The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-06-01

Darling. ;" said !, II adore you!
Tell me quickly, implore you,
AS am kneeling here before You,
Will you bless?-
Then sound made me look mn. or
I'd have kept right on: twas Upper.
He said, will you go to supperY
She said yes.
New York Sun.
DREARY LIFE OF AN ACTRESS.
"Think of it, said we'll known actress
the other evening, "you come to the the
atre, listen to the play single evening, and
it is delightful to feel your visibility tickled
with the nonsense, your sympathy stirred
with the pathos. 1t is so perfectly delicious
to cry little over grief that you don't
really feel-almost as fascinating as fir
tation. when you play at being in love, but
experience none of real loves sadness. Now
just fancy listening to that same play,
laughing at the same jokes, weeping at the
same misery; in short, the same angels,
Same daisies same everything. for 100, 200,
800 nights. as plays run, besides the mat
inees.
"Well, then, try to imagine the sensation
when it devolves upon you to make other
people laugh with your merriment. weep
with your suffering, enthuse with your en-
thusiasm. Think of laughing every night
OF the winter at precisely five minutes after
at the same thing. sobbing at three min.
utes after over the same pathetic remark
made by the same man whose eyes are danc-
ing with fun perhaps all the time. Why,
there are times when YOU have an almost
irresistible desire to fv off the stage in the
middle of the act, and you must exert every
faculty to the utmost to prevent yielding to
the inclination.
knew an old southern actor who couldn't
resist the feeling, and would frequently lay
down his hare's foot in the midst Of his
makeup and saunter out of the theater in
spite of the importantly and distress Of the
manager, to return two, three, or even four
weeks later, when the spirit moved him.
Then there's another thing about it tire
some enough to give any one nervous pros
tration, and that is the necessity of looking
pretty every night. You know every one
has their days of looking we'll and days of
looking ugly when even grease paint won't
save them. There's the day you wash your
and that day is of frequent occurrence with
an actress, for the makeup gets into her
hair and ruins it. But you must look your
best every night, whether you can or not, or
some one who sees you that night for the first
time in six months will say you are falling off
in looks. Once the idea gets established
great Juno herself; still you cannot remove
the unfavorable impression. So long as
ones personality is her chief stock in trade,
there's something solemn in the cut of
bang, grave seriousness in the fit of a
gown, and curling irons and pigments rank
and Delsartian graces.
again, an actress must never be ill,
never tired, never sad. Every other woman
in the world may have moods and lenses
headaches and heartaches, but there is no
lying around on sofas in picturesque conva-
reads softly aloud, and flowers and fruit
are sent by, the basket. Yet, if an
but every one in her audience
feels that she has robbed them like
hiRhwayman, of their money, and, if an
understudy is supplied, that they are only
receiving small per cent on a dollar, as in
a financial smashup.
Another thing that seems to make the
yet more irksome is this: You
make hit in one part and forever after
ward managers cast you for that particular
to acquire versatility. Once a successful
devoted daughter. or wronged wife, or in
trlguing gossip always the sanity child,
The weeping spouse, the miscellaneous tattler.
Now, it isn't SO bad when you are cast for
part with little wholesome wickedness in
it, for through that you can work off the
surplus naughtiness which every one seems
to inherit from Mother Eve, and it leaves
you with all your sweetness unexhausted
for the real side of life. But if every night
you must needs be long suffering, sanity,