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Show j ifiip - How Did Marie Empress, the Fa mom Tragedian Edmund Kean's Great-Grandniece, Great-Grandniece, Vanish Unheard and Unseen from the Thronged Liner "Orduna"? What Drew Her Into Oblivion, from Its Brilliantly Lighted Decks Into the Cold, Black Waves? Mysterious Ocean's - - - Latest ' Enigma! of the Newest Photographs of Marie Empress. g How Did Marie Empress, the Famom) J "4A H Tragedian Edmund Kean's Great- "rr"- OPk H Grandniece, Vanish Unheard and fM I Unseen from ie Thronged . v ( Liner 6 'Orduna99? What Drew V -'mWAH M E Her Into Oblivion, from Its Mr jJ'J X. H Brilliantly Lighted Decks Into the , VjV -WMf f jJW : H:" dt "What was it that reached out of the great waters and plucked Maris ' A "'. rfeP' '"afeA Empress from the liner's deck? What subtle spell what promise ' " " ' ' ' ' Jj ' 0 UrCeSe'0 Srl-C'W" arne frm j'"'6 ach a.n racingrwavea ; 4 .. 4 ''5 wBsl I j Vanious' Kean's preat-grandnieee bad gone that time said1 that it was the mark left j I ' H lb . ' .'.'-'; iS&SSa Stir ! x ii SsSir "n l-,',ar,! cnntcmplating suicide. Besides, by an attempt at suicide, f is i At - . $ &SWik. here is other evidence that she did not. Whence came the smaller scar -which . If ffllBBBBF a Tac aD0Te ner berth were a num- the stewardess saw on the side of her HBpi!jSA ler of photographs of herself apparently nose, and have these two things any bear- ,T ;;.Cr5f yRpOMgtlMB lISaR! placed aside to be given to press represen- Lng upon the mystery of Stateroom 4S0? 9 J u. fiSlM;?-." .t: .! tatlves on her arrival in New York. To "Maybe she was a stowaway. She . J' ; f: . , few JgSnSSfmif the proprietor of an hotel at which she had could have slipped into men's clothes and f .'.. v7JHMHH formerly lived she sent from Halifax a hidden in the hold." said a petty office. i j 'J' v M ' "Arrive Monday. Please have room for incs. Maybe she got tired of a woman's ,j ' J3& ' ' -'j.- . . ,' ' Jfe--'. Certainly when she left Nova Scotia she while. She could pass as" s man without 'f&f : ' S KK'X'y had no thought of ending her career. any trouble. She'd been a male imper- t.jg ;';''' ' . '. -J What was it that happened between sonator." But this the high officers of the jjjljrS 3 S ' '" r ' ' 8 ! out of the ken of man? "She was too young and lovely to have tiff .JjHL ' r - " K-' The first possibility that occurs to the sought such a death of her own will," said ' Sjtfc. '.ffs 't- ' s"''' ' mind is. of course, love. Was there a Walter Hast, who had been her fellow "' iVB&pliif h.' " ' v 1 Va5f Jr f Vf 'j. broken romance, some one with whom she actor in Manchester. "But we must not H8---S ," -. . k' M?- had parted in England and had parted, as forget the lure of the black waters . at u perhaps she thought, forever? In the night. It is like the call of a lover to the o-"''- S BaH ' eight did it seem to her that life without romantic, or :ic the pull of gravity from $ oBm BibH 'ove was n0' wrth living, and did the a high building to the imaginative." B? ". $ 'k- ':ir'fM sighing of the waters as the ship cleaved "Perhaps she had been seized by tti 8 V. ' "Vy" through them bring to her the irresistible Great Misgiving," said a fellow passenger. Marie Empresses 8 r V ') .j.til,n of n,jins forget fulness within -Kveryone is son.u-t irc.es visited by it un- She Appeared in s 8 '3 Jmy them? There is nothing, not a scrap of less he or she is a multi-millionaire. She the London Theatres 3 Ls' - 8 dtSuf&i- ' -. v evidence, to show that such a love affair may have feared to start again in the Just Before ...A f Qffi existed. world's most critical cify where once be- Sailing to - The Lost Actress in Her Role of Did her courage fal1 her wheD within a fore 6Qe had failed " . iJir English "Chappie" One of Her day's sail of the city she hoped to con- "Could it have been murder?" asked the America. Moci- Surrssfnl Imnoi-snnatinnt quer? For once she had failed here. She speculative. "Her life had held some grand "What was it that reached out of the great waters and plucked Man Empress from the liner's deck? What subtle spell what promise of surcease of sorrow came from the black and racing waves that night luring her to death in their icy arms?'" I T 6 o'clock on the evening of October 1 .- sh of the stewardesses of the I Cunard Line's great passenger L-Ordtma" kDocked at the door of State-b State-b fy). The ship was then two and a fipoa out from Halifax on its way to l destination, New York, tte occupant of Stateroom 4S0. outside w door the stewardess stood, was n on the stage as Marie Empress, bis in reality the great-grandniece or BudKean, one of the greatest tragsdi- ike English stage, and Kean was fral name. Marie Empress was a leiieime. a favorite of the London Bt halls and on her way to conquer, if leould. the stage in America. E as young, exceedingly attractive, k and. so far as any of her fellow sengers could see, untroubled, ne Etewass was bringing her a little per. At :30 she returned, carried bthe dishes and received instructions me back at half-past nine with sand-ies. sand-ies. which it was Miss Empress's cus-Ito cus-Ito eat before retiring. precisely 9:30 