Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-09-28
Actors ami auditors.

A singular pnaSe OF Ine JneaIrlcal
existence is the passionate fondness
evinced by members of that calling for
attending entertainments themselves.
Apostles of most other professions and
trades gladly sink the shop when they
are fairly out of it. The lawyer off duty
does not frequent the courts. The edi-
tor is not continually hanging around
other offices when not confined in his
own. Doctors do not rest themselves by
visiting the patients of other doctors.
But the actor or actress, of high or low
degree, when not directly busted on the
glaring side of the footlights, is sure to
be found in the auditorium. The most
persistent theater.goers in the world are
theatrical people.
Mrs. Chanfrau reached Chicago one
afternoon last week. She had travelled
straight through from New York, and,
after twenty-four hours rest, was to
push on to San Francisco. But she was
one of McVcker's audience that night,
and sat the play through. Her business
manager passed all of the same evening
at the Academy. Mr.. aud Mrs. Edwin
Adams arrived in that city three or four
days before that gentlemans engage
ment was to begin. They attended the
theaters every night and matinee, and
we're among the most eager and atten-
tive of the spectators.
1t is so always, everywhere. The wife
of theatrical manager may be seen IN
the audience night after night, month IN
and month out A shoemaker S wife does
not follow her liege to his shop every
day. Clergymen's wives are not regular
companions of their husbands on pasto
raj calls--it might be prudent If they
we're. The actor of regular company
when not cast for duty, can invariably
be seen in the front of the house or that
of a rival establishment. And the puz
zle of it all is, they grow as excited
often, over the fortunes of the players as
the greenest of the auditors. They guf
faw with the comedian, scowl with the
villain, and rub away a sheepish tear or
two at the woes of the distracted maiden.
One would think that the work on the
stage would seem the dreariest of routine
to them, but it does not else are they
better actors when looking at play than
when performing in it.
Notable performers never lose an op-
portunity OF witnessing their great CO.
temporaries. Booth is a frequent visi-
tor to the theater when Fechter and
Adams play. Mrs. Bowers chases after
Charlotte Cushman every chance she
can get. Salvini was an earnest stu
dent of Booths Iago in Baltimore, and
applauded unstintedly. Indeed, the
most lavish, as we'll as the most jlscrim.
mating of applause, comes from profes-
sional actors and actresses IN the au-
dience. The numbskulls who are always
rattling their brogans and percussing
their paws inopportunely are never
members of the dramatic or operate
calling. You do not hear actors ha, ha.
when Joe Jefferson, in plaintiff broken
English, wonders if "dere is anybody
alive round here2" Clara Louise Kel.
logg waits until her sister song bird has
finished her aria before breaking in with
applause. i,
This love of attending places OF
amusement, on the part of amusement
people, is one of the best proofs OF the
permanent attractiveness OF the stage.
They never tire of seat in the audi
ence, fully as they understand the un-
reality of all that is enacting on the
boards. How, then, can the casual
theater frequenters ever weary of the
entertainments which, to them, have so
much of veritablity2 Critics may affect
blase, and wonder at the verdancy which
can eternally accept the crude sham as
real. But what are they going to do with
the life long disciples Of the calling, who
make as enthusiastic spectators as the
rawest pumpkin in the audience2