RUN AFTER AS AN ACTRESS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143784, 7 May 1912, Page 6

RUN AFTER AS AN ACTRESS.

SHUNTED AS A CHRISTIAN. On the boat by which Miss Ada Ward was once travelling from England to Australia, in her acting days, an invalid was brought ou at Naples. “Ho looked very ill," says Miss Ward. “I discovered that no was in .the last stages of consumption. I nursed him nlglit and day, lie told me that his fatuer was a rich silk manufacturer 111 Macclesfield (England), tliat he (the invalid) had travelled overland to Naples, and that ho was going to Australia as a sort of last hope. He gradually gx'ow worse, and eventually died in my arms when we were in the Red Sea.

‘■Twelve mouths later, when I returned to England, I learnt that there had appeared in The Times from time to time an advertisement inquiring ior the whereabouts ot an actress named Ada Ward. I followed up the advertisement, with the result unit 1 found that it was the dead man’s parents who wanted to see me. ‘What do you want to see mo for?’ I said, in the course of a note I sent them. in reply, I was informed that the purser of the boat on which their son was travelling had written to them, telling them ot their son’s death, that I had been with him a good deal, and that 1 was present when he died. It was in these circumstances that they wished to see me. 1 was then appearing at the Globe Theatre, and found it very difficult ro got away. At last, when I did get a chance, I slipped down to Macclesfield. The man’s parents had a very sumptuous house, and by all the members of the family I was greeted with demonstrative gratitude and aflection. They assured me that in future they would very much like to keep in touch with mo. In fact, they wanted to adopt mo as a daughter. Finally, when leaving, they asked mo to accept a beautiful heart-shaped diamond brooch. It must have cost £2OO at least. They also expressed a desire that I should take a cheque phut this I refused to do. Later, I received from them, by letter, n cheque for £2OO, with an urgent request that I would do thorn the favour of not returning it to them. So I kept it. Many years later I again visited Macclesfield; but this time it was as an evangelist. Of course I wont to see these people who, in my acting days, had been so very good to me. But how different they wore to mo ns an evangelist! I could at once see that their feelings towards me had undergone a complete change. Briefly, they did nofc want mo. “That is the difference between being a successful actress, with everything you want, and an evangelist, socking to do good to others.”