Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-03-18
Young Women and the Stage.

FROM Cue cOrtnlSnCy REVIEW
Now supposing a younglady at once
obtains an engagement in reputable
theater and is cast for good part.
What then? Then the atmosphere of
the theater at it's best is not a pleas
ant one. Your daughter will be as
tonished at the extraordinary varia-
tions of manner, from the abjectly
servile to the free and easy, described
in Mr.: Namby's case as ''Botany Bay
gentility." She will hear everybody
"my dearing" one another. At first
she will not understand half that is
said and very little that is meant.
When they all warm to their work the
veneer of politeness is soon rubbed off,
and actor and actress are seen as the
real artists they are. The stage man.
ager comes out strongly, too; strange
words are used, and whether it be high
art or not that is being illustrated
there is pretty sure to be considera-
BILE amount of forcible language en-
ployed in the excitement OF the mo-
ment. Your daughters ideas OF pro-
priety will be rudely shocked at every
turn. When she ceases even to be as
tonished she will be unconsciously
deteriorating. There is one sort Of
girl to whom all this does no harm,
and that is the girl who comes of a
hard working, theatrical family, who
has been decently. brought up
in the middle of it all from u
child, whose father and mother
are in the theater, thoroughly re-
spectacle people, and as careful of
their daughters morals as though she
were the niece Of a bishop. Such a girl
as this, if she remains on the stage,
will be q tolerable actress, always
sure of an engagement. She will marry
q decent, respectable actor, or some
one connected with theatricals; will
bring up a family excellently; will be
really religious without ostentation;
will never lose her self respect, and in
her own way be perfectly domesticat-
ed, happy and contented. Or she may
marry some one in good social posi-
tion; if so, she will quit the stage with
out regret, because she is not the stuff
of which great actresses are made, but
she will look back on her theatrical
experience with affection for her par
ents to whom she owed so much. She
is neither Esther nor Polly Ecc1cs, nor
is she in the position of the well
brought up young lady we have been
considering. But she is an admirable
woman in whatever station of life her
lot may be cast, and not a bit of
snob. For young lady travelling
with company would be simply i'm.
possible, unless accompanied by her
mother or by some trustworthy relar
tive. A manageress might undertake
the guardianship and execute the
trust conscientiously. But this is an
exceptional case. There is another
point, and very important one to be
considered, and that is the artistic
temperament. If a young lady of at
tractive personal appearance pos
sesses histrionic talent, then in pro-
portion to her talent will be her tenn
perament. She will be impulsive,
passionate, impressionable, self willed,
impatient of control, simple, confiding
and vain, but artistically vain, and
desirous of applause. She will be
illogical, inconsistent, full of contra
dictions, fond of variety and unable
to exist without excitement. It only
requires her to be q genius to be duped
by the first schemer who throws him
self in her way.