LADY ARTIST'S MELANCHOLY END

Evening Star, Issue 14515, 5 November 1910, Page 12

LADY ARTIST'S MELANCHOLY END

* ■ 'WITCH OF THE AIR." The uncertainty of a music hall 1 artist's life was never so pitifully lllus- ! tratod as in the case of Mme Sema, at iono time world-famous as "tho Witch I of tho Air," who has just died in Latnibeth Infirmary. In private life Mine Senia was Mrs Hall, and at tho time of , her death (Juno 30) she was sixty-nine ' years of a"-e. In her time she was the famous tight-rope walker and trapeze artist. She was the central attraction of all the big circuses, and of her the theatrical boast of "appearing before the crowned heads of Europe and Asia : could be said with a large amount oi truth, for she travelled extensively, and I appeared in most of the big cities ot the world. —Before Boyalty.--She performed beforo Queen Victoria, and also before King Edward and Queen Alexandra when they were Prince and Princess of Wales. As " Witch of the ! Air " she was known everywhere, and lone of the lato King's horses it will |bo recalled, bore that name. Through i no fault of her own Mme Sema lost all I tho money she had amassed, and for tho past fifteen years has passed through most miserable vicissitudes. Those who knew her speak of her as a .rood woman, and commend highly her iutftgritv and her zest for work. She sustained a very bad accident, and had to givo up her work in tho air. Her later days wcro made brighter and happier by the unobtrusive generosity of iMrs Lawrence and her daughter, Miss { Vosta Victoria. —Food For Her Dogs.—

Tho little son of some people whose premises backed on to Albert Mews, near Clapham road, was in the habit of throwing away remains of food. And one dav an old lady camo up to him, begging that he should give it to her for" her dogs. The little fellow did so, and ho watched. Ho saw the old lady eat the host part of the waste food, and it so touched him that lie went to his mother and told her of the incident, praying her that each day he might give the old lady some food. This the little fellow did for many days. Then one day au old lady was discovered by a local greengrocer to be lying stiff and almost frozen to death in a stable. He took her to his house, placed her before tho lire, and gave her warm food. These facts came to the knowledge of Mrs Lawrence and Miss Vesta Victoria, and they recognised that the old lady of the mews and tho stable was the famous tight-rope walker whose name once was a household word. —Friends.— Thoy discovered, too, that Mme Senia for many years had earned a precarious living by taking performing dogs round the streets. She had four beautiful dogs, who were passionately attached to~lier, and she saw that the animals had food even if she starved herself. Both Miss Vesta Victoria and her mother were much touched by the stress of tho old lady's circumstances, and thoy saw that she was cared for and wanted for nothing to tho day of her doatli. The rent of her room and the rent of tho stable for her dogs were Said for her. For the past month Mme had been lying ill at Lambeth Infirmary, and before she died she begged Mrs Lawrence to see that her faithful canine companions should be destroyed, with the exception of one, and that one she asked Mrs Lawrence to keep. " I cannot bear to think that taey may not get a good home, and it is better they should be destroyed;" she said.