Unknown Admirers.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 12, 21 March 1908, Page 67

Unknown Admirers.

ENTERTAINING LETTERS IN AN ACTRESS’S POSTBAG. Miss Nina Sevening,. who appears in a leading part in “Susanhah —and Some TOthers,” is also one of the foremost favourites of the picture-postcard collectors, among whom she enjoys an immense and ever-growing popularity. 'She began her stage career at the suggestion of Mr. Owen Hall, who heard her sing at a friend’s house, and then gave her place among the famous “Tell jne, pretty maiden’’ sextette in the original “Florodora” production. “In those days,” she says, “I wore my hair down, and I have a collection of entertaining letters of all kinds addressed to “The girl with her hair down her back.” UNCONSCIOUS HUMOUR FROM THE ; ‘ STAIAJi. Like that of many another popular actress, her postbag contains some remarkable communications at times, and these documents are very often full of unconscious humour. For instance, this one: “Dear Miss Sevening,—l expect you have noticed me, as I' am sitting in the front row of the fetalis” (there were some thirty seats, by the way), “and I wear my hair brushed back. Although you have not met me before, I am sure you will not regret it, ii you care to come. I may be a little late, as I must drive my mother home first, and I shall not be able to come round to the stage-door for an answer, also because, of her; but if you blow your nose twice during the next act,-T will know that it is all right.— You J sincere friohd, “PiS.—Please don’t send U»c programme-seller - back, yvitlt an answer.” “Needless t<> say,” says Alias. Sevening, "I did not blow my nose twice during the next act, but as I happened to be

suffering from a very bad cold, it was a rather trying experience for me.”

“I derived some compensation, however, from watching the young man’s mother, and, taking into consideration the rigid expression on her face. I quite understood the anxiety he expressed in his urgent postscript. “Every profession, doubtless, has its ‘penalties,’ but I wonder how many people not actually connected with the stage are aware of the number and variety of quaint things that an actress is asked to accept and, incidentally, to write about or wear for the purposes of advertisement, in the course of the year. “These articles range from ostriches to bicycles, and from scented soaps to flannelette nightgowns—but I am not collecting that sort of thing. “Still, I have a penchant for bonbonnieres, old china, and enamel, but owing to the fact that most of my spare time is taken up in signing picture-postcards, I have little leisure for indulging in it, as the picture-postcard craze seems to have penetrated to every part of the w'orld, and cards continually * arrive for signature from the most out-of-the-way places in Africa, Australia, and even the Pacific Islands.

“Some time ago, in fact, a friend of mine wrote me from abroad saying that he had found a picture-postcard (showing me with a cat in my arms) stuck on a Burmese idol as an offering!'’ © © ©