Woman of the Century/Effie Ellsler

ELLSLER. Miss Effie, actor, born in Philadelphia, Pa. She is a daughter of John A. Ellsler, the well-known actor and manager. Her mother also was an actor of merit. Erne's strongly marked talents are therefore an inheritance. She was early upon the stage. At the age of three years she made her debut as the Genius of the Ring in "Aladdin." At the age of four years she played Eva in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and she made a hit in that role. Soon after Effie's birth her parents settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where her father took the management of a theater. The child was called upon from time to time to play child parts. Her EFFIE ELLSLER. parents at first intended to train her for dancing, and Effie soon acquired remarkable agility in the preliminary training. She was sent for a number of years to the Ursuline Convent in Cleveland, where she received a very thorough education. She remained in that school until she was sixteen years old, at times leaving for a short space to assume child roles in her father's theater. On one of those occasions she was cast as one of the witches in "Macbeth." The red-fire flash caused her to forget her lines, when she deliberately drew the book from her dress and read her words. At sixteen years of age she began the regular work of the stage, playing all sorts of parts from Juliet and Rosalind to a howler in a Roman mob. She made her first great success as Hazel in "Hazel Kirke," in the Madison Square Theater in New York City. She played in that role for three years, until her physician ordered her to discontinue it on account of the strain on her powers. During the past ten years she has traveled with her own company, presenting a variety of plays, most of them with Great success. Her most successful play, aside from "Hazel Kirke," has l>een "Woman Against Woman." In 1891-92, in answer to countless requests, Miss Ellsler revived "Hazel Kirke," in which slie again showed her great powers. She ranks among the foremost emotional actors of the United States.