The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-21
FADS AMONG THE FAIR.
AGAIN THE FEA-
TURE OF ENTERTAIN ENTS.

CUES COnSlO cradle comm euC-Ioacl-
ers Who Pretend to Prepare Women
for the Stage-Deep Emotions.
From the Philadelphia Press.
New YORK, March 17.-Even Lent pro-
duces novelty in the feminine world of
triviality. One of the newest features of
charitable entertainments during this
Lenten season are portraits taken by girls.
These pictures are not photographs, but old
fashioned silhouettes, such as the grand
fathers of this generation used to have
made. From the method of taking it hap
pens that gentlemen are the most numer-
Gus and profitable customers of these artistic
enterprises. The subject is set before a sheet
OF white paper pinned to wall, and by
an arrangement of lamps his shadow in
profile is thrown. If the operation included
then only the tracing the outlines of the
figure upon the paper, the enterprise would
not be so interesting or profitable as it has
proved, but there is another feature. 1t
takes at least two girls to get out silhouette
In this style. One busies herself at the
paper in tracing the profile, and another
holds the SUBJECTS head steady in her hands
while the artist is at work. The subject
pays 81 for five or ten minutes occupation
caricature of himself
This matter of amateur photography
seems to be on the increase. 1t is no I'M
common sight to meet parties of girls in
Central Park with Photographic trappings
and pedestrian costumes. They are clubs
OF picture-takerS who go about in search of
fine bits of winter landscape. The park
presents great variety of views of this
kind and the clubs spend many hours. even
in the pDI1aSt thar Saornbincy for than,
and transferring them to prepared paper.
"PORTRAIT OF A LADY"
An oil-painted portrait in the current ex-
hibition at the Academy of Design is excit-
ing a great deal of remark. 1t is fine
thing in an artistic way, and it is gUaran-
teed as perfect likeness. Nevertheless the
original woman cannot be identified. The
reason is simple The back of her head,
neck and shoulders are shown, but not a
glimpse of her face. She has brown hair,
flowing loosely, and her skin is fair and
white, but those are not distinctions re-
stricted to few enough women to give any
clue. PORTRAIT of a Lady" is the title, and
no other explanation is to be gained from
the catalogue but it is understood t at the
model is belle i'll fashionable society. The
rest is a mystery.
In one of those barn-like, cold and open
ended pockets of the BOwery, called concert
gardens, left open to the street to divert
into them as much of the ceaseless process
sion of sightseeing men as possible, the
usual half concert, half variety perform
ance was well under way. The routine
buffoonery of the cheapest sort of moulte-
banks and the characteristic nasal singing
of painted women in short skirts alternated
when suddenly the two or three persons of
taste who had strayed in there were sur
prised to see stately, ladyllIe woran of
matronly, yet youthful appearance advance
down the stage in a dress of sober black
silk, holding a sheet of music in her neatly
gloved hands exactly as if she were in
Steinway Hall, instead of the Bowery.
When she opened her mouth she carolled as
Sweetly as bird. -.-'.t'-.
who ON earth is She" the manager was
asked.
'Oh, she ton'd peloug here,'' said he, "she
is a reg'l lar lady und ought to peen in der
opera"
WOMEN FOR THE STAGE.
He told her story and it was strangely
like 5000 othefs, with only the difference
thai the woman was of lady-like appear.
ance, good morals and excellent breeding
She had been widowed and left without
means. In her happy days she had taken
part i'll amateur theatricals, and when con-
fronted by the necessity of earning her own
livelihood she had tried to join the stage
Her efforts ended with her being on the Bow
cry at $40 a week Every eek in the daily
papers and dramatic weeklies there appear
the advertisements of twenty-one teach
ers who pretend to prepare women for the
stage. Far more than half of them are
frauds, either broken down actresses or
sometimes women never on the stage them
selves. They make it point to tell who
ever applies for information and advice that
she is exactly fitted for the stage. If the
applicant be old and thin or young and
rectangular she is precisely like Bernhardt
or Maggie Mitchell; if stout and clumsy she
is told that she has the stage presence of
Jeffreys-Lewis or Fanny Davenport. She
is asked to recite poem or read something
like young Lochinvar," and the last straw
is removed from the weight of her doubts.
Her voice, accent and all else are pro-
nounced needful of only little training to
make them perfect
Strangely enough all these teachers are
doing well in their business. One of the
genuine actresses in the business said last
week that her experience led her to suppose
that at least seven out of ten theater-going
women in town, in every class of life, have
an idea that they could fascinate the public
from behind the footlights, and at least four
out of ten have at one time or another
dressed themselves like some actress they
admire in one Of her best parts, and have
reclted her lines before a mirror. All the
teachers have all they can do to teach all
who apply. When pupils lessons
are over she finds her greatest diff
Guilty before her. One or two teach
ers are able to give her pupils
letters to theatrical managers, but there are
seldom any openings to fl and most Of the
teachers simply tell the women to 20 the
rounds of the theaters and apply at each
place Nine in ten soon tire of the repeated
disappointments that ensue, but once in a
while there is a persistent one who modifes
her ambition bit by bit until at last she
may be able to get an offer of $40 week in
a Bowery show to give dance or sing a
song or appear as a chambermaid or figur-
ante in farce twice day And these are
often the women who reach the highest
places in the profession. But they must be
remarkably gifted. remarkably energetic,
and remarkably self-possessed.
CARDINAL EMOTIONS.
1t is related of Lester Wallack that he
always inquired of every female applicant
for entrance into the profession whether
she had been married, buried a child, quar-
relied with her husband and suffered pow
erty. If not he told her these were requi-
sites for the portrayal of the cardinal
emotions and for stimulation of experience
with the stern realities Of life. Whether
that is mere tradition of the stage or not,
L IL. a..