Page:The Great Harry Thaw Case.djvu/236



"She was born on Christmas, 1884, in the state of Pennsylvania, in the city of Pittsburg. The first years of her childhood saw her lose her father and natural protector and left her in charge of a mother who early manifested a character of frivolity and extravagance which was later to be attended with such fatal consequences.

"At ten years of age the family began to feel the pangs of want, the sufferings of poverty and the gnawing of hunger. At twelve she began to be the family drudge, assisting her mother in such acts as she could perform. And thus the family continued moving from place to place without any fixed habitation on the face of the earth.

"But nature having endowed her with beauty which showed in early youth, we find her looking to it for the support of the family. At fourteen we find her in Philadelphia, already embarked upon the perilous seas of an artist's model's life. But New York was the market in which such gifts were most eagerly sought and would be dearly paid for. And to New York the family came, and by the efforts of the mother the employment begun in Philadelphia was continued here and the beautiful child went from studio to studio and at the end of the week paid into the hands of the mother the scant few dollars she had earned to support the mother, the brother and the child.

"But the large metropolis afforded broader avenues of gain than the mere studios of artists—the stage, with all its tinsel and glare of dazzling lights lay before them and the tempter came.

"The theatrical manager found the girl at fifteen and employed her at $15 a week, where she slaved at night as she did by day—posing for artists—but at night she appeared on the boards of the stage.

"It could not be long, for the beauty with which she was gifted attracted attention and the tempter came. He saw, he