“Often during this engagement she had spoken of Mr. William Winter in terms of gratitude and respect, and that the sentiment must have been mutual we have ample verification in his many valuable books. From these pages we of to-day are able to recreate once more the golden art of the greatest _Juliet_ of all times. ’Dear William Winter,’ I remember hearing her say, ’how much I have to thank him for help and advice!’” MISS NEILSON’S GOOD INFLUENCE. Adelaide Neilson, whatever may have been the errors of her early life, was intrinsically a noble woman, and any man might well be proud to have gained her kindly interest. In the often abused art of acting, to pass, as she did, from the girlish glee and artless merriment of _Viola_ to the romantic, passion-touched, tremulous entrancement of _Juliet_, thence to the ripe womanhood of _Imogen_, and finally to the grandeur of _Isabella_, is to fill the imagination with an ideal of all that is excellent in woman and all that makes her the angel of man’s existence and the chief grace and glory of the world. All acting is illusion: “the best in this kind are but shadows.” Yet she who could thus fill up the measure of ideal beauty surely possessed glorious elements. Much for her own sake is this actress remembered--much, also, for the ever “bright imaginings” she prompted and the high thoughts that her influence inspired and justified as to woman’s nature. As the poet bore in his heart the distant, dying song of the reaper, “long after it was heard no more,” so and with such feeling is her acting treasured in memory. Woman, for her sake and the sake of what she interpreted, has ever been, by those who saw and knew her, more highly prized and reverenced,--a beneficent result the value of which cannot be overstated. As Byron wrote: “The very first Of human life must spring from woman’s breast; Your first small words are taught you from her lips; Your first tears quenched by her, and your last sighs Breathed out in woman’s hearing.” “PAUL ARNIFF.” During Miss Neilson’s engagement at the Baldwin Belasco’s indefatigible industry had been bestowed on a play, modelled on “The Danicheffs,”--a drama on a Russian subject which had been produced at the Union Square Theatre, New York, February 5, 1877. His play, named “Paul Arniff; or, The Love of a Serf,” was derived in part from “The Black Doctor,” and was announced as “founded on one of the very best pieces ever produced at the Porte St. Martin Theatre, Paris.” It was not remarkable, being a loosely constructed melodrama,--some portions of which were well devised and [Illustration: ADELAIDE NEILSON “_And O, to think the sun can shine,_ _The birds can sing, the flowers can bloom,_ _And she, whose soul was all divine,_ _Be darkly mouldering in the tomb_!” --W. W. From a miniature on porcelain.