Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1886-08-06
EIocutieanry and Theatrical Girls,

| NAAS
| There are at least by a reasonable calcula
tion 5000 girls in New York who have the
mark of elocution on their snowy brows
| They are separated into categories of readers
reciters, narrators, and spouters. The read
ers are at the present moment the thick
| est. Sometimes the spouters have the uppe
| hand.
| The reader is usually thin, fair skinned
blue-eyed, slightly wan and intellectual
She sits in the back row at the party demure
| ly and waits for Algernon Sydney Perkins tc
| say: II see that the brilliant and accom-
| plished reader, Miss Clianthe Cake, is pres
ent, and suggest that she give US a speci
| men of her ability" Then Clianthe Cake
| is dragged out, shoVes down the pins in her
back hair, rolls her eyes and says that she
will, with their permission, read that beauti
full poem, AUX Italiens"
She has the book in her hand. but only re-
fers to it occasionally. Not to have the book
between them. One is Intellectual the other
is dramatic. One is literary, the other is
stacy. One sticks to poetry, the other sheers
Off little on pantomine.
The reciter is usually robust girl, who
thinks she is emotional and mimetic and hu-
morous. One uses her eyes, the other her
hands. The reader has glances, the reciter
are not emotional until after they are mar
ried. The pensive reader is usually emotional
before. AS rule husbands will put up
with moderate reciters, but they will not toll
crate readers. There is probably suggest
ion of the lecturer in them. Besides, the
long as she has the book in her hand She
can read the whole of Manfred" or "Corio-
lanus" and not break down. The reciter,
thank heaven, can't. There is wise provis-
ion of nature which ordains the memory shall
not be equal to misery,
Young ladies who give readings of "Faust"
and "Childe Harold'' are ignorant of the
capacities of the opposite sex. After the
first hour the male brute begins to groan
The second hour makes him hate his spec
les.
These readers have to undergo the most
severe training in athletics. They practice
with Indian climbs two hours in the morning,
walk five miles before breakfast, put the
gloves for an hour with their trainer, eat a
raw egg, are sponged off with whiskey, and
then kept on the parallel bars till din
ner time. They thus acquire staying pow
er.
The narrators quite different order of
creatures. TLey tell short stories-generally
Mark Twain's, though they usually have one
or two they have written themselves These
stories are fashioned to exhibit some peculiar
trick or gift of the young lady. Thus, for ex-
ample, the gifted Miss Ophella Lambsphat, of
Lambsphat- ton the Grove, always narrates
story with the line in it of
Charge, Stanly, Charge!
because her father is wealthy plumber, and
she has inheritedethe gift of throwing depth
and power of sincerity into the words. that
are marvellous. 1t was always said of the
beautiful Miss Sidonis Sacks, before she
died of the measles, that she could sing
the line that referred to the unnecessary
weeping of body that met another
body coming through the rye with path
os that carried her listeners, as with an
gels wings, to the fact that her father was a
distiller.