which had been made up at the back was thus brought around to the front There were a number num-ber of the best ladies of Tokio at the theatre thea-tre when I played and they were very anxious anx-ious to oee my clothes and to examine Into their makeup The Japanese like long delays de-lays between the acts and the men had away a-way of coming behind the scenes without asking that Idid not like Tho Japanese theatres themselves seldom have ladies amongtheir actors and the parts ot women are always taken by boys or men Did you go from Japan to Africa I asked 7 askedNo replied Mrs Potter I went first back to London and from there we sailed to the Cape of Good Hope Wo arrived ar-rived there on the 21st of January and two days later we opened the theatre in Cape Town with the biggest house ever seen in r that city VVo played Romeo andJuliet and I wasxeceived with aperfect ovation We played there a month and had good I houses every night and we thought we were g tomakea lot of money We I had just begun the fifth week when one Sunday afternoon a fire broke out in the theatre and It burned to theground Our wardr Des wore all consumed in the fire and nearly all of our stage property We lost thousands of dollars worth of property prop-erty and the result was we had to throw up our engagements as we had no costumes cos-tumes with which proceed The people there werev rY kina to us and they raised a purse of 3500 for us but I refused to I accept this and wo came back to London During my stayin Africa I visited the diamond dia-mond mines andXhad made arrangements l to play throughout South Africa but the fire forced us to cancel all snob engagements engage-ments The trip of course was a very unprofitable one for meAt tt me-At this point the conversation drifted to othermatters and Mrs Pottertoldme the i story of tier life The most oCt has never been printed and when the true inward fleas of the troubles between herself and herhuabanflbecome known It will be seen that she is aa much sinned against sinning sin-ning dont like totalk about It said she as she leaned her chin oa her hand and looked dreamily out of the windows but I so many falsestories have been reported of II mo that < ia only falrthat thetruth should be known I w > s born you know In < a Louisiana on a plantation near New Orleans Or-leans and my life there was of the freest and happiest character My father had lost bis fortune during the war and wo wore comparatively poor I was born with the spirit of unrest and travel in me and as I roamed about the plantation I used to long to see the world and I thought that anything that I could do would be worth I doing to get to see it I had read much and t I was romantic in the extreme It f3 in New Orleans that I met young Mr Potter He was young und I thought by marrying him tht this desire of mine could be realized real-ized I became engaged to him and we were married and two days after our marriage r mar-riage I discovered what a terrible mistake mis-take I had made I found that I had married mar-ried a man whom I could not love and that my husband was a boy 8 fop and S weak fool Had he had any of the element of manly character about him r think I would have made him a good wife but be had no strength whatever I went with him to New York and we lived with the family I could do nothing to please them I tried God knows how hard I tried 1 but they with their Puritan ideas and their churchly hypocrisy froze the soul out of < me They found fault with everything I did and I could do nothing right Still I was a success in New York The peoola seemed to take to me and I was more noticed no-ticed in social circles than the other members mem-bers of my husbands family This angered Mrs Potter and she used to tell me that abc did not want me known aa Mrs Potter and that I must tell people that I was not M the Mrs Potter but Mrs Jimmy Potter The truth of it was that I was so persecuted = perse-cuted at home that my life was a constant hell save when I was in society and my husband did nothing to help me If I talked to hint abous my troubles I found that my words ware V repeated to his mother and she would throw them back at me I had no money and because I could not dress well I was accused V ac-cused of having bad taste You cant dress V in good style without money but they gava young Jimmy Potter only 11500a year oa which to live You might skimp along on that in London but you cant do it in New York aud ao it went OB I felt all the time that I could make a living for myaelf and Idid not see how I could with sellreapect continue to live as I did and I decided to C leave l I gave the family one chance however how-ever and gave them a year to think of It I told them if they would give me 7000 a year to live upon and take young Potter r into the business I would remain with them otherwise I would cut off my connection con-nection with he family and strike out for myself They laughed si me and at the end of this time I left For the past five years I have not received one five cent pieca from them I have supported myself aad I have made a name which I am not ashamed to own They hays treated ms disgracefully in eYery sense of the word and in a financial way aa well as a personal way When Tuxedo Park waa C started I helped Mr LoriJlsrd to put the scheme oa its feet I did it out of friendship friend-ship and I wrote thou9andsiof letters to Interest society id it 1 got Senator Frank HIscock Secretary Whitney and others togo to-go there and I made it fashionable Mr Lorlilard was very thankful and he offered of-fered me a building site there for my efforts ef-forts in the matter He suggested that he had better make the deed put in my V husbands name as otherwise if might create remark I was green enough then and I permitted him ado so If I bad beeR a J the practical woma I am now I would have known better As iLls tba property is now in the hand of the Potters and = they are living upon it hava no claim V whatever upon it and I have a kad for it but I cannot get it But I might go on for an hour with instances of this kind This however ia enough to show you how I have beea treated and I dont care to say any more FKASK 1C4Jizjiraa 5 CG r f 5 |