Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-24

dashed by them the smaller urchin waved
his spot OF hat at the people on top, smiled
admiringly at them, shouted at the top of
his little lungs, and then said to his COM
paniOn:
'Holy smoke, Chimmie, dems from Bar
NUNS. Amt dey daisies?"
There is just little disbursement in
the thought that no matter how close to the
zenith OF artistic beauty our swell girls may
soar, there are atoms OF humanity that
stand by the wayside and confound the
Queens of Fashion with the Expresses of
the Arena. 1t simply shows that however
brightly a new York woman may shine in
her habiliments or her philanthrophy, some
one is going to mistake the gold she dis
plays for the tinsel of the Snowman.
THE stage has an insidious fascination for
the usual New York girl. The society ele-
ment of the feminine population aspires to
cover the land with additional Potters and
Langtrys, AID the ''saleslady" pictures her
self as a Russell or Lotta. One of the
latter can get on the operatic stage with
comparative ease. She can go to little
office on upper Broadway, and present her
self to the manager OF several comic opera
companies. He looks at her face, makes
allowance for the glaring daylight, observes
her gait, sizes up her physical development,
and then tries her voice. She can fail in
the last credential, and yet be engaged, if
the others are valuable enough to offset her
lack OF vocal merit. If she is accepted she
is handed over to the stage manager, and he
puts her into the rear rank of the "happy,
happy chorus"
A girl either gets out of the chorus at the
of ftrn oil tho ct,a
there throughout her career. She must be
pretty and able to sing correctly or she is
hopeless. Occasionally she may be so beau
tifui that she is paid a good salary just to
pose as an ornament of show, and is never
given line to speak. We have had several
big, statuesque women who were retained to
lead marches at excellent wages because
they were fine enough looking to draw ad-
ditional dollars into the theater But lust
the ordinary girl gets about S12 or SIS
week, shouts her lie away for that, looks
perpetually happy, exhibits herself in cold
catching attire, and her last weeks salary is
used to bury her. She would scarcely care to
have us sing her woes and sufferings as
poets have those OF the emaciated shirt
maker, but often her existence is quite as
barren and miserable. If she is light
headed and hearted she goes about drink
ing, eating and sleeping as much as she may,
and imagining it is all in lifetime, and
is fun if she chooses to think so. She sinks
or swims, and does it all to the accompani-
ment OF merry music and the perfume of the
prima donna's roses She has her pecu-
liarities. She powders her nose, darkens
her eyelashes and drinks tea only when she
can't secure a more sparkling fluid. She is
apt to be somewhat feeble in her moral sup
port, but she is made Of the same material
as all women, the same as the royal women
OF European courts and the high-bred ladies
of Murray Hill. The royal girl, the society
girl and the chorus girl are girls, and
that covers it. You haven't guarded and
taught the chorus singer, that is all the
difference CLARA BELLE