The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-05-19
AMATEUR THEATRIcALs.
pecss Sun.

On hdICH : 1G NC sCACshCd q hCttCt 1 from John D. Smith, of Peoria, III i, saying that some of the young people were talking of engaging in amateur the atricals, and asking our advice as to whether it was good thing 10 get into. We answered the letter, and thought no more about 1t until Tuesday. when the letter came back. marked '' Returned to the wrifer.n We conclude that there is no such person as John D. Smith, and that some boy wrote us just for fun. How ever, on reading over the answer 10 the | boy. on the return of the letter, il seems ! to contain some advice that may strike country young people who may have a desire to amateur. so se publish il. II Is as follows
 MILWAUKEE, March ;, 1883. ! IoIn 2. .SW.fh.
 DEAR SIR: If your yogng people can't get quarreling enough without going into amateur thea,ricals, you better | go in. You will ind that each person will want 10 play the leading character. and after each rehearsal each will think he or she can play better than anybody else. and the feeling that will be engendered will make you all hate yourselves. The best dressed girl ID the play will be an object of envy, and there will be more trouble than you ever dreamed of. Then you will never pay expenses, and the worst of all will be that some girl will think she is cut out for a star, and she will adopt the stage for a profession, after your amateur business busts up, and she will go to the devil, and you will all of you feel as though you were partially to blame for 1t. You better get up quar- reling match without thea,ricals. You have asked my opinion. and you have got 1t. Yours truly, GEORGE w. PECK.
 Amateur theatricais are all right enough for people who are old enough to know when they have got enough, and who are settled in life, and have got sense. In such cases a great deal of amusement and instruction can be ob- tained. But for these young things, these kids, who are just beginning to wear tight pants and lorg dresses, and who have not learned tha, they didn't make the world, amateur theatr;cais are worse than scarlet fever. Take one of these simpering boys, who is just beginning to feel an itching on his lip, and who has only recently had cavity in front tooth filed wi,h gold. and who keeps his mouth open to show the gold until his teeth get sunburnt. and lei him si, Up nights and burn midnight oil tlll he has learned twenty lines oi heroic speech. in ! dizzy play. and he IS no good oa earth He wiu neglect business and initiate the style of a fam-.atter. and como ri. hair down OF his forehead like Booth. and told hls asms across his six inch chest and wal; slow. dragging his feet after him. and poising them on the toe for second, and hi. eyes will roll like seer that has slipped the yoke, or calf that has swal- lowed whole turnip. He thinks il is ge- nius, and so does the calf with the turnip halfway down his neck Such a boy will make his friends want 10 kill him. He will play as an amateur little while, and will follow of travelling theat- rical troupe, get a job hand ling baggage, and write home that he is Heading man. He will be in luck if he gets a chance to lead dog for an Uncle Toms Cabin party. Hewill think Il IS an evidence ot genius to become a hard nut. and after he has been on the road month. he will tell you, contiden- tially. more scandals about honest men and women on the stage, than you can believe in lifetime; and some day an actor will hear of his lying, and maui him. and kick him out of the company and he will get ride on the trucks of a freight train to his country home, and he will put on theatrical style, and say his company IS taking vacation, and tha, i he has offers from a dozen different com panies for next season and when you ask him about his black eye. he will say he fell through trap-door in the opera house at Omaha, and ask you to take a drink and he will take four fingers of raw whisky. Next season he will take job driving team to haul slabs from saw-mill, and say he has qui: the stage on account of the footlights hurting his eyes.
 With country girls of sixteen, amateur theatricals are worse yet. A girl who has been told she is handsome as a red wagon, will go into theatricals, and learn a part, and when she gets so she can come ou to the stage in the country town without falling over herself, and stand up straight without holding on to anything, anu go tntouXn a scene or lOve-mak1ng with dude," and say:" No, Hennery, it cannot be. Henceforth we are stran- gers. have trited my ploth to mother. Go! go hens, say, and let me ne'er see your face agin." she is all broke up for any use at home. She reads the weekly paper, which gives an account of the en- tertainment; and when she reads that she was lovely, and when she rendered the immortal lines of the author, you could hear pin drop. and at the parting with Henney there was not dry eye in the house" she begins to ape Mary An derson and Clara Morris, and her mother can't get her to make her own bed. About this time some travelling theatre masher makes her acquaintance. and tells her she has genius that will take her to the highest pinnacle of fame, if it is properly developed, and she goes of to the city. She comes back after few months, on a visit, and she has seal-skin clnak, and diamonds, and pug dog, and paints her face, and puts on style. and breaks an ns<oYfNd Inf Of hearts in fha <x>..nsv~, sn-rx