The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-24

in demand in this sphere are vulgar, Sensele5S
and, TO the most triumphantly successful,
should be capable of indecent constructions,
and accompanied by the wink, the wriggle,
the grimace, which are not peculiar to Yir-
tuous women, whatever else they are. The
more senseless the song, the more utterly it is
idiotic drivel, the better it will answer in the
absence of the baser requisites. Here is a
specimen-
'Tittle Bo-peep, she lost her Sheep
And don't know where to H-ind her;
Leave her alone and she'll come home,
And fetch her tail behi-tnd her.
simple nursery song and if men were
babies innocent and harmless in itself; but
men are not babies, and the song is not sung
in o simple or harmless manner, but with the
wink or the idiotic stare that means a world,
and sets the audience into an ecstatic roaring.
To Jig Let no one confound jig-dancing
with the poetry of motion which is illustrated
by a thoroughly organized and thoroughbred
body of ballet-dancers Ballet dancing is
profession by itself, just as distinctly as is
singing in opera. danseuse like Fanny
Ellsler or Taglioni, or, to come to the present
moment, like Morlacchi, is no more to be
ranked with these nude iiggers than an actress
like Mrs. Lander is. The ability to jig is an
accomplishment which any of these nude
creatures can pick up in few weeks. A
danseuse, who has any claim whatever to the
title of artistic, must be bred to her profess
sion through years of toll and study. In this
country the ballet proper has had little illus
tration Yet it is a branch of art-not the
noblest art, it is true; but, by the side of the
jigging woman almost rising to dignity.
To play on certain musical Instruments
These instruments should be such as to look
queer in a woman's hands-such instruments
as the banjo and the bugle. Now, l am not
saying that the ability to sing silly songs, to
| Jig, or to play the banjo, in itself disgraces
! a,,tit ha,
my esteem. / am only calling attention to
them as valuable aids to the nude woman in
her business, and letting you judge whether
| they give her any right to the name of actress.
You, no doubt will at once remark that these
accomplishments have hitherto been peculiar
| to that branch of the show business occupied
! by the negro minstrel. But in the hands of
the negro minstrel these accomplishments
amuse without disgusting us. They
are not welded to bare legs, indecent wrig-
giles, nor suggestive feminine leers and winks;
nor is there a respectable minstrel band in the
United Stahss to-day which would tolerate in
! its members the dOuJIes eBteHdres which fly
! about the stages of some of the largest tenn
pies of the drama in this city. The minstrels
| would not dare utter them. Their halls
would be vacated and their business ruined.
1t requires that half-naked woman should
utter these ribaldrous inuendoes before our
! faStidious public will receive them unrebuk-
ingly.
TO what branch of the show business, then
do these creatures belong? [ answer-to that
| branch which is known by the names of
riety show, concert saloon, music hall, and
various other titles, which mean nothing un-
less you already know what they mean. No
one in the show business needs to be told
| what variety show is. It certainly is not a
theatre. Until the reign of the Nude Woman
set in, variety halls were the resort of only the
lowest and vilest, and women were not seen in
the audience. The Nude Woman some
times seen upon the stage, but she was only
one of a large variety of attractions-she was
a luxury hugely relished by the low and vile
| who went to see her. but only permitted to
exhibit herself economically, for fear of cloy-
! ing the public appetite. Delicate caution but
how useless, her later career in our theatres
has shown. There she is exhibited ceaselessly
for three hours, in every variety which an in
decent imagination can devise. When the
Black Crook first presented its Nude Woman
! to the gaze of a crowded auditory, she was
met with a gasp of astonishment at the
effrontery which dared so much. Men
actually grew pale at the boldness of the
thing: death-like silence fell over the house,
broken only by the clapping of band of
cldquetrs around the outer aisles; but it
passed. and, in view of the fact that these
women were French ballet-dancers after all,
they were tolerated.
BY slow and almost imperceptible degrees
this shame has grown, until to-day the indie
cency of that exhibition is far surpassed.
| These women were ballet-dancers from France
and Italy, and they represented in their nudity
imps and demons. In silence they whirled
about the stage; in silence trooped off. Some
faint odor of ideality and poetry rested over
them. The Nude Woman of to-day repre-
sents nothing but herself. She runs upon the
stage giggling trots down to the footlights,
winks at the audience, rattles off from her
tongue some stupid attempts at wit, some
twaddling illusions to Sorosis, or General
Grant, or other subject prominent in the
public eye, and is always peculiarly and
emphatically herself-the woman, that
is, whose name is on the bills in
large letters, and who considers her
self am object of admiration to the
spectators. The sort of ballet-dancer who
figured in the BldcE Cr0Ob is paralleled on
the stage of every theatre in this city, except
one, at this time. She no longer excites at
tention To create proper and profitable
sensation in the breast of man, she no longer
suffices Something bolder must be devised
something that shall utterly eclipse and out
strip her. Hence the Nude Woman of to-
day-who outstrips her in the broadest sense
And as if it were not enough that she should
be allowed to go unhissed and unrotten-
egged, she must be baptized with the honors
of profession for which Shakespeare wrote
Managers recognize her as an actress, and
pay her sums ranging from fifty to thousand
dollars week, according to her value in their
eyes. Actresses who love virtue better than
money are driven into the streets by her, and
1t becomes grave and solemn question with