The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-12-30
ROUND ABOUT GOTHAM.
Fresh News and Gossip
From the Me-
tropolis.
WHY WOMEN co on THE STAGE.
GIRLS WHO STUDY ART.
Revelations OF BrigandAge.
Revelations Of Brisandags.
Especial corrcspondence.l

NEW YORK, December 2S
The question is raised periodically why
40 women 90 on the stageg A complete
answer would seem 10 be afforded by
such career as that of Lila Nane.
Miss Nane is Miss Lively of the stage,
and Lila Lively il the proper title of the
| young woman who supported Clara Nor
\ ris last season, and who is now doing
leading business in William Gilleite's
play, A Legal Wreck, from the Madi-
son Square Theatre. Miss Vane has had
the pens Of Joe Howard Jr, and Nym
Crinkle dipped in glowing ink to picture
the bright promise Of her career She is
an exceptionally pretty young woman
and as good as she Is sweet-faced but
many women equally beautiful, equally
lovely in character, and great deal more
clever, have heard the howling Of a very
hungry wolf At the door because they did
not have Lila Nanes common sense in
choosing q career which gives with Law
ish generosity 20 a woman.
Miss Nane's mother was Southern
woman who had a plantation and was
rich in slaves. The war made her poor
She came North and sent Lila 10 the
Mount 81. Vincent Academy, which
graduated Miss Morosini. the original
coachnan's bride Lila did not like TO
study, and, 10 say the truth did not sue
ceed in learning a great deal The mem
DRY of Mount ST. Vincent, which she
cherishes with the greatest pleasure, is
that Of an evening when Richard Henry
Stoddard gave q stereopticon lecture and
she led a group OF lively damsels, who
nH of ka oil
him within schoolgirl language-spit-
balls
Lila decided before she went to school
10 90 upon the stage as soon as her
mother considered her educated, and she
made her dobut in a minor part in "The
Professor" In those days she and her
mother boarded in Brooklyn, and the
recollection is still cherished of the per
feet cheerfulness with which she divided
her $50 week salary, paying the board
bill for the two of them AS regularly as
the day came round denying herself
every small luxury or innocent dissipation
10 keep her mother comfortable. She
never INDUCED in naughty late suppers
with gilded youth who admired her, but
the clicks of her latch-key after the play
was over was as regular as the absence Of
the bridge and the uncertainties of ferries
permitted Bread and butter, raw onions
for a a.sOporiic, and she was in bed She
disliked the talk Of men at little theatri
cal parties 10 which she was invited so
thoroughly that she finally refused all
invitations, and her Joy was as innocent
and as unfeigned as that Of ten-year-
old over a simple ring with little dia
mOnd in 10, which some unknown indi /
vidual threw her one night in a bunch /
of flowers. Pretty, good little Lila Nane. /
But she was not very clever She never I
studied her parts and she could not read /
an ordinary novel without miscalling /
simple words. She made a curious piece f.
of work OF q passage from Z0la-
NOT one OF his bad books-Which some .
one asked her to read aloud one evening.
She made her own home dresses
precious few she had-and her theatrical
gowns. When she begged George Faw-
sett Rowe for the part of Little Emily, in
David COpperiield,' nobody believed 1
that she could take il and indeed, after
she had her words perfect, she asked
somebody what the play was all about,
and who Lite Emily was, for she had
]
she got the dresses for the role all wrong,
and the manager made her do them over.
But her beauty and her grace carried her
through, and her $40 a week was a very
acceptable addition to the family income.
She went South; she went 10 Canada,
Dut in whatever latitude, she always
wrote 10 her mother every week, and
llwavs sent her money home. She en-
Owed her stage work, but she did not
Ike 10 change plays II was such
ask 70 learn a new part and she
., Md not and did not study. Every
"a, liked the bright-eyed, chatty,
,o,nsn tonable cTesiure, and she
"a al and has a host Of friends. She Is
NJ more an 20 or p years Old She
ID succeeded she earns good salary
he Is a lovely creature, happy'heartsd,
nd wholesome bNt not 3 genius ana II
oesnf @ take genius 10 do well on the
cards. The dramatic art viii do won
ars for an ordinarily greeeini, ieacna- ,
Ie eirl. especially If she be rs pure
irl as Miss Vane, not 10 lie sp0iieu Dy
S temptations. !