CONFESSIONS OF MAY YOHE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 287, 2 December 1911, Page 18

CONFESSIONS OF MAY YOHE.

THE BAD GIRL OF THE FAMILY. ; i A SUCCESSION OF ROMANCES. Under the heading, "Wiy I'm a Real Uplifter," Miss May Tone, divorced wile or Lord Clinton Dope and others, and formerly vaudeville star In Atwttalla. tells her ltfe etory in the "American. She cays.I've always been a devil! -._,.. Everyone says "Poor May Tone!" Yet l, who might have been a dwneee had I been patient, for one or my husbands will be the Duke of Newcastle.— playing in a tencent theatre between moving pictures and a couple or knockouts and I've never found lire so satisfying! I am the only black sheep of oar family. So they call mc. I used to wince at the title. Now I am used to it and rather like it. My earliest recollection Is of picking a linnk. Jt was m> own bank, but I had all the delicious thrill of a real robbery. My relations had given mc hair dollars, quarters and dimes until I had quite a little sum. Mr mother had told mc to keep this money In my toy bank and I would buy Christmas presents for my lamily and friends with the money. Bet in the meantime 1 nad got into bad company. I had a little friend named Rachel, who taught mc how to open the onopeuable bank with a hat pin. I would try and jiry Into the bank, got a handful of money at a time, and I would take lUrhel and myself to the theatre, ami buy candy and lie cream. At last the week before Christmas came and my mother said, "Now we will open the bank." When she hud opened the little Iron house in a legitimate way she found there just thlrty-flve cents. She got n <-oiife?Kion from mc, then salil with Yankee sternness: "Remember this! First, you steal, then you lie. then yon murder, then you hang." Ry the time I was ton I became what mother called unmanageable. My fault seemed to lie one I have had ever since. I have had plenty of boy friends, but no girl friends. One of these boys was Sid. Drew. Mother thought It wne bent *o eenrl mc n way, and she decided upon a school !n Europe. I travelled to Germany alone. I was a student in a g\ri~ school In Dresden fur years. They were Jolly years. I kept fairly well out of trouble except once and that ended in my becoming a heroine. We ivere not alio-wed to correspond with any hoys. All our letters were censored and those we received were read by the teacher before we read them ourselves. When I was fourteen and a-half I was sent to Paris to a finishing school. Frauleln put mc Into a compartment filled with woI men, but at the first station I got out and changed to a mixed compartment, one in which there were both men and women. In it there was an English boy of eighteen, a dandy. lie and I became chumH at once. i When we stopped at on« of the German stations for lunch I lunched with him. As we nx-ared Paris he said to mc: "How shall I ever see you at the convent?" I answered, "Come with mc and I'll Introduce yoo as my cousin." ' Well, we had two afternoons and eveninge together every we?k for a year and a-half. We saw all the great actors and actresses, and went to nil the fine restaurants in Paris. When I was sixteen and a-half I received ' a medal from the Sisters and went back jto Philadelphia. On the way Lome I bee&me engaged to the second officer or the ship. I remember that he had a lovely overcoat with deep fur I cuffs. I persuaded him to rip them off the cuffs and give them to mc for a muff. When [ got home my mother sent mc on a visit to my aunt and sent the second officer back to Paris, a most bewildered young Frenchman. I was about home for less than a year when I thought or going on the stage. I Joined the "City Directory" and made a hit. We came to New York in that play and I wan lionised as In the days when I was a heroine of Frauleln's school in Dresden, only in a more Intoxicating way. The vino of success and adulation went to my bead. Shortly after this I was driving downtown with a friend and saw three Englishmen looking into a shop window. I said to my jfriend: "If that man looks back my whole life will be changed." ire did look back. lie was sailing next morning on the St. Paul. My mother and I were at the dock to gee him off. I promised to see him as soon as I arrived In England two week later. He met mother and mc. Fifteen minutes after I met him In England wo were engaged. 1 never knew until after we were engaged that he was Lord Francis Hope, Three months later we were married. The eight yenrs of my marriage I was most happy. Lord Francis Hope was a prince among men. lie was the best man I ever kno-w and I truly loved him. We wonld be happy together still had not Putnam Bradlee Strong come Into my life. Aa I have since bitterly characterised the situation: "At. first there was Hope. After that there was « Strong chance of misery." Well, I got It." Two events in those terribly Strong days stand out in my memory. Om> was when I was In Japan and gave a Roman dinner. It lasted three days and three nights! The other was that In the •end Rtrong left mc destitute, besides stealing n,y Jewels. The time came when I walked from One Hundred and Fifteenth street, wli?re I lived, to Liberty-street, and back, because I had not car fare. Well, It's over. Thank Heaven, I'm rid of him. H-e was in. gaol in China for five days. I've heard of his being around New York lately. Now I'm going on a world tour with Jack ll'Anllffe, my girlhood sweetheart! Just think, he's carried my picture for twenty years! We're having a vaudeville, sketch written called "The rpllft." You've se';= In the papers that we"re going to be married. Maybe we are. Anyway, why not try onco more. First I had a peach, then a lemon. Tills tinw*, at least, there max be a good pair.