The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-23
About RnlIet eIrIs.

NutuLy AOE august Ou oaAAot kAA 80 N~'@
others. The article Is entitled "The
Leg Business" and is a severe excoria-
ton OF some of the professors of the
naked drama. We make a few ex-
tracts:
For the dancers of the legitimate bal
let I-who knLw them as a class we'll
have thorough respect. They are a
hard working, in-paid body of women,
tire families, and their moral chHrac-
ters are not one whit affected by their
line of business. The admiring public
who sees the pretty picture they make
on the stage, little knows the physical
fatigue which these poor girls encoun-
ter in return for few dollars week
salary from the manager, and an llIto-
eral Judgment at the hands OF the
audience. Few men work SO hard as
the ballet girl-the coryphee, who by
half-paSt eight o'clock in the morn
ing, is at the theatre, clad in gauze
and silk webbing, practicing pirouttes'
eutreuchatS, the toe-torture, and other
inuuisitorial exercises. 1 have seen
these girls practice from nine o'clock IN
the morning until half-past twelve, al
most without cessation, then take a
hurried lunch, sometimes eating II
while standing shiVering In their thin
clothing in draughty space behind
again at half-past one, and so continue
It'll five. This is for the matinee per-
formance; at halt-past seven that OF the
night commences, finishing porhaps at
eleven. Then comes undressing, re-
dressing, folding and laying away their
stage paraphernaIia; for, even II not
naturally tidy (and tidiness is the rule
with them-the exceptions rarel-these
girls must, for econOmy's sake, be care
ful of their clothing. And so, long az
ter midnight, the tired creatures, often
laden with heavy bundles, creep list
lessly into tine street cars, to be stared
at by rude men, or still worse, drag
home through the deserted streets,
alone and unprotected, at the risk OF
being mistaken for traviRtas OF the
lower grade.
That pose into which she now throws
herself with such abandon is not II vile
pandering to the tastes of those gig
CLING men in the orchestra stalls, but
| is an effort which, TO her idea, is as
| loving tribute to beloved art as a
painters pencil touch is TO him.
have seen these women burst into tears
on leaving the stage because they had
observed men laughing among them
selves, rolling their eyes about, and
evidently making unworthy comments
on the pretty creatures before them'
whose whole soul, and whose whole
body, too, was for the hour lovingly
who are bad" said Mademoiselle B. TO
me the other night, ''it is not we."
Miss Logan gives a note from one
who makes "pads" for the 'artists"
who have physical imperfections."
These pads are made in Philadelphia.
We quote:
Such little inaccuracies as knock
knees and bow-legs, tritiing errata In
Natures original edition, remarkable
for their frequency in the human fam
lily, especially in those misguided
members of it who have rashly chosen
the stage as a vocation, are nimbly rec
titled by the pad-professor. Isaw a let
ter from one of these the other day,
which may be worth producing here
for the sake of its ludicrousness. That
il is a genuine document, pledge my
word. 1t ran thus:
PHILADELFIA-1Inm tites is
finished your nees will be all o X when
you get them on. Bad fggers Is all
plaid out now they will caust dollars.
THE King of Prussia, it is announ-
ced, intends next month to visit the
Castle OF Hohenzollern, which has