Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-07-22
FACTS FOR THE FAIR
Women and the Emancipation
Of an Actress-American Girls
Marrying Titles.
Women and Literary Fame George
Eliot, Charlotte Bronte and Nine.
de Stael-G0ssip.

Some time ago, says "Gstb," I talked with
q LADY who for many years was q wife and
the head Of % iety in a respectable town.
Married when g mere child to a man much
her elder, che Eas engaged in bearing chill
dren and perfecting herself in music Tor a
series of years until one morning sDe awoke
to learn that she was a beggsr, her husband
having speculated with his money in New
York by telegraph, and being thousand Of
dollars worse off than nothing, and too old
and broken TO begin again. Tne fret hing
10 do was to make ths children work. aud
they Immediately descended from being the
most pampered boys and giris In 3 country
town 10 takiog places in various mills and
shops, where they N sde themselves at home
much quicker than anyone could have sup
posed.
The mother, leaving the husband to cook
their food and make their beds, act out to try
to do something with her music. She stIli
had a lovely face ard youthful hgure, and
was 30 far superior In private 10 the strlcai
folks in general that she got an engagement
70 sing in an opera company. In that HE
she found that she must either be socisble or
disliked. II disiiked, there We're a thousand
annoy snces that could be inf cited upon ner.
She could be put out Of her time or word al
performances. she c -uld be exaggerated
just as she was going 90 the stage. Whispers
against her to the manager would be ethcs-
clous. But If she did enter into the con
versation and be familiar, she found that she
must take q lower grade Of talk and hearing
than she had ever known. Necessity knows
no defense; she did not at once yield, but
there was a detoning Of her nature.
To protect herself from miscellaneous at
t~ensious she allowed a friend to be her safs-
guard, and his assdnitles, deliea,e but bold
a. ne4rt, at last prevailed upon her 10 con-
sid=r th at she had been rronged all her life,
particularly in hef marriage. Like many
other women in this country, she was per
susding herself that there were some sdvan-
tages 10 being a mistress over Seing a wife
II this style of e-;ouiog is 'fh ;Ient in y
vagreut { ireer OF playing oy night and trav-
cling by day, what Can }. expected Of an
actress who begins 10 the ballet of the chorus,
crowded against the walls behind the scenery,
cold and lll-paid, and, perhaps, interesting
OF face and babyish Of heart, and from the
top of the theater TO the bottom every man
in it gracious and tempting.
Some years ago l desired to trace the
assassin Booth to the basis of his character,
and 1 inquired where he had been in love.
A barkeeper in Washington, beiOg directed
10 me, told me that his father C Iuld intro
duce me 70 the sister of Booths former mis-
Lfcco. 1ul6 ldtucE-WuO udu Uctu, L LINK,
also q barkeeper, and had no secrets with his
son-took me to thai quarter of Washington
where not many IF the commandments are
| observed, and showed me a large brick
house, where he said Booths woman had
been lodged, and he had visited ner only
W hours before killing the President. He
| then TOOK me 10 a I'M all frame house on Q
( mean street in the same low quarter, hardly
\ a square distant, and in front was q cigat
I shop and behind a kind of disau. Behind
| the cigars was 4 bloated woman Of a once
pretty face. She was the sister of Nellie
| Starr, Booths friend. l asked il Nellie
we're still alive, and was told that she lived
with a contractor on the streets of New
| York. The girl had entered the thester in
Baltimore in the ballet and Booth had taken
q fancy to her and maintained her in q
dingy way up to the time of his crime.
1t was formerly said that under the old
stock system of acting the men and women OF
the company grew up rePulably 10 the towns,
and bred children, who in turn went upon
the stage, and there wac a certain local aris-
tocracy of playefe. ALI this has been broken
OPP by the star system concentrating in New
York City. Spectators get together the
pieces, and perhaps put them in charge oil
some experienced actor, and they know NO
| place 10 rest the soles of their feet from the
time they go cut until they return again
frequently the speculstor abandons his com.
pany in some distant town, and they cannoI
pay their board and have to depend on SOM
mans charity to live and return; and the
price of that charity none but actresses fully
know.
Now and then some poor girl OF an obscure
family endeavors 10 get a place on the stage,
and she has hardly made her first appear.
snce when some o~ficious, insinuating scamp
perhaps on the press, puls himself in the pc.
sition of her patron, writes her up where he
has a chance, and perhaps secures her a place
at another theater, and somewhat better part-
to play. Then he collects her salary, and
half the time spends it on himself; and
sometimes, when shs may nave stopped III
he forges an order on her mansge to get il
and 20 remains the "Oid Man Of the Sea" or
this lins, Weighing her down, breaking her
character while yet in youth, degrading hei
and hers.