Trinity Journal, April 3, 1897

Reprinted from the San Francisco Bulletin:

Mrs. John Martin, who played a conspicuous role in the celebrated will case and subsequently on the New York stage and in the Gotham lock up, arrived in this city from the East last Saturday night. Mrs. Martin did not register at a hotel, but went to her home on Van Ness Avenue, where she is living in seclusion.

“I am awfully glad to get back to my old home," spoke Mrs. Martin with much enthusiasm this morning. She was on her way from the ferry depot to her home via street car. She had been looking after her baggage, which somehow had been delayed.

She was dressed in the latest mode, and looked none the worse for her recent tribulations with theatrical managers and boarding house keepers.

“I am glad to get back to my children,” she continued, after greeting an acquaintance who had just boarded the car. “I have been away a long spell, and while my experiences have been decidedly thrilling and possibly sensational, I have come out on top every time. I beat every case I had.

"The New York papers roasted me horribly, but that is easily explained. I closed up one of the theaters; that is why they excoriated me so bitterly. But I was right. Actor Henley owed me this money, and I was determined that he should not cheat me. He tried his level best, but I was too clever for him. They had me in jail, but they did not keep me there long. I won again.”

“Do you feel that you will make a success on the stage?” she was asked.

“There is not a bit of doubt in my mind. My friends and many competent critics tell me that I will make a star. They say I have the talent, and I am sure I am not indolent. I worked from twelve to fifteen hours a day on my plays. And I am infatuated with the art and, of course, never realized how arduously I did labor.”

“Will you continue before the footlights?” she was asked.

“I am contemplating matrimony,” she replied, rather pensively. "A New York man, very wealthy, with good social standing, has asked me to become his wife. My only reason for not accepting him is his age. He is 75 years old, and I have not made up my mind whether I want to marry a man so advanced in life. Should I not marry. I will go to South Africa as a star with a big theatrical company which will be made up in New York. They tell me that the field is large there, and, besides, money is plenty.”

She stated she was preparing a statement for publication, setting forth her New York experience. It would be lengthy, and she expressed the opinion that it would completely exonerate her in the eyes of the public. She is living in seclusion in order to prepare this vindication.

Also printed was this piece about Mrs. Martin from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Mrs. Martin declares that when she procured the arrest of actor ‘Ted’ Henley in New York, she had no intention of closing Wallack’s Theater.

Of her own experience in prison, Mrs. Martin says she chose to remain to do what she could for the poor prisoners. “When I left the prison there was not a dry eye,’ she adds.

Her plans for the future are not made. She is in doubt which of three things to do.

“I am thinking seriously of marrying,” she said. ‘I have the opportunity to marry a representative man of New York. He has great wealth, a leading position in society, and is 76 years of age.

" Then I am interested with some capitalists in a great business enterprise that would bring $1,000,000 or more every year to California. I might manage this end of the business. I may conclude to resume my art, and with my own company make a tour of South Africa. You see, I have several irons in the fire.’

Mrs. Martin speaks of her dramatic engagement of six nights ‘on the road’ as 'eminently successful.'