The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-03
THE FOOTLIGHr PRESENTATIONS.
How and Why So Many Women Are Stage
Struck-Domestic Misery an Advantage.

Struck-Domestic Misery an Advantage.
N. Y. Commercial Advertiser
The money that may be made on the stage al
lures women. They earn ten times much
there as they can anywhere else, and, if they can
achieve hit, they may command their own
terms. Moreover, while the work Is hard' it is
exciting; appeals to self-loye stimulates all the
feminine weaknesses. To be talked of, written
about. enthusiastically admired, is very dear to
the average woman Nearly everybody tires of
any regular labor; but an actress never tires of
the footlights of interested audience of cordial
applause. These become so much part of her life
as to be almost indispensable. She thinks of them
continually; they to her what Office is to an
ordinary politician. She is positively unhappy
when they are absent she longs for them with a
genuine hunger of what she conceives to be her
heart-really her devouring vanity. She would
play for nothing rather than not play at all, pro-
vided she had competency. Acting is to the
actress the poetry OF exertion, the paradise of
endeavor
Every year more and more women in helarge
cities are obliged to earn their own living, and
those who educated half educated
naturally turn to the theater as source of the
largest recompense. Compared with teaching
or standing in shop, or sewing, or copying. or
any of the usual empoyments of the sex, acting
has numOarless attractions.
So many women who have left their husbands
or whose husbands have left them. have gone
upon the stage that it would seem to be provoc
alive of divorce. At one Of the leading city
theaters last year five of the actresses of the
company were reputed to be ex-wives; at another
| contains one or more of them. / do
not mention this to their discredit
only a fact. l am inclined to believe
! that their connubial disharmonies and
| separation denote a certain fitness for their
| calling. 1t would seem to show that they are
emotional, intense, sensitive, idealistic. Other
wise they might have endured wedlock more
patiently, been less exacting, less susceptible to
| Its annoyances. Besides, their differences and
| ouarrels ought to have rendered them unhappy
| at least for a time, and unhappiness is a good
| teacher for the stage. Many drama of the
day portrays the friction and clashing of welded
| couples. and their remembered experience
| should be equivalent to number Of rehearsals.
remember clever player, who was highly
| complimented on her artistic rendering of a
| most passionate scene between herself and her
dramatic lord, of whom sha was supposed to be
| jealous and with good cause.
A well-known critic said to her: at was ex
| ceedingly artistic. 1t deeply moved me, and /
| am, you are we'll aware, rather blase."
There was no art it, she replied; ''it was
| pure nature. / had just such scene with my
| late husband, and all had to do was to repeat
| it. But this proves how closely allied are ma
ture and art l doubt if any woman can vivid
| lv express what she has not experienced Men
| feel what they imagine; we imagine what we
| have felt"
| Many Of the prominent actresses now before
the public have had no histrionic antecedents.
| Having determined to enter the profession they
| studied under competent instructors, of whom
there are dozens in this city, and when they had
| learned their art they appeared without her.
aiding, in such characters as were adapted to
| them. They gradually assembled into popular
favor, depending as much on work as native
| ability.
A number of drawing actresses have no per-
cepti5le talent; but they appeal to their audience
| in some illegitimate way. some with an excess
Of clothes, and more with startling deficiency