The Benton weekly record. [volume] (Benton, Mont.) 1880-1885, 1882-12-28
The Observation-Disclosures Affair.

The public has now been pretty thor
ou9llly deluged with tie details OF the
Langtry-11abOUcllere quarrel, the anteced-
entS ana environments Of the men who are
running after the actress, and the past life
OF the bosom friend. SllaciOus SUGGESTIONS
have been thrown out in all directions
Old scandals have been revived and new
ones developed or invented Princes and
| Baronc:s on one side o. the water and
| horse jockeys and stockholders on the
other figure as intimates, and The public il
daily treated to the particulars of their
d"liT life, ;s # their life were Of any con-
sequence, and TO hints and innucnnory AS
T." their conduct, which, if true, tire SUB
stAntiAiIy Of The same class ls subject less
Wvaithy anh sportlvc people 70 the con-
tempt oF ne community, If not to tie
penalties of The law. tl!us going u show
what wealthy aWciIs and professionally beau
ties MAY DO with i1nptnitJ, what plain OF.
ordinary pean!p may not do Without rails i
ing a hue and cry III their neigl,borhooa
and indignant protests from the communi-
ty. 1t is an old saying that there is 10 sex
in virtue, bet certainly there are disEin.-
tions sufficiently sharp to applaud mprr-
prieties in one class which arc condemned
in another.
All this gossip apropos Of Mrs. LangGry
and Mrs. LabOHchrrc and the retnue OF
male dcvotccs who follow in the wake OF
the former, seeking with nnsexed asstlr-
ance to usurp the place Of the latter, is
unquestionabIy pleasant reading for fast
men and idle women, but what has it to do
with Mrs. Langtryss relations to the pub |
lie? She came 10 this country much
Yaunted az an actress. She was carefully +.
and Systematically advertised beforehand
as an artist Of more than ordinary merit, |
and the public was led to expect that il |
would be treated TO a dramatic exhibition
richly worth the extraordinary prices
charged for seeing it. Upon her dramatic
abi1i Y, therefore, she should stand or fall. |
mediocre actress people should refuse 70 !
pay The prices. If she be humbug. they
should decline to go. TO crowd the thea
tire for other reasons than dramatic ones 10
see woman who is failure as an actress
is tlagranuy unjust to meritorious and .
hardworking actresses who have fought "
their way up through constant discourage \
ment. The public owes it to the Amert-
can dramatic profession to be discrimna-
tive in its judgments and to administer il
sharp rebuke to speculatlng managers and I
actresses from abroad so that it .
may be we'll understood that the American
public will not accept cast-otf and secon
hand dramatic rubbish.
If Mrs. Lrngtry allows herself to be ad-
yertised rs a great actress she must make
good the claim, und ii she cannot satisfy it
ought not to complain if she is sci down s
IL hum bug. She IS not TO be accepted ~
m actress because she is beautiful WO-
man, OF because she isa lily Of Jersey, or
because she enjoyed the intimate teacquaint-
nee of the Prince Of Wales and other
Of questionable reputation. It
is very vulgar thing in itself, without
any reference to the stage, for her to allow
herself to- Be advertised as i professional
beauty 1t is SO repngnan5 TO feminine
and to masculine apprecia
-iyt.upss rs to be almost uninteligib'e,
When size consents that her manager may
axe such Il liberty with her she is not q
whit removed from the silly, vain creatures
,irked up helttr-skeiter and exhibited ie
.antIv as Il congress or museum ot beauty
u Now York fer 50 much a day. Her
managers have put her TO 4 very repulslVe
~ but IL would have been more honest
i them if they had said at the ONSET:
s4Ye have Il pretty woman. sShe has not
,ad any stage experience. She can't act,
Ind scores Of American actresses have
much greater ability, but she is talr TO
ook If, and we will show her to you as
2osalina at So much an hour" This is
SUBSTANTIALLY what they are doing, and it
yould be more honest to say SO at once,
hough it woald not detract anything from
he yulgarity ofit.-C chicago. Tribune.
LoSDoS, Dee. 12.--'FeIegralns from Sal
,on report that 10000 Chinese have cross