Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1868-03-18
Behind the Scenes.

In that city. as told bv a friend
They had just brought out at the
Porte St. Martin, a great Spectacular
piece of rare aetraction requiring a
very large corps du ballet The sub
manager, friend of mine. invited me
behind the scenes the first night OF
epresentation. l went, and had nv
usual chat with my favorites IN the
corps IN the green room before the ris-
ing of the curtain.
While IN the green room. noticed
sitting quite apart from the rest Of the
girls, young dancer whom had seen
before a few times. and whom | had
always spoken to IN vain: she never
would answer me. And | ALWAYS no.
tic"d that she treated all the other
gallants in the same way. On this
evening she was sitting apart and |
observed tears were rolling down her
cheeks, which were heavily rouged.-
She was dressed very sparsely in pink
gauze. | approached her, and, touch
ed by her evident depression, asked
what the matter was. She shook her
head and turned away. One of the
girls, bold hussy, on this, came up
and said-.'Can you guess what is the
trouble with our fine, little Mademoi-
selle Eulalie? Why, shes crying be-
cause she has got to appear III that
light dress, and offer the King, in the
play, a goblet of wine, kneeling-
Non Dteu! how terrible Connie cest
qfrepr r. And the speaker bounced
off, laughing We Frenchmen are so
hardened by our devil-me-care life that
we are seldom susceptible to pity
But was really touched by Mile. Eu-
lalie's emotion. Perhaps it was be-
cause she was unusually pretty, and
so wonderfully fresh and innocent
During the play | saw her on the
stage. The poor thing was fnrai"z a
sriln through the first acts. W hen
it came to the place where She had to
kneel, and thus expose herself to the
rude gaze of the pa1te5Te, she hesitated,
trembIed like a leaf, and the tears
came once more, but, by "a ogonizing
effort, were forced back again. When
she arose her modest color so mounted
to her face as to quite conceal the
rouge paint; and after the last act
she went into the green room-and
tainted. | felt interested, and did,
from my heart, feel for the poor thing.
This was not sham and | am good
Judge
IN about a week, after a good deal
of management, and by inducing the
sub-manager to introduce me, Mile
Eulalie consented to listen to me a
little.
After some time, by the greatest
care-for she was most timid, as well
as modest-I learned her history and,
with it, to respect and venerate this
same, simple ballet girl.
Ny interest, IN part. was due to the
difference between her and the rest
she was a phenomenon. Her real
name was Francoise Tellier-Eulalie
was her fancy stage name. She was
eighteen. Her father was dead; her
mother had REMARKED man who had,
till within year, been a joiner; but,
meeting with an accident, had become
imbccile, and was the inmate of al
asvlum. Her mother was a very sick
~ bat pious Protestant woman; ano
by her second husband had family ot
three girls. Since her husband mis-
fortune she had hardly been able tC
work at ali. What she did was tc
copy documents for lawyers and Ii
braries; for she had good education
and, you know, this has ALWAYS beer
a regular occupation for many F'rencl
| people of the lower bourgeois order
Nine. Revnard, whose father haC
been poor. had learned it in her young
| er DAYS, and had since taught Fran
coise to write lawver.like' hand
1t appears that nephew of the nm
| fortunate step-father was acting il
scenic pieces at the Chatelet, and wa
an enthusiast in his art He observes
/ the advantages which the Young Fran
/ coise poss sessed-her grace of move
ment, etc.-and proposed that sh
I should take lessons for the ballet
| This shocked the mother, as well
might. and she refused her consent
But the heroic daughter was so muc
in favor of the plan that she, at last
obtained Nine. Rewards consent.
The girl saw the difficulties he
mother had in providing means for he
subsistence and for that of the unfoI
tunate invalid, and was ambitious onl
to aid in earning money enough to sur
port them Her cousin was able t
be Of great assistance; he engaged
master at less than hHlf.price. to b
paid from the future earnings Of Fran
coise; and. when she had become
proicicnt-which she did very quicl
IL, owing to her zeal and natur;
brightness-he procured her a situ;
. ton at one of the smaller theatre
/ where she at first, of course, only al
. peared en- corps She rose rapidly ,ha
i the satisfaction OF carrying home
= goodly number Of francs every wee
and of seeing her mother and poo
imbccile step-lather supplied with m
? nv cumforts Of which they had lor
been deprived.
When she cane to the ballet, r
: hearsal mornings, she was observed
carry a little parcel of papers, neat
tied and, IN the intervals, when :.
+ was not wanted on the stage, W
seen writing with great raPidity
; one Of the tables in the green rooI
4 She was doing her mothers cor