Their Last Performance

An ambitious girl came from a small city determined to make her mark behind the footlights, but was soon disillusioned, and realized that the only theatrical future for her was a place in the chorus. She would have returned home, but her parents were in poor circumstances, and the small amount she was able to send home every week meant much to them. She saw the other girls accept invitations from wealthy men, but she knew the dangers of the gilded path and declined all advances from would-be admirers. There was a hard-working young man back home whom she had promised to marry. One day she received a letter from her mother telling of her father's serious illness, and of their need for money to pay the medical expenses, while in the same mail came a letter from her sweetheart in which he told of financial reverses and of his inability to help her parents. The tempter, in the person of a wealthy man, appeared, and offered to lend her the money that her parents needed. To save her father's life, she made the sacrifice, and the money was mailed that night. The father did not recover as rapidly as was expected, and as he was hovering between life and death, a visitor to the great city brought news of his daughter's life. Heartbroken, the father died, and his wife soon followed him. The girl's fiancé came to New York, told her of her parents' death, bitterly denounced her and cast her off. She tried to forget the past in the gay life of the city, but she could not. One day, a new element came into her life. A young girl came from a distant town and secured a position in the same company. She was hopeful and enthusiastic, and fondly believed that a great future on the stage awaited her, but she had attracted the attention of the same man who had spoiled the life of the other girl. The older girl watched over the newcomer with the care of a sister. The younger girl slipped away one evening after the performance and went with the rich man to a restaurant where dinner was served in a private room. As time progressed she became frightened and to calm her the man called up the older girl at her boarding-house and invited her to join them at the restaurant for dinner. He did not know that the sweetheart of the younger girl had arrived in the city and was at the boarding-house at that time, so he was greatly surprised when a stalwart young man entered with the actress. He was not disposed to give up his prey without a fight, but he was no match for the young athlete and was beaten to the ground. The following night the last performance of the play was to be held, and then the actress had promised to accompany her protégée to her home, for the younger girl's sweetheart had induced her to consent to an early marriage. The curtain was about to fall upon the final scene when a pistol shot rang out, and a girl in the chorus was seen to sway and fall. Men leaped into the stage box and seized a half-crazed wretch, who clung to the fatal weapon, as he gazed in fascination at the stage, for the shot had not reached the little bride-to-be, but the older girl, who, though a cast-off of society, had given her life for her friend. Her death was not in vain, for the other girl is now happily married, and she and her husband often speak of the girl who made the supreme sacrifice which brought happiness to them.