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

bodies with drapery for good and suti-
cient reasons which no man, who has a wife
or mother, should stop to question. But set
this aside. Circus men, who strip to the waist
in this fashion, don't claim to be actors. Now
| come back to the words said at the Woman
Suffrage Convention. They have been vari-
ously reported by the newspapers. They were
exactly as follows
81 can advise no honorable, self-respectng woman
to turn to the stage, with its demoraiizing iu6u-
stronger day by day; where the greatest rewards
are won by set of brazen-faced, clog dancing
creatures with dyed yellow hair and padded limbs,
who have come here in droves from across the
ocean"
have been astonished and panied at the
extent to which the meaning of these words
has been distorted. The press and my anony-
nous letter critics seem to be agreed in
taking the view that attack, in these words,
the profession in which was reared, and all
my family. Some of the letters sent me are
from religious people, encouraging me to go
on; others are from actors and actresses,
seeking to dissuade me-not always in gentle
language The first letter on which 1 lay my
hands-so gross in its language that l suspect
it to be from one of the nude women them
selves-says:-'' were, no doubt, satisfied
with the stage SO long as it paid. Now, don't
swear at the bridge that carried you over.
Perhaps this person, being new to the coun-
try, thinks it is true, as a newspaper once
said that was formerly ballet-grl.
Hitherto / have only laughed at this story,
as on a par with that of the person who
thought me daughter of the negro preacher
Loguen, or that Of the ''dress reform" scare
crow who believed me formerly ballad
songstress." 1 laugh at it no longer. L
answer, in all gravity, that L never was bal
let-grl, nor even jig-dancer.
1t is true that l was once O member of the
theatrical profession; so were my father and
my mother; were my five sisters; but 1 say
with pride never was there a Logan who
sought any connection with the stage save in
the capacity of a legitimate player. There
were no nude women on the stage in my
fathers day. Such exhibitions as are now
made on the stage of many leading theatres
were, in his day, confined to that branch of
the show business known as the m0deJ artists
another perversion of words; but most peo-
pie know their meaning in their present ac-
ceptation. Across this Infamous bridge no
Logan ever walked And, one by one, every
member of our family has left the stage be-
hind until, at this writing, not one remains
upon it, though, of their number, there are
seven still living who have trod the boards.
l take up next an, anonymous letter, dated
at Boston, and signed, "a Sister Member of
the Profession" The writer says she is a re-
spectacle actress, and processes to be ignorant
that gross evils prevail in the theatrical
world. She refers to my letter in the New
York Times, and asks at what theatre such
questions were ever put to an applicant for
employment.
In my letter to the Times, l said-
81 referred the other night to decent young women
who are not celebrities-merely honest modest girls
whose parents have left them the not very desirable
heritage of the stage, and who lind 1t difficult TO OBJ
tain any other employment, being uneducated for
any other. When these girls go into theatre to
apply for situation now, they lind that the require
ments Of managers are expressed in the following
al is your hair dyed Yellow
49, Are your legs, arms, and bosom symmetrlcally
formed, and are you willing to expose them?'
49, Can you sing brassy songs, and dance the can
can, and wink at men, and give utterance to dis
gushing half words, which mean whole actions?'
~. Are you acquainted with any rich men who
will throw on iOwers and send you presents, and
keep ahoat dubious rumors concerning your
"5. Are you willing to appear tonight and every
night, amid the glare of gaslights, and before the
6reec6es, ten inches long, without a vestige Of
| drapery upon your person" "
"lf you can answer these questions atfirmatively,
| we Will give you situation; If not, there's the
door,"
At nothing have I been more astonished
| than at the manner in which this letter has
been received by certain professionals.
1t is not necessary, L suppose, to give, with
the accuracy of a criminal trial report, the
exact questions which pass between managers
and actresses who seek for employment, Their
purport is unmistakable. Take this one
| which was asked beautiful and modest young
woman whom / have known for years, an ac-
| tress by profession, who was quietly edged
| out of her last situation because she carried
| decency and womanly reserve too far in the
| presence of an audience which cheered to the
| echo the nude creatures who trod the same
| stage with herr
'Are you up in this style of busness?"
| This question needed no Interpretations
the manager pointed, as he spoke, to one of
the members of his company, photographed
] in an immodest attitude, with her legs clad
in fesh-colored silk, and her body in tight
fitting breech-cloth, richly embroidered. She
was not ''up in" this sort of business; she
! sought employment as an actress there was
none for her, and she went away, to apply
with like results at other theatres
She sought employment as a respectable
actress at fifteen or twenty dollars a week.
! She would have refused $500 week salary to
! do what the Nude Woman does.
If the above instance does not indicate
managerial requirements sufficiently, take
these statements from managerial hps:-
Devil take your legitimate drama! tell
! you, if / can't draw the crowd otherwise I'll
! put woman on my stage without a rag on
! her"
SO said a manager of this city in the
! hearing of dozen people; and the disgusting
remark was banded about from mouth to
mouth, as if it had been wit
A proprietor of one of the theatres above
named, where a legitimate play was running
without paying expenses, rubbed his dry Old
hands together and said:-
AHA! we must have some of those tdt
! yOuRg 1cOmeR in this piece to make it draw
/ 70 H.,