age to an actor. The long journeys between plays were harsh and long; and soon became unbearable. Rather than hang around after plays; she would stay in apartments alone waiting for her husband. And often James would come home smelling of whiskey. Ella had known of her husband’s social drinking, but she had not known of her husband’s daily thirst for it until much later. Less than three months after her marriage, while still trying to adjust to life she now found repulsive, Mrs. O’Neill found out that one of James’ sweethearts, claiming him a husband and father of a child, sued in Chicago for a divorce. According to Nettie Walsh, Ella’s relationship to James was of adultery. James denied everything except that they had been lovers. Apparently this wasn’t the first of James’ romances. The second was with a woman named Louise Hawthorne. For years she was his mistress as well as his leading lady. One night she threw herself from a 6-story building. Though ruled an accidental death, it most likely was out of frustration for her love for James. James’ romances had taken its toll on Ella. Though she stuck by him, she was torn up inside. James considered himself lucky to still have Ella and put her on a pedestal. Ella suffered a drug addiction to morphine ever since Eugene was born. Ella first took the drug to ease the pain of childbirth but she began to take it to ease the pain of her harsh life. Combined with James’ frequent touring, her husband’s affairs, and the death of her second child to tuberculosis, Ella felt that this was her escape from reality. Before Eugene was born Ella had two children prior. The first was Jamie and the second was Edmund. Ella left her two children and her mother in an apartment to join James at his request. The 7-year-old Jamie contracted the measles and despite orders to stay away from the newborn baby, passed it on to Edmund. W...
