Morning journal and courier., 1889-05-23
LIFE OF STAGE CHILDREN.
A Clergyman Says They Are Better Oh-
 Than at Home.

A Clergyman Says They Are Better Oh Than at Homo.
 A metropolitan curate, whose letter ap- peared in the London Standard recently, does not hesitate to claim for the employ ment of children on the stage positive ad- vantages of no light weight. The acting, he The stage children are healthy and rosy, and
 they present 6 remarkable contrast to their
 less fortunate brothers and sisters of the
 same class. The correspondent declines all together to admit the validity of the twelve o'clock argument. True, the psntomime child stays up late but 80 she would if she had never been inside the stage door, and had never stared at an audience across the footlights For the children of the very poor do not go to bed early. Any one can test the truth of the statement who will take the trouble to walk through the purlieus of central London an hour before midnight. He will find plenty of children-not theatri- cal children by any means-swarming on the pavement, tumbling into the roadway, play ing, shouting and quarrelling. Their moth CTS too worried, or too busy, or too close ly occupied with finding some relaxation for themselves, after 8 day of sordid toll, to trouble themselves much about the children at night. These hang about till their pa- rents retire to rest, or till, in sheer weari- ness, they crawl off to bed spontaneously. We'll may the correspondent ask which is the ! better for these poor little outcasts-to be at the theater, well washed, well fed, well dressed, enjoying what appears to them 8 prolonged and delightful game, or lounging, desolate, starved and ragged, about the ever | open doors of the public house, and become | familiarized with all the baleful associations of the place! The choice, unhappily is not, ! as kind hearted theorists suppose, between a | comfortable bedroom and the gas heated l stage. In too many cases the alternative is | the gutter on one side and the theater on the | other, and one can hardly doubt that the ! verdict should lie with the theater. If the psntomime children run some risk of receiv- | ing unwholesome impressions from their | avocation, it ought to be remembered that | they cannot help receiving some others l which are beyond all question beneficial. | The discipline of the drill master and the ballet mistress is in itself valuable training | to the untaught, unbroken waifs and strays of our streets. They learn to obey orders, | to understand the proper use of hand, foot l and eye, to be prompt, ready and docile. Surely these are not useless requirements,
 especially when they are bestowed upon l children who are sometimes little better than | barbarians. It would not be too much, in I deed, to claim for the pantomime that it is l often the one spot of brightness in the din- gy and melancholy lives of these poor lit- l tle creatures. It needs very strong argu- l ments on the other side-much stronger than any ye. advanced-before we can consent to
 abandon the system which removes some
 thousands of children every year, during the long, dark evenings of winter, from the dreary pavements, or the miserable dens they
 call home, to place which, to them at least.
 represents life, brightness, well directed, we'll disciplined activity, and no small share of solid comfort as we'll.