Newspaper Page Text
“My Scrub-Brush Is More
Joy Than the Great Hope
Diamond I Once Wore;
My sl2 Wage Is a Greater
Happiness Than the SI,OOO
a Week I Once Was Paid;
There Is More Heart Thurill
in My Beloved Husband’s
Smile Than in All the Pomp
and Prestige | Had As
Lady Francis Hope.”
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The 111-Fortuned Famous
Hope Diamond.
K
b AY YOHHE, the little Pennsylvania
M girl who married an earl, wore for
a time the notorious “unlucky”
Hope diamond, eloped with the son of one
of New York's former Mayors, was a
stage favorite of the late King Edward
VII, and whose career of romance and
adventure extended from one end of the
world to another, is scrubbing floors in
the offices of the S‘eattle North Pacific
Shipbuilding Company.
* Her chief worry is the selection of the
right sort of feed for her small flock of
chickens on her tiny ten-dollar-down-and
iny-the-balance-llke-rent ranch just north
of the city limits. And the once famous
actress made her first payment on her
present home for herself and her husband,
b Captain John Addy Smuts, cousin to Gen
eral Jan Smuts, former commander of the
Boer army, with the money she earned by
wielding the brush and pail.
She.gets for her labor sl2 a week—s 2 a
day.
And she is happy!
This does not mean that she is happy
because she earns only sl2 a week. For,
while it is true that many people with
great incomes are unhappy, there is no
proof that they would be happy without
them. Conversely, there are any number
of millions who are earning $2 a day, or
thereabouts, who are quite miserable. It
wu not always a bplue bird, even if Maeter
linck does say so, which brings that inde
finable, nebulous commodity we call hap
plneu( Not at all. The birds are every
+ color under the sun—each one a separate
color for every separate individual-—and,
alas!—so few whose colors are fast, war
ranted not to run.
“Real happiness,” May Yohe told a rep
resentative from this magazine, after her
night's scrubbing was done, “comes when
one is given the privilege of working for
the one she loves. Love is far more
precious than diamonds.”
I Btill another light on the sources of her
contentment is given by her recital of a
- meeting, while serubbing, with John Con
sidine, the widely known theatrical mag:
nate and one of the owners of the Sullivar
& Congidine cireuit.
Considine once hired May Yohe for an
engagement in Seattle at SI,OOO a week
He was in the shipyard recently, anc
when May looked up from behind her pais
of soapsuds Considine recognized her in
stantly,
“My Gawd, Mayse, what’s the idea?’ he
asked. 2
“Go away,” she laughed, ®™’m scrubbing
for my dinner.” ;
4 “No, but tell me"——
¥ “John—listen!” she said with fervent
earnestness:‘ You paid me SI,OOO a weel
to sing right here in this city of Seattle
You are thinking of me with my big tiars
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“You paid me SI,OOO a week to sing right here in this city of Seattle. You are think
ing of me with my big tiara I wore when | wes Lady Francis Hope, and that
$3,000 evening gown and the lig Hope diamond, and into the picture
comes the pail and scrub-brush. You can’t understand.”
I wore when 1 was Lady Francis
Hope and that $3,000 evening
gown and the big Hope diamond,
and into the picture comes this
pail and scrub brush. You can't
understand,
“John, let me tell you my scrub
brush is more joy than the great
Hope diamond 1 once were; my
twelve-dollar wage is a greater
happiness than the SI,OOO a week
you once paid me; there is more hegrt
thrill in my beloved hushand’'s smile than
in all the pomp and prestige 1 had as Lady
Francis Hope.”
When May Yohe mei Captain Smuts
in London the woman who earned fortunes
on the vaudeville stage, who had been the
mistress of the lordly Hope estate
“Deepdene,” and who entertained royalty
in her London house, had been having a
hard time making both ends meet. Rumor
had it that she was seeking a reconcilia:
tion with her husband from whom she had
fled for no other reason than that “she
could not stand the correctness of his
chilly English friends and family.” 1t is
said that Lord Hope's love for his erratic
ex-wife never really died, and that she
knew what she was about.
But if May Yohe had any such intentions
they were banished when she met the gal
lant soldier. They were married and
safled to South Africa, there to begin life
anew.
And they were there when the war broke
out in 1914. Captain Smuts applied for a
commission with the British army and re
ceived sufficient encouragement to cause
him to make a trip to the Orient, where
he had expected to be assigned. Every cent
that the two had or could get together was
spent on this voyage, and when, arriving
at Yokohama, Captain Smuts received no
tice that he could never be accepted for
mllitary duty because of physical disabili
ties they were absolutely penniless.
“It was in Yokohama, +oo, that 1
learned of my mother’s death,” said Mrs.
Captain Smuts. “It seemed then that my
cup of grief was filled to the brim. But
we managed to come back to Seattle and
my husband easily found work in the stee)
shed at the Seattle North Pacific Ship
building plant.”
All went well and May Yohe was happy
for a time. She found real pleasure in
planning surprises for her husband’s
lunch basket. They managed to live on
the $3.96 a day paid for that branch of
labor performed by Captain Smuts,
“My last engagement in Seattle” sald
May Yohe, “netted me SI,OOO a week, but
the thousand failed to bring the pleasure
that my husband’s hard-earned weekly pay
check did.”
The Smuts lived in a small apartment
on Second nvefiue. Seattle, and May Yohe
found that by careful management ghe
could save two or three dollars each week
from her husband's earnings. That was
before Captain Smuts became 111 with the
Spanish influenza.
