Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-09-21
Young WOMEN ON THE STAGE.
Queer Notions Which Certain AmbI-
tlOus Girls Have About Acting.


Nelo York Sun.
'W hen young woman gets the idea
into her head that she is cut out for an
actress you can never convince her that
she is Mistaken" said a theatrical mana
ger yesterday. 81 have been in the bust
ness thlrty-tWo years now and have
acted In the capacity of manager for five
stars and great many companies. In
that time L have met scores of young
women who were stage-struck. Eighteen
out of every twenty have turned out to
be fiat and dismal failures, but every one
OF them had an excuse to offer for her
nOn-success. AS a rule, it is the poetic
and sentimental side of an actress life
which catches young women. Then, too,
the romantic fancies which are so much
encouraged by indiscriminate novel read
ing and the stories of such writer's as
Ouida tend to give them a false idea of
the life they are actually obliged to lead.
Ihey say that painter will sometimes
look at the subject he is trying to put
upon canvas so long and so earnestly that
the SUBJECT itself becomes imprinted on
his mind, and when he looks at his paint
ing he does not see what is actually
daubed on the canvas, but sees the sub
JecI Itself. Ihat is the reason so many
painters whine about the unappreciatlVe
pubic and the cruelty of the critics. The
same thing is true of girls who are anx-
Ious to become actresses.
You have heard girls recite 'Curfew
Shall Not Ring Tonight? Yes. Then
you will understand what l mean. You
have seen a girl rise among a party of
friends in back parlOr, strike a dramatic
attitude and begin poem. As she pro-
ceeds toward the climax you have heard
the piteous shrek and yelp, the mOuthing,
gulping and gasping and the final sigh.
1t is to you and everybody else in the
room but her silly bit of ranting. Do
you know whatit is to the girl? To her
1t IS soul. You can never convince her
that she is not giving the most stupendous
Evolutionary effect and throwing a wealth
Of pathOs and feeling into the lines.
1.-The same is true of a girl after she
gets on the stage. People smoker at the
bad acting of a poor actress and never
realize for moment, not only that she is
doing her best, but that it is to her a great
performance. She feels that she is as
perfect as she can be in the lines, and
hence she does not understand the in
difference of the audience. | don't know
better illustration of the perseverance
which a woman will show in pushing
herself before the public than that of
young woman who came on here last
season from San Francisco. She Is well
known out there as a society woman and
is quite popular among the amateur
actors. 1t is said that her people are
well-to-dO and she has certainly spent
great deal Of money of late. She decided
to become professional actress and with
the usual mOdesty of such aspirants,
made arrangements to begin her career
at the very top of the ladder. With all
respect to her, and | esteem her very
highly as a lady, it must be said that she
possessed fewer advantages in a personal
way for the career OF an emotional actress
than any woman | ever saw. She was
very thin and round shOuldered and eX-
tremely awkward. Her face was not
only OF commonplace type, but it was
of such a character that il was utterly
impossible to make it up so that il would
look attractive from the front. When |
tell you that she was also unable to dress
becOmingly, you viii perhaps suspect
that she lacked some of the elements that
60 to make up successful and popular
actress. She had a series of costumes
made Tor the role In which she was to
make her debut here. Each one was more
grOtesque than the last. As have said,
she was fragile and slight. The dress
maker constructed a series of magnificent
costumes which would have been too bio,
too gaudy and too heavy for a woman
fifty pounds heavier than she was. The
actress came on here, hired theatre and
made her debut. She had good company
to support her and it is said that her eX-
pertinent cost her family $4,000. She
made an instantaneous and distinct
failure. She played Julia, Pauline and
one or two other standard romantic
characters. She proved conclusiveIy
that she couldn't act at all"
"Did she give up the stage and go
back to San FranciscOY'
''NOt a bit of it. She insisted that
every one of her audiences for a week in
New York, that every critic in the city
and that every candid man whose advice
she asked was leagued against her. She
stuck to the stage. She is at it yet.
About week ago l saw dispatch in
| one # the dramatic papers which told of
the hard treatment she had been sub
| iected to in one of the small towns in the
| interior of the State, where she was travel
ing about with a small company of her
/ own. The audiences were very rude.
| The fact is, they almost mObbed her. All
| this is discOuraging, but it will have no
| effect upon the young woman. She will
| probably keep on acting forever.
| 'Srhere are hundreds of women whose
| careers on the stage are very similar to
/ this. except that they do not have the
/ money to provide a company Of their
| own. They appear as stars for one con-
! secutive night and are then forced to take
/ anv sort of place that offers in travel
! ing company. Half the girls who are
now playing servants parts in small
| theatres or dancing about in variety
| shows began their careers as Juliet or