The Morning Herald

The Early History of Sarah Bernhardt.

[From the London Examiner.]

Some interesting facts have been brought to light by M. Francisque Sarcey, concerning the history of Mlle. Sarah Bernhardt the celebrated French actress. They form quite a drama in themselves. The story begins with the arrest of two young girls in Paris, the one about fifteen the other her junior. The complaint lodged against them was that they had been found in the Palais Royal, occupying chairs without being able to pay the usual sou, and that they had laughed at the chair-keeper when asked for the money. Upon examination it was found that they had run away from Amsterdam, and had arrived in Paris the same morning. They were sisters, they belonged to a family of Jewish origin and their name was Bernhardt.
Two months after this event the younger of the sisters, not fourteen years old, brought Sarah Bernhardt into the world. Nothing was known of the father of the actress, who died young, except that it was his wish that his child should embrace the Christian religion. She was accordingly placed in a convent at Grandchamp, near Versailles, where she received her education. Here she seems to have led the good sisters a pretty dance, for we find her being four times expelled on account of her escapades, and as often readmitted.
At this early date she manifested that mysterious power over others which has so distinguished her later years; and one of the nuns, with a warped but prophetic vision, was wont to say that this strange child was destined either to become a great light in religion or the greatest child of sin that the church ever anathematised.
Upon leaving the convent the girl was heard to say, "I will be a religieuse, unless," she added, "I become an actress."