Funds ran out and May Yohe demanded
{he services of the company's fifty-cents.
a-month doctor. Medicines were needed
and alse food, It was then that May Yohe
decided to work.
“My husband is ill and T want work”
she told the employment manager at the
shipyard.
“What can you do?” he asked the woman
who time and again swept audiences off
Ay
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their feet with “Honey, Ma Honey.”
“That’'s what puzzied me,” said May
Yohe. “I knew I could sing, but singing
doesn’t build ships. I couldn’t typewrite
Then I realized that 1 was a woman and
could scrub floors. All women can do that
if they are forced o it. None like it.”
So May Yohe went to work on the
“graveyvard shift” from midnight until 7
o'clock in the morning, scrubbing floors.
fumping out waste baskets and wvarious
other things expected of janitresses. Dur
ing the day she nursed her husband, cook
ing little delicacies that she had earned
herself by scrubbing floors.
Then one/day the sun shone again for
May Yohe. Her husband was pronounced
out of danger by the physicians and was
able to return to his work in the ship
vard. In two weeks’ time, by their com:
bined efforts, Captain Smuts and his wife
paid $lO as their first instalimen: on
their little chicken ranch. By this time
May Yohe thinks she has solved the
science of chicken-raising, She knows
just how many eggs one hen is supposed
to lay during the year, and she has de
cided that each one of her feathered pos
sessions must produce $3 profit yearly or
go into the pot. Her ambition iz to have
1,000 of the three-dollar-a-year earners and
her little home paid for. By her calcula
tions a Year’s hard work will yield the
price she often paid for one gown.
“But my clothes don’t cost much now,”
she said, calling attention to her neat
house dress. “By watching the bargain
counters a woman can dress on a few
dollars.”
May Yohe in her new happiness ex
presses symoathy for those shé has left
behind in her former world of pomp and
vanities,
“It isn't worth the price one pays,” she
said. “Titles, diamonds, so-called honor
and world applause. What are these
things? Titles cause envy and hatred
Diamonds are no! worth while, The ap
plause of the whole world is not worth
half as much as a husband's praise of his
wife's biscuits.
“lI have probably had mv share of
worldly things. People say I made a tre
mendous hit on the stage. It is true that
T once wore the Hope blue diamond. But,
believe me, I was happier when | wasg
gerubbing floors in the shipyard than 1
was as Lady Francis Hope, I wouldn’t
trade my present life for a thousand Hope
Diamonds.” '
This confession of the happiness she
finds in the life of a scrubwoman is hardly
more surprising than many other incidents
in the extraordinary cnreér of May Yohe.
From the day when the pretty American
dancer startled the world by marrying
Lord Francis Hope, of one of England’s
proudest families, and becoming the owner
of the world’s most superb collections of
Jewels her life has been just one surprise
after another,
The vicissitudes of the wedded %fe of
Lord and Lady Hope are familiar to all
readers of this page. How she redeemed
hersell temporarily by a period of perfect
decorum; how this was followed by re
lapses into the gayeties of her old theat
rical life; how she suddenly renounced all
her frivolities and sternly devoted herself
to charity; how Lord Hope's family be.
came reconciled and took her up only to
become discouraged and drop her again—
all this is well known history.
Then came her visit with her husband
May Yohe,*2 - a—Day
to America where she met Putnam Brad
lee Strong, a distinguished army officer,
son of a great New York merchant prince
and former mayor. Major Strong became
infatuated with Lady Hope and for him
she left her husband. From city to city,
wross oceans and continents the two fled
in a vain search for the happiness that
was forever eluding them.
During this period a Western hotel pro
prietor objected to the notoriety which
May Yohe was bringing to his restaurant
and ordered her to leave. She flew into
a rage and unsnapped the leash from the
jewelled collar of a huge ribbon-winning
bull dog which was her invariable com
panion.
At a word from her the
beast sprang at the hotel
man's throat and would have
done him serious harm but
for the timely interference of
several strong waiters.
May Yohe screamed and
fainted. When she was re
vived she promptly brought
sait against the hote' for
heavy damages. The -case
was finally settled out of
court,
The visit of the infatuated
pair to Havana will not be
soon forgotten, They lunched
and dined together
in the various sash-
ionable restaurants
and the attentions
which he lavished
on her were so bold
and so affectionate
as to attract the
widest attention.
The amount of
‘wine and highballs
which May Yohe
consumed in an af
ternoon or evening
is still considered
the record in Ha
vana's cases,
Just before the
pair sailed from
San Francisco for
Japan, May Yohe
appeared on the
steamer's deck with
her colored maid
and for five min
utes joked and
laughed. g
But as the steam
er moved away
from the dock she
leaned against the
rail and her laugh
ter ceased.
“Oh, Marie,” she
cried, turning to
her maid, Yit's aw
ful to be leaving
America like this!”
Then she hid her
face in her hands
and sobbed like a
woman whose heart
was broken,
What will this
extraordinary wo
man do next? Even
those who know
her best would
hardly dare vene
ture a guess.
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May Yohe,
at the
Height of Her
Fame and
Prosperity,
Literally
Encrusted with
Jewels .
—and—
May Yohe
To-day As
Mistress of a
Little Chicken
Farm Which
She Is Paying
For At the
Rate of $lO a
Month From
Her Wages
As Janitress,
)
Pura. M \NTOSH