Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-07-02
The Nude woman Question.
Olive Logan in Packard's July Monthly.l

| Olive Logan in Packard's July Monthly.J
When the Black Crook first presented
its Nude Woman to the gaze OF crowded
auditory, she was met with gasp of
astonishment at the etfrontery 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 claqaeus
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. n..
By slow and almost imperceptible de-
groes this shame has grown, until to-day
the indecency 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
ever them. -E
The nude woman of to. day represents
nothing but herself. She runs upon the
stage giggling; trots down to the foot
lights, winks at the audience, rRttles of
from her tongue some stupid attempt at
wit, some twaddling allusion to Sorosis,
or General Grant, or other subject prom
inent in the public eye, and is always Pc
ouliarly and emphatically herself--the
woman, that is, whose name is on the
bill in large letters, and who considers
herself an object of admiration to the
spectators.
The sort Of ballet-dancer who figured
in the Black Crook is unparalleled on the
stage of every theater in this city, except
one, at this time.
She no longer excites attention.
To create proper and profitable SEN
sation in the breast of man, she no longer
suffices. Something bolder must be de-
vised--something that shall utterly
eclipse and outstrip her.
Hence, the nude woman of to-day
who outstrips her in the broadcast sense.
And, as if it were not enough that she
should be allowed to 60 unhissed and un-
rotten-egged, she must be baptised with
the Ihonors of profession for which
Shakespeare wrote.
Managers recognize her as an actress,
and pay her sums ranging from fifty to q
thousand dollars week, according to her
virtue better than money, are driven into
the streets by her, and it becomes grave
and solemn question with hundreds of
honorable women what they shall do to
earn livelihood.
say that it is nothing less than an In
suit to the members of the dramatic pro-
| fession that these nude women should be
clasRed among actresses, and hold posses
sion Of the majority of our theaters.
Their place is in concert saloons or the
circus tents. Theaters are for artists.
A friend said to me the other day that
| il was inconsistent in me to find inde-
cency in women exposing their persons,
when men constantly do the same-thst,
as an honest exponent of woman rights,
| ought to see no more immodesty in a
woman dancing q jig in hesh-colored
leggings than in man performing a
circus feet in the same costume.
reply that think such shows arei n
decent in both sexes. Yet, nevertheless,
in woman thousand times more inde-
cent than in man, for the simple reason
that the costume of the sexes in everyday
life is different
To ignore this fact is to just wilfully
shut ones eyes to reasonable argument
Women in society conceal sll the
lower part of their bodies with drapery-
and for good and sufficient reasons,
which no man, who has q wife or mother,
should stop to question.
But set this aside. Circusmen, who
strip to the waist in this fashion, don't
claim to be actors.
Irespect the theater in its purity. /
respect the actor who is an artist-even
the harmless clown Of the pantomime,
who makes MS laugh without offending
decency. That love so many good and
lovely women who are actresses, is my
chief reason for deploring the reign OF a
class of women who are neither good nor
lovely-bu. coarse, indecent, painted,
aud dyed.