The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1875-01-09
THR STAGE HUSBAND.

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| And tell her all my love, thou gentlest night
Good night, good night .....
THE STAGE HUSBAND.
Nym Crinklc on q Well Known Thea
trical Character.
Everybody who has had any ex
perience behind the scenes knows
the stage mother. / tried to take
her portrait once, and, if you recol
lect, l called your. attention to the
fact thatfif you had ever taken din
ner with . prima donna, or stood on
the coulisses with ballot girl, OF
acciden tally entered the managers
Office on pay day, or, in your mex.
psrienced youth, hung round the
stage door At midnight waiting for
tho angel of your soul to come out
in faded calico dress, with a
satchel on her arm ; ifyou had ever
been to rehearsal, or heard play
read, or got, BY accident, as it were,
INTO the green-room, or been COM
missioned by committee of our
best citizens to get up a laurel
wreath or diamond necklace or Il
farewell tor the admirable Celestine
who had done no much for society
on her one toe, or had been sent by
the leading ladies of Murray Hill to
request Coralia to sing TT q charity
benefit, so that all those leading
ladies could appear in print as off
cial patrons OF the poor-if, l said,
you had done any or all of these
things, then you had-you must
have seen an aged woman in rusty
black, u portly, grim, menthly.nurse
figure, looking at you out of the
depths of her experience with the
calm rectitude of years and the i'm
pregnable security of maternity.
That was the stage mother. You
mover escaped her, provided you
went through any of the expert
cnces l have mentioned. You never
saw her step out of the stage door
at midnight, ovcrshadowing the joy
of yonr heart with the dusky wings
of your waterproof. You felt that
she was sitting grimly silent behind
you in the dressing room, a petri-
faction Of humility, but catching
every word you uttered. She
passed between you and the ''light
Of the ballet" in the wings, She
came into tho box that you hired
for Ernestine on the off Knight, and
sat in the corner patiently. She
followed Madeline on tho sunny side
of Broadway. She filed the re-
naming seat in Evadne's coupe.
There she was always; knitting
her everlasting crochet, and MUNICH
ing her inconsumable sweet-fag
root. She never slept, never was
indisposed, never stayed away on
account Of the weather. She was
always somewhere, looking on
calmly and grimly v out Of her bonn
bazinc and maternity. So exactly
alike were the stage mothers in all
circumstances, 80 uniform in their
respectable rustiness and dumpy
guardianship, adhering 30 faithfully
to bonn bazine and sweet Gag that
you grew to suspect after ~ while
that something in the life OF q bal
let. girl or an actress necessitated
the providing Of property mother,
built according to the traditional
style, when nature had not already
provided her, or had for some in
scrntable rca on dispensed with her.
And you are right. The stage
motherais AN all -pervading fact,
Stage fathers, you will observe, be-
came, extinct when, Mr.. Richings
died and Mr., Batcman went to
Europe ilaimos Hr"i. -'1anoo 7tf
But there is another character
bred by the thcater with whom you
must have had some acquaintance
It il the stage husband. And to
know him it was not necessary ia
20 upon the aiage at all. Hc made
himself conspicuous in front OF the
curtain. Unlike the stage neither
he is Of various types. One is the
property of the profession; the
other is tho property OF tho actress,
An actress up to certain point
in her career il influenced by the
love of dresses After that she
takes 10 diamonds and husbands
1t is u purely decorative instinct
Ordinarily the stage husband is part
of her personal outfit. Cclcsiine
used to boast openly 10 Coralia tina,
she had two seal.skin iackets and
two husbands, aud it was a proper
subject for pride, for there was only
one other beauty in Mr.. Caruthcr's
troupe who ever attained to this
quality of possession. Clytic, inno
cent soul, believed that somehow
husbands and tuberoses and brace
lets were the perquisites Of leading
ladies, and we're handed over the
footlighss by polite ushers. She
really bad u notion, that dear child
that the extra big bouquets wer'
made 20 hide q French count or or
English captain Of the guards. q
The most familiar type of III,
stage husband is generally an ex
officer Of the guards. He wears
ANAL coat and sports fierce mons
tachc. Ho comes over with Mis-
Montmorenci, collects, her salary
"buzxes" about the lobbies, stands
at the theaier entrance in the alter
moons, postuires at the doorway il