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Valeslca Suratt ?«ml one of her patients.By GENE COHXNEW YORK:. June 2 4. — The “greatest vampire’* of her time may be found today tip-toeing from cot to cot in a children's hospital, tenderly ministering to the needs of little invalids.Yaleska Suratt—she of the insinuatingly •••wicked*' costumes, thd naughty songs and plays and the'daring publicity—now plays a quiet and matronly role in the private hospital of Dr. Julius .Lempert, famous child specialist.Her fellow nurses say that, she is the most adept of students.■’She has an amazing way -with children,” one remarked. ‘ShR w.ns them immediately and has a way of allaying their fears. She cromes to work before any of us and is the la** to leave. It*s something she realty • wants to do, and she shows it-” jAs for Valerka—gone is the fiery ; star of yesteryear. Instead is the cjuitest and most motherly of personalities. Her figure has roundr-dThe mouth of the 'greatest vampire’ dropped in a .wistful line.“You know, of course that I came from Indiana,*’ she went on. “My family was poor, quite poor. I learned as a child what it meant to hand down clothing from one child to another. Bringing up of. two younger ones fell-to my lot. I have never forgotten those clays. Perhaps that is one reason why I have always taken such an interest in children who ave sick and poor.“I shall stay here only through the summed. Yes, the vaudeville people are after me to go hack iiext fall.■ They're talking about the old, flashy costumes—dresses, dresses and won dresses. It seems funny and artificial, doesn't it? Do you know. 1 don*tlive I was ever stage-struck. Th*j theater never really got me and held me as it does so many. 1 had a natural stage presence. I stayed with n for years but it never penetrated very far into my private lifeThere m»v he some who r a memberand matured and is quite matronly, j the time—oh. manv vears ago-—when She wears a nurse’s costume of light j the 1 iitie milliner cajne out of Ind:-pink shade, a color wh'ch she says ; ana. with t:tiar hair and stunning fisr-is used in England because psycbolu- ' ure. to conquer Broadway. One of gists found it pleased the eye of chU~ j the Gibson girls” was she and. then, dren. [ one of the “naughty. dashing mus:-How different from the dresses of ; lt;al comedy maldi?. Finally she be-!yesterday, when peope gasped as she passed upon the street! Then, it is recalled. her “cutaway backs and otherwise .revealing raiment creat'd many sensations and are remembered to this day when the name of Suratt is mentioned.She was a bit piqued that her retreat had been discovered. The reporter had interrupted the “story-hour in the courtyard, {just, back of the hospital where, swinging lazily in a wide-striped hammock, she was reading fairy-tales. Besides her a bahay monkey pranked in a cage an2 •half a dozen kittens hopped about in pursuit of catnip balls and bits of Y | string.A strange role, indeed, for the very|fome the “wicked woman” of th*j screen.But there seems not the slightest | suggestion of any of those persona b-I ties today. Is it a “mother complex?| Valeska ■ smiles a ■ bit' sadly: ■ In fact j there is a general wistfijlness about I her present appearance.I think I am happier now than I have been in—I’d hate to tell you how long;, she concluded.n : r, j•I \irerl r vlt;tie6rs,eFtL3rvndaI.»ulbimmuiti5idssnI.I-n’tts?rnaughty “Girl With the Whooping Cou~h. » !“For vearg I have wanted to do just this—to he about children, t:»lake care of them and study thetnclosely, she explained. I had known Dr. Lempert, and was interested ;u operations he was performing and he Rave me a chance to come hero. Som* day—not next year. pe- -. tps. or :lv-year after—I anticipate work n.., among children and thus ending my days, perhaps.“In the old days I would spend my vacations in Europe- I would travel and relax, But 1 am older,, now. I have the urgre to do something, something that is helpful to someone. This isn’t the fir.st time I have looked after children, I have-brought up more than one, children of relatives and strange children, but. no—n'ot my own.”has gained in health and spirits at least fifty per cent. She is looking quite like her old self again, and I! am very proud and happy to be her willing attendant wherever she wants to go. It gives me a little glow about the heart whenever your mother- calls me son. I think that I, too. am getting back where the world does not seem such a howling wilderness as it did for a long time back.Mother Hamilton and I talk a lot about the new baby. It was awfully sweet, of you to call him after both Sydney and myself. I expect his father calls him Syd but Mother Hamilton and I always speak of him as Karl.I hope you will let us know* if anything develops in regard to the pearls and 2oe and Syd, Surely those pearls have been tears for us all, haven’t they?Perhaps you had better sell them, Leslie, and build a hospital for crippled children or something of that sort.And yet. if you get them back, I should like you to keep them long enough for me to be sure that I did not give you something that has always been a hoodoo to you.I was in hopes that this baby would be a girl and might have inherited the jewels. But they are to bring bad luck I wouldn't like a child of yoursto inherit them.Kindest regards to Jack, and love to yourself from your mother and me. KARL.(Copyright. 1825, NEA Service, inc.)—-o------TOMORROW; Tetter to Leslie Prescott, from Melville Sartor Is,---Q-ourmayThese a local bene:BIRTH AXXOtTXCEMEXT. J .AREed awayDEPOSITONE DOLL%IS your our SAVIN'There ii but will eaCOMPOUNIAMI
Newspaper Details
Danville Bee
Danville, Virginia, US
Wed, Jun 24, 1925
Page 2
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 06 Dec 2019
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