Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-06-01
THE STAGE BABY.
nv CELIA LOGAN KELLOGG.

Il must not cry. In the morning, instead
Of being sent to school, like other children,
Il ia taken to the theatre to rehearse its
1rart." At night it is not allowed to
sfeep and build up constitution for after
life. but the weary puppet must go
through its tricks before crowd Of whom
it is afraid The stage baby is forced to
do without food for many consecutive
hours. to be up late, to face storms, to en-
dure cold and fatigue, to tax its memory,
and to be beaten il it forgets.
The applause of great audience, so
gratifying to men and women, is simply
Terrifying to q child. The stage baby
leads the life of grown up peO-
Die, undergoing the hardships of the
hardest profession in the world, without
any of the compensation which older the
atricals experience, such as money, gifts,
applause and celebrity. The reward of a
stage child is abuse. Its education is be-
gun by fear and perfected by blows. If a
child falls from horse in the circus, it is
beaten. If it fails to perform feat prop
erly before an audience it is made to re-
peat until it does accomplish it, though at
the peril of its life. The training Of stage
babies is most severe Their limbs are
tortured into difficult and unnatural posi-
LiOuS WuSu UCiuk ltuS III uduCluk dnu az
rObatic exercises. There is no inert talent
for or love of acting in any stage baby
that which seems like talent to the public
is simply the result of severe training, be-
gun long before this child understands
anything but that it must obey orders on
pain of punishment; they are taught ex-
actly as animals are taught, through fear
of the whip. Girls being more tractable
than boys, are preferred in theaters; in
the circus, where physical courage is re-
auired more than docility, boys are usually
the infant prodigies.
There is never any playfulness, fresh
ness, nor gayety of childhood in stage
babies. They are men and women of
smaller growth-as they say themselves,
t'old before they are young"
The stage baby's theatrical life is one of
fear of punishment in the morning, OF
the audience at night, the lights, the bus
tie noise, and confusion behind the scenes.
When the white Fawn" was in re-
hearsal, few years ago, in New York,
numbers of children were daily for six
weeks kept swinging five or six hours in
the air as angels. On one occasion little
girl tainted from want Of food and fatigue !;
she fell from the framework which sup
ported her and broke her arm. During
SuC 5duC WluICI-o VClJ oONOlO ohC wy
aged had part to play at the then New
York Theatre. He appeared only in the
earlier scenes, which left him time to un-
dress and dress for the street, hurry to
Niblo; undress and dress again for the
transformation scene in which his sister,
aged 6, also appeared. The curtain never
fell till midnight; after which, hand in
hand, these two stage babies, went
through the snowy, deserted streets to the
extreme limits of the city, arriving at home
about Q O'clock in the morning, there to
nod in chairs by the side of bed-ridden
mother, a widow, whom they supported
on their hardwon pittance, fifty cents, or
at most dollar night.
The play of "Pizarro" contains stage
baby. The youngest child that can walk
is selected, because its mother says, lam
sure he will speak soon." 1t is a very dis
agreeable and trying part for baby. Ev-
erybody, Cora, Pizarro, Alonzo, and the
soldiers, in turn, pull, drag, and twist it
about. Rolla frequently seizes it by the
hair of the head, nearly scalping it. He
bawls in its ear, frOths in its face, and
slobbers over its little naked, shivering
bosom He jerks it off its feet, and
by one arm, sings it over his
shoulder. where it must strike an attitude
in the air, held by one arm. 1t dares not
cry when he frightens it by sprinkling
false blood on its face, nor when still hold
ing it by the arm, he rushed at breakneck
speed across q Stacking bridge, with
shouts confusing it and shots flying fast
and thick. The bridge crossed, he losses
the baby down anywhere behind the
scenes, rocking not if he breaks every
bone in its tender body; he thinks only
of staggering on the stage and dying effec-
lively. The blood, the danger, flight, pur-
suit, and shouts, are all real to the stage
baby; and mental distress Is thus added to
physical pain.
When children are not available dwarfs
play their parts. A very heavy, thickset,
but remarkably small dwarf was once OBJ
tanned to act the child in "Pizarro -
usually called "ROlla's child though
Pizarro is the father and Cora .th6mother.
That's the proper parentage. The audi
ence noticed nothing strange about the
dwarf, except that he was trifie heavy
for child who was expected to "speak
soon." He spoke sooner than his theatri-
cal mother anticipated, for when Rolla
seized him and flung him, with some diff.
Guilty, in the air, he grasped the actor by
the hair, enwrapped him in the manner
known as "picaback," and, in deep, grufi
VOICE, uttered an Oatn tndt CuIulcu IHc
blood of the ladies present, and roared out,
"If you let me fall I'll kick you'll"
More recently, dwarf was engaged to
play child's part in the drama Of "Enoch
Arden" In the course of the play an
actor inquired how old he was. He should
have replied, Four years" instead OF
which he gave his own age" Forty
four"
The actor was dumfounded for moment,
but recovering himself he patted the
dwarf on the back, and gazing intently
into his old, weakened face, he said: You
look it, me boy, you look it."
A little girl was sent on the stage to
play Fleance, in Macbeth. Forrest was
the star. He had placed on small table
at the wing" or side scene cup OF
something to wet his throat with when he
came of. The child stole up, and, find
Ing the beverage palatable, drank it all.
She had just time to squeeze between two
nats, when he came tearing up for his
drink, and, seeing the cup empty, begin
TO stamp and rage a. only Forrest could.
he used to alarm strong men and women