St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-12-07
LEECHEs OF THE PROFESSION.
How Travelling Actors and Actresses
Are Fieeced by Professional Beg

CARS.
| ''Hounslow heath in the days of Dick
! Turpin was safe place for coin in cOmpar.
: son with the back door of an American
theater to-day" growled an old actor re.
Gently in converse with couple of friends
near the Rialto. He was an experienced
actor, of sterling reputation. and withal so
/ well known AS man of kindly heart and
generous impulses that such growl could
/ not have come from him without good rea-
/ son. or have been heard without prompting
| an inquiry for EXPLANATION. He continued,
| in reply tn question:
1T is one of the results of the travelling
combination system In old times. when
each theater had its regular company en-
gagged for the season, people in the profess
sion knew one another, and shifted about
comparatively little. To hold situations
through seasons, playing a long line of
various parts, greater accomplishments and
versatility were required than are looked
for in the single-part-capacity people
who thrOng the stage to-day, and the
necessity for both genius and special train
ing made barrier that was not leaped by
enough persons to overcrowd the ranks of
the profession. So it was that when an
actress or actor suffered misfortune, the
case was specially known among SYM
pathetic friends and cO-workers. who
promptly and gladly did all they could by
| way OF alienation. Soon aid was only
looked for or accepted in cases of dire
necessity. but when it was, there was no
thought OF aims or charity in the minds of
the g,vers. and no sense of humiliation or a
lowering OF self-respect In those of the re-
cipientS, but just mutual expression of
atfectiOnate fraternity. Such thing as a
professional beggar among us was not
dreamed of then. Now they exist by hun
dreds. and are scattered all over the land.
| They are spiders. whose webs are the
theaerts, to which we hardworking bees
must fly to earn our bread and. incident
ally. beer. Generally they are women who
can no longer get engagements on the
stage. for which they have never had any
| particular talent, and who are too lazy to
earn living by some humble means for
which they are qualified. They deliber-
ately set themselves to work to live by
beating the profession, and they do it with
a cold fiXedness of purpose that might
make them glorious if employed in some
| better direction.
The male beats-exactors, of course
are. as rule, men whose intemperance has
made them too untrustworthy for engage
| u
been capable of filling any important places.
| They are not so bad because we can say
No positively to blear-eyed bum. or if
we give up anything it is only quarter or
a half to stake him for a BOWL unless in
the exceptional cases where they can claim
| former acquaintance. or have really been
good men gone wrong through social temp
tatlOns they were too weak to withstand,
and are justly entitled to our leniency and
| pity. But where the male beggar is salts
fed with dimes. the female wants dollars.
and she knows how to work an entire COM
| pany for them to the queens TASTE
Her stock in trade is pitiful story, and
II She has not good one it is because her
memory or heart-rending episodes in the
| drama Is defective. AS a groundwork the
sick husband and starving children do well
enough. Upon that she lays her c0lors in
the most artistic style. throwing in diSaS
trous engagements CHESS landlords
faithless friends. cruel temptations that she
has as yet been strong enough to resist
thank God! and all that sort of thing. And
the way she uses that story is as artistic as
the getting up of il. Here is the game of
one professional beggar who operates in a
| theater much freQuented by good combina-
tons. not twenty miles from New York:
ION the opening night of new COM
pany she makes her way in by the back
door, with keen practiced eye looks over
| the women. and settles upon one whose
manifest inexperience, kindly face and gen.
tie sympathetic manner proclaim her an
easy victim. To that selected one she in
PRODUCES herself and tells her a sad story.
mixing it adrOitly with fattery 1t is not
long ago." she will say, that l was, as
Ixr,t
too, they said, and with bright career be-
fore me in my loved profession. But the
| hand of fate has been heavy upon me-
Here she rings in the story, adapted to suit
the occasion, and winds it up with, AL
though feel that am. in some degree. at
least entitled to the aid of the profession,
;; yet L cannot express to you the humiliation
l suffer at the very thought of asking it.
| would die if | had to go from one to an
other telling my griefs and begging pit
| lance to keep my loved ones and myself
from starvation until fortune smiles upon
us again. Oh, if some kind friend would
only speak for me, raise for me the few
dollars absolutely necessary to keep that
cruel landlord FROM turning my sick huS
band and my helpless children into the
street. l would never weary asking God
to bless that friend
well. the sympathetic girl or woman
thus addressed, warm-heartedly offers
to be that fool, the catspaw to get
the coveted chestnuts, and with the
light of good purpose cleaning
in her eye she skips around behind the
scenes, buttonholing one af the other of the
company. She Loyalty conceals the identity
of the needy applicant, as she has been
earnestly requested TO. and simply says:
'COme-I want dollar or two from you for
a poor woman who needs it very much.
Don't ask me who it is, for she shrnks from
being known as all object of charity, but
take my word for it that she is in bitter
want. and give what you can to help her.
What is fellow to do but come down?
The leading man is probably struck for V
and the smaller salared members bleed in
proportion. Even the poor little good soul
who makes the collection goes down into
her stocking, takes a couple of dollars out
of the little hoard she IS saving up so care
fully to make sure of getting back to New
York if the company bursts up, and chips
them in with the rest The collection
amounts to probably SIS. $50 or $40, which
the professional beggar pouches with all
avowedly overlooking heart full of graft
tude. Does that satisfy her? Oh, no.
Then she goes out and lays for members of
the company when they appear on the
street, or calls on them at their hotels. and
strikes them individually for all that is in
sight Sometimes, if she catches star in
good humor after big success she cap
lures as much as $50 from him or her, as the
may be.
The next week new company comes
along and the game is played over again,
and that goes on all the season. The teat
makes more money than she ever did legiti-
nately. and with little trouble. Her oper-
ations are so masked that exposure is
little likely, and should it be threatened.
She knows an infinite number of WAYS for