As a Child of Ten She Excited Rose
Eytinge's Anger Because She
Lacked Experience.
Annie Russell, like Miss Bates, comes of theatrical stock, so the door to
the stage was on the latch for her.
Miss Russell's first appearance took place in Montreal when she was ten
years old, and was preceded by a heart-breaking episode. Rose Eytinge was
playing "Miss Multon" against Clara Morris. Two children are needed in the
piece, and when Miss Eytinge ascertained that one of them--_Jeanne_,
assigned to Annie Russell--had never been on before, she was furious.
"Do you want to queer the show when so much depends on it?" she demanded
of E.A. McDowell, her manager.
The girl, Annie, chanced to overhear her, and fell to weeping bitterly.
Miss Eytinge noticed her, had her heart touched by the spectacle, soothed
the child, and allowed her to play the part. Later on she appeared in the
chorus of a juvenile "Pinafore" company, and was soon promoted to be
_Josephine_.
Then she made a big jump--to the West Indies, to look out for her small
brother Tommy, the "child actor" of the company, later one of the two
famous _Fauntleroys_ and now a dramatic critic on a New York paper. While
with this troupe she was pressed into service to fill a big variety of
parts, giving her a good foundation on which to build her big hit in the
sun-bonnet of "Esmeralda."
She followed this with another success, in an altogether different
line--the poetical one of "Elaine," and then fell ill. For some years she
remained off the boards, close to death's door, and returned to them
finally in a weakling play by Sydney Grundy, "The New Woman."
She took the taste of this out of the public's mouth by a triumph both
here and in London with "Sue," and then went into the background once more
with "Catherine," from the French.
Her real arrival as a popular star was made in the autumn of '99, at the
Lyceum, in "Miss Hobbs."