The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-25
THAT "BALLET TRUST"
Managers Call 1t the Greatest Joke
of the Season.
Comparatively

NEW YORK, Aug. pa broad, opera
bouffe smile is Pickering over the faces of
the dramatic managers all over the country.
1t has illuminated their genial features for
several days past, and it is yet in its in
fancy, for it promises presently TO break
into hearty aud uproarious guffaw This
midsummer hilarity has been excited by
the intelligence recently wired from Chi
cago that an English capitalist syndicate
has opened negotiations with Messrs. Hen
derson and McVicker of the opera house,
with a view to robbing the American
public of its choicest morsel of amusement
by the formation of "ballet trust
So revolutionary and iconoclastic a pro-
gramme has naturally excited the liveliest
feelings in the bosom not only of the bald
headed brigade who ever slnce the days of
Vestris and Taglioni have worshiped the
ballet, but of the younger generation of
amusement lovers as well. English syndi-
Gates, in this age of trusts, have
already succeeded in controlling our
sugar and salt; we have even
seen them tamper with our lager
without "a murmer; but all American hui
manity rises in anguished revolt at the bare
antiquated perennial paiuted-and-wigged
darlings, the goddess of the ballet!
OF late years the Casino stage has been
the parade ground in this city Of the angels
in abbreviated skirts and gauze wings
Manager Charles A. Barton has probably
handled more coryphees than any other
man in the United States, and he has the
most delicate regard for anything that can
pirouette on toes. He smiled when
asked about the impending spoliation of
the ballet by the British horde
my dear fellow, said he, with a cynical
laugh, ''there is no American ballet, and
consequently l don't see how there can be a
trust. The truth is, our American dancers
are mere figurantes aud they rank below
the chorus. Now, abroad, it is wholly
different The ballet there is a cult and its
opponents have real talent. They command
five times the salary of an American ballet
girl; indeed, if our best dancers were to 90
to Europe, they would have no show what
ever besides the trained foreign ballet"
wv hat is the reason we cannot have an
American balletW was asked.
1--WE can, in time, doubtless was the
reply. but the ballet, or the art that
makes the true ballet is inherited and
handed down from generation to genera
tion. Young girls as soon as they can walk
are put in training, and before they are
grown their limbs are supple. IL is a life
time profession over there and an art be-
sides. Now you see how it is that we can
not have ballet to compete with that
which you find abroad. 1t would be unrea-
selable to expect 1T
What about all the the efforts that have
been made to create distinctively Ameri-
can balletm
"All abortive, for the same reason. Ballet,
like opera, is a national trait or acquire
ment. You cannot force it in people
who have not been trained to it. Now all
the real ballet talent we have ever seen
here since Elsler's time has been imported.
Mapleson had to bring his ballet with him
of course he could fill in with unimportant
figures on this side. The same applies to
other impresarios who use the ballet in
| their performances. Mons. Bibsyranl Well,