St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-12-07
SOME SOCIETY ACTRESSES.
New York Ladies Who Shine Behind the
Footlights.
HOW AMATEURS SEEK FAME.
Will Miss De Wolfe Follow Mrs. Potter2
Mrs. Bl0odg0od as a S0ubrette.
Miss Brady's Recitations.


my shame that just as Charles Lamb
spent his entire life in trying to like
Scotchmen, so have / wrestled heroic
ally with my spirit in the vain hope
that ! might at some time look with
favor and admiration upon society act
resses. They Invariably strike me as
deficient in two important qualifica-
lions necessary to fit them for the
parts they essay-sincerity is lacking
and so also is undergraduates. In
nine cases out of ten the society actress
takes to the boards not because she has
talent, but because she is vain and
knows that this is one of the cheapest
and easiest methods yet discovered by
human ingenuity to the end that
human vainglory may be gratifed. She
cannot dig; to beg she is ashamed. so
she tries amateur theatricals.
A very brilliant English writer,
George Moore, in recent article en-
titled "Mummer Worship" defines act
ing as the lowest of all the arts, and
that is precisely what it is. Anybody
who possesses the average amount Of
cerebral gray matter and who has
Gently can act-I will not say
can learn words by rote and acquire a
certain grace of diction and bearing that
will pass muster with the most critical
and long-suffering audience that ever
sat through an amateur performance.
1t does not take much practice to learn
the trick of a clear. Well-mOdulated
voice, and all these things taken to-
gether form the constituent parts OF the
modern society actress.
~
In New York there are some half
dozen amateur actresses who of late
years have appeared constantly before
the public. AS to their respective
merits OF dement's | will refrain from
passing an opinion, but nevertheless L
will remark EN- PEASANT that when Mrs.
Potter, the most brilliant star in the con-
stellation, decided to adopt the stage as
profession she found she knew but
little or nothing concerning the require
had for long time been good enough
for society, which spent its feeble ener-
gieS in bursts of rapturOus applause,
but when it came to exhibiting these
same talents to our dramatic critics
allons done!
1t is curious and interesting spec
tacle to see people open their pocket
books with eager alacrity and pay So
for the privilege of seeing Miss Elsie de
Wolfe, yet when Bernhardt or Hading
visits New York and the scale of prices
for seats is raised from $3.50 to
$3.50, the same persons grumble
about the wholly unWarrantable ex-
travagance forced upon them, and call
the various arrangements set of i'm
pertinent imposters. This is subject
for you, o philosophers of the Nine
teenth century, land leave you to specu-
late and deplore while l draw some
brief sketches of our most prominent
society actresses. Personally, l assure
you. they are all charming women.
~
Miss de Wolfe, who may Justly be re-
garded as entitled to be named first on
the list, has devoted her time and her
efforts almost exclusively to theatricals
ever since she first entered society as
rosebud of a girl and possesses what
the French call du chic. Her
eyes and hair are dark, her
figure slight and very graceful
and her smile brilliant. / could not pre-
tend to enumerate all the plays Miss de
Wolfe has appeared in. She has per-
formed with Mrs. Potter, with Herbert
Kelley and with Kyrle Bellew. The
height of an amateurs ambition is, [
am told, to play with professionals, and,
as all the world knows, these gentle
men are both of the stage STACEY.
Miss de Wolfe spends her winters in
New York and her summers in such
gay places as Newport and Lenox.
There is rumor aflOat that she intends
to follow in Mrs. Potter's wake and
seek the footlightS as a professional ac-
frn L. f,.,rn / AIs 10
the belief that she will be successful in
many instances where Mrs. Potter
failed.
Mrs. Wilbur Bloodgood, who was Miss
Gunther, is so pretty and Sprightly that
one cannot help admiring everything
she does. Criticism cannot or should
not touch Mrs. Bloodgood. She is one
of those women who seem to be created
only to be beautiful and amusing. No
body cares whether they are clever or
not, but all the same Mrs. Blood
good is uncOmmonly clever. She likes
to play soubrette parts and she friskS
about on the stage like sunbeam. She
is a tiny creature, not five feet in height,
with golden hair. big, babyish blue
eyes and skin as delicately pink and
white as the inside of sea shell. Her
hands and feet resemble a dolls,
except that they are better shaped
and she is very fond of dressing in short
white childish frocks with an infantile
sash tied about her waist. She
and her husband and child live in
East Thirty-fourth street, and in her
drawing room is a portrait of the mis-
tress Of the house, very ethereal and lu-
minous, with a background of floating
draperies and blue clouds. Mrs. Blood
good painted it herself. She has a
studio, and when she is not studying her
various theatrical roles she is engaged
with art. AS | said before, she has
talent, something quite unnecessary for
SO pretty woman.