the stewardess ded at the door; receiving no reply katered. The stateroom was empty, ptog that the actress had gone to Pother part of the ship she left the jhiches. pthe usual time next morning she P blocked at the door of Stateroom ' again receiving no reply she peeped Iftere was no one there. The sand-f8 sand-f8 lay untouched. The bed had not P s'ept in. Everything was exactly fame as it had been at 9:30 on the before when she had closed the ptehind her! arch was immediately made of the No trace of Marie Empress could i. nor any one who had seen her. P"Kuine between 6:30 and 9:30 Marie had vanished absolutely from the r mystery of a disappearance P ship at sea possesses elements of P'ioa no other has. The sea itself prions. A man afloat on it and P the power of its ever shifting and "ions moods is never entirely un-r un-r ' of Its threat of unknown forces. ' 1 that made the Psalmist sing: down to the sea in ships that 'ess in great waters. These see eep " Lrd ad his wonders in the ereatest ot sh'Ps. surround-,Uis surround-,Uis Wnd' man feels the immensity m' And it is, probably, the recog-rthe recog-rthe vast distances, the appalling , (j S!dast hich a man's strength is tet'th f a fly'S Wing iD tbG Jth. eets a disappearance at sea apart from all others. t"38 U that reached out of the I it,' TS and Pucked Marie Empress 8 Utter? What subtle spell-whal P theh SUrcease of sorrow came F luri aDd racin5 waves that r' her t0 death in tDeir felv.L5T' from this well-lighted Pout ft t; 1 sn'P' c"'d she vanish I smgle living soul having seer ti80 ,!l on what 's known as ! "Pens t 0rduna" H has a dooi Mow is - ,L a PassaK'!way. Its one RtBan f lrteen-inch-wide porthole u tor a woman of Marie Em ) L "And the room was just as you see it now." Nothing in all of this shows that the famous Kean's great-grandniece had gone on board contemplating suicide. Besides, there is other evidence that she did not. In a rack above her berth were a number num-ber of photographs of herself apparently placed aside to be given to press representatives represen-tatives on her arrival in New York. To the proprietor of an hotel at which she had formerly lived she sent from Halifax a cable: "Arrive Monday. Please have room for me." Certainly when she left Nova Scotia she had no thought of ending her career. What was it that happened between 6:30 and 9:30 that night which swept her out of the ken of man? The first possibility that occurs to the mind is, of course, love. Was there a broken romance, some one with whom she had parted in England and had parted, as perhaps she thought, forever? In the night did it seem to her that life without love was not worth Irving, and did the sighing of the waters as the ship cleaved through them bring to her the irresistible suggestion of finding forgetfulness within them? There is nothing, not a scrap of evidence, to show that such a love affair existed. Did her courage fail her when within a day's sail of the city she hoped to conquer? con-quer? For once she had failed here. She iiad played a small part with Lew Fields. She had played at Hammerstein's Victoria. Vic-toria. When the Grand Opera House was converted temporarily into a music hall Miss Empress was the headliner. Then that happened which rarely happens in an American playhouse. The gallery booed her. Cat-calls accompanied one of her song6. The song was melodious and the singer was rarely beautiful, but the gallery disapproved of her love scenes with her pianist. Con Conrad. It thought them too realistic. The curtain was rung down. The pianist and the piano were moved below the stage, and Miss Empress resumed re-sumed her songs. "America is savage. I can never conquer con-quer it." she said after this unusual scene. Could it be that, thinking of the past, she felt the battle before her to be loo great for her strength, and in a moment of weakness and depression cast herself away? There is the curious factor of the scar upon her face. A few years ago she appeared ap-peared with this mark running along her neck from ear to chin. It was like a birthmarkor birth-markor like the slash of a sharp knife! She managed to conceal it by the arrangement arrange-ment of her hair and by collars and neck swathings. On the stage, of course, the make-up hid it entirely. She. herself, said that she had received that scar in an automobile auto-mobile accident. Her oldest friends of that time said that it was the mark left by an attempt at suicide. Whence came the smaller scar which the stewardess saw on the side of her nose, and have these two things any bearing bear-ing upon the mystery of Stateroom 4S0? "Maybe she was a stowaway. She could have slipped into men's clothes and hidden in the hold," said a petty officer. "There were men's clothes in her belongings. belong-ings. Maybe she got tired of a woman's life and thought she'd try a man's for a while. She could pass as a man without any trouble. She'd been a male impersonator." imper-sonator." But this the high officers of the "Orduna" ridicule. "She was too young and lovely to have sought such a death of her own will," said Walter Hast, who had been her fellow actor in Manchester. "But w must not forget the lure of the black waters at night. It is like the call of a lover to the romantic, or like the pull of gravity froai a high building to the imaginative." "Perhaps she had been seized by tfhs Great Misgiving," said a fellow passenger. "Everyone is sometimes visited by it unless un-less he or she is a multi-millionaire. She may have feared to start again in the world's most critical cify where once before be-fore she had failed." "Could it have been murder?" asked the speculative. "Her life had held some grand passions. There had been bitter quarrels at parting. Might not one of her discarded suitors have walked the deck with her for a final farewell, and made it. indeed, final? It would be easy to push one overboard. Or might not one of the lovers who had a wish to end her life have sent an emissary aboard to accomplish (he deed?'' There is still another possibility as sinister as any. It is said by friends that during her first American tour Marie Empress Em-press fell violently in love with a musician in New York. After the partial, at least, collapse of her ambition the circumstances preyed so upon her mind that she sought forgetfulness in drugs. Soon after this came a parting between her and the man she loved. The drug habit was not broken, It is said. H may be that In the loneliness of her stateroom, only a day away from New York with its memories and problems, .the actress again sought respite from her thoughts, and in a walking stupor threw herself into the ocean. But the little empty stateroom No. 4S0 lis silent. And none can read the message of the waves that lap the sides of the hull of the "Orduna." press's build to have passed through. It is only a foot and a half from the ceiling of the stateroom and opens out upon the sheer fall of the hull td the water. There was no gallery outside it. And the porthole was locked from within! To have gone on deck Marie Empres3 would have had to traverse several passageways pas-sageways in which people were constantly going and coming at this hour of the eve-Ding. eve-Ding. She would have had to pass through several salons, always at least half filled, , and the actress was of sufficiently striking personality not to have been able to slip through unobserved. To gain the decks she would also have had to pass by various vari-ous stewards and officers, and. finally, having hav-ing gotten there, it seems almost impossible impos-sible that she could have slipped unnoticed to the rail and thrown herself over. All the decks and promenades are brilliantly i lighted until long past the hour when she must have, disappeared from the ship, i Here enters the first element of the mys- tery of Stateroom 4S0. How did Marie i Empress leave the- ship? Closely follows the second element why? The only person whom she seems to have made her confidante is the thin, little, lit-tle, gray-haired stewardess who waited upon her. "She was dressed in black," said this woman, ' with a little hat and a big veil, all black. I thought she might be a war widow. I said, 'Are you Miss or Mrs.?' She answered. 'I have never married, but I may soon.' I said, 'That's nice if you marry the right one.' And she answered, 'That's so; if you marry the right one!' But she didn't say anything more about marriage. "She used to wonder where she would stop in New York. 'I really haven't any friends there,' she said, 'and I don't know where I'll stay.' I said, 'There are plenty of fine hotels. And the taxicabs will take you right there.' 'That's true.' she answered, an-swered, in kind of an absent way. But lots of ladies have talked that way to me before landing. "She said once that she hadn't been very well. There was a little mark, a red line, that ran straight across the side of her nose. She said she had got that hurt in an automobile accident. She said. 'When I get to New York I'm going to an hospital to be treated for if.' (C) 1910, International Feature Service, Inc. "She seemed cheerful enough. She would make little jokes while I sewed the rips in hef clothes. We had several laughs together about things I've forgotten. She seemed just like any other lady who was making the crossing, except that she was better looking and better humored. "We left Halifax at half-past three in the afternoon Saturday. At 6 I rapped on the door and asked her if she wanted anything. any-thing. At first she said. 'I don't feel very well and don't believe I'll take anything.' I insisted, and she said. 'All right, a little hit of chicken.' and I brought it her on a tray. When I came back to get the tray it was cleared. I said, "You did eat it, then.' She answered. 'Yes. Thank you. It was very nice.' 'Will you have sandwiches for the night?' I asked, and she said. 'Yes.' I made up her room and set out the sandwiches sand-wiches at half-past nine o'clock. She wasn't in her room. I thought she'd gono on deck. The next morning I tapped on the door. There wasn't any answer and I went in. Her bed hadn't been touched. I reported to the captain. He had the ship searched from stern to bow three times. There wasn't a sign of her. No one remembered having seen her. Great Britain Rigbts Reserved. |