Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-21
ACTORS IN SOCIETY.
Grace Greenwood Champions the So
cial Rights of Stage People.
SEVERAL WHO GRACE SOCIETY.
The Real Dramatic Element Social Gain
in Every Respect.
HOW HIGH LIFE CALLS GREAT ARTISTS
WRITTEN roR THE DrsrArcH. !

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATCH.1
Jas woman intensely interested in thu
we'll being and the rights, moral and prac
tical, of my sex, I honor the drama al
the one field of labor in which womer
have just and fair treatment, in the way
of honors and wages Actors 1 respec
for their sturdy loyalty to their profession
through good and evil report, theil
generosity and their esprit de corps
They are peculiar people," living
still in world of their own, though
no longer compelled 90 to live; clannish, no
madic, given to superstition to degree, but
seldom hard or heartless. Often improvi
dent and prodigal, their natures are pecu
liarly open to appeals of the unfortunate fol
sympathy, pity and free-handed charity
The benefit performances in which they
come to the help of one of their number fal.
len on evil days, are noble demonstrations Of
good will and good fellowship.
There is no danger of actors too slightly
esteeming their profession, or undertaking
its importance and the dignity of its ex.
ponents. The veriest "barn-stormer'' oi
them all reverences the art by which Shakes.
peare lived, and through which he lives on
forever. 1 really believe there is no profess
sion equal to the dramatic for the standing
by and sticking-to principle. This charac-
teristic loyalty has been nobly shown by
Edwin Booth, in his munifcent gift to his
fellows, Of the Players Clubhouse.
Some actors could also "give points" to
business men in commercial honor. lately
heard how 'fUncle Joshua Whitcome, %
having been obliged by run of i'll luck,
some years ago, to leave some debts behind
him in Canada, returned with some of the
first gold taken out of his old ''Old Home
stead" bonanza-called in and paid off every
claim with interest. A startling story, that,
for Canada-bound cashiers.
SOCIETY RECOGNIZING ARTISTS.
The present seem to be the palmy days Of
the legitimate drama, socially considered.
At last the word, so long unjustly and un-
wisely withheld, has been spoken by Soci-
ETY. to the artist-"Come up higherP' !
mean spoken in good English, for years ago
it was uttered in all the Continental Ian
gusges by mobiles, princes and popes.
In England painters have hitherto been
more highly esteemed than actors, though
within the present reign the refined artist,
Sir Edwin Landseer. once felt himself COM
PEELED by his self-respect to leave Windsor
Castle, where he was painting the Queens
portrait, by her own appointment, and go
back to London, without ceremony and
without dinner, because on the advent of
some German potentate, reigning over q
square mile or so, he was informed that his
plate would be laid at the second table.
do not think the slight was ever repeated in
his case, or in that of any other great painter
or sculptor found worthy to sit at the
Queens table when there was no company;
but in the very center of intellectual cul-
ture and hisIriouic taste dramatic artists
have until lately suffered degree of social
ostracism which only genius of high
order and, in the case of the actress, per-
sonal distinction and a reputation abso-
lutely immaculate, could overcome.
Royalty has stood on supernal height,
even above the greatest and most virtuous
of actresses. The stately SiddoEs, often
commanded" to read Shakespeare to good
Queen Charlotte" was never allowed to sit
in the awful presence, but expected to stand,
hour after hour, and did stand, with loya1
pluck, even when in a state of delicate
health, till one day she tainted and made a
splendid fall not set down in the stage di-
rections. She never murmured at these
hard lines, nor fretted over the rigid laws
of state etiquette which barred her from a
regular presentation at court, thus an i'm
possible honor for one who out-queened all
the queens of her time; but in later and
somewhat more liberal reign, great TRACE
dian, Macready, protested bitterly against
such invidious and odious distinctions. He
had no boyish or funkyish desire to don a
court suit, having finer costumes in his the
atrical wardrobe, or to witness court pa
rades and ceremonies, which he knew he
could surpass in splendor on bis own stage;
but the. fact that he was considered unwor-
thy to kiss the fair hand of his young SOW
ereign- the hand that he saw night after
night lead the applause of multitude over
his scholarly acting and picturesque stage
efects-was most CALLING to him. He felt
this barring-out to morbid degree 1t even
gave him a sort of contempt for the profess
sion he had followed with so much dignity
and artistic fidelity. He said that accord
ing to English aristocratic custom, as to old
English law, all players were "vagabonds, -
and so must always be regarded. He would
never allow his children to see him on the
stage, lest they should lose their respect for
him.
HOW DICKENS DEFIED ROYALTY.
When Dickens at the head of his COM
panyof distinguished amateurs, playing for a
dramatic fund, were Commanded to
Windsor, to amuse the Queen, and lot of
kings and such-he declined to go, unless
he and his friends could be received as
guests. That was bold step forward for
the profession. Fancy the brilliant wits of
Queen Anne's time taking such stand!
1t has always been easier in England for
musical genius to make its way to the upper
most social circles, to rise by the gentle
force of the concord of sweet sounds. 4"
even to the championship of royalty, like
''the lark, at Heavens gate singing"-yet
in the case of q peerless prima donna, the
question of morals or reputation is para
mount. The superb Grisi was accepted
solely as an artist, praised and paid, and
sent down to supper with other paid enter
tainers. Patti, Marquise de Caux, wa
everywhere received, though she did earn
her living, provided for her own table in
Paris, and her husbands at Monte Carlo;
but Patti, the self-emancipated, was quietly
ignored; and though Patti-NicoIlni has
been rehabilitated to degree, yet having
been divorced, and the cause of divorce in
others, she will probably never be admitted
to the Queens drawing room, or invited to
the most moral and exclusive houses of the
nobility, while the irreproachable Albani
and the prudent Nilsson are welcome guests
in the palaces of dukes, princes, and pre-
lates. think such discrimination ia favor
of propriety and purity OF life is just and
wise.
Many English singers and actresses have
married what is called well-been lifted
from the stage, whereon they were worshiped
for their beauty and genius, to the upper
circles where they were looked upon with
more or less coldness and jealousy; and in
nearly all cases that matrimonial robber of
the nnhlic. the aristocratic husband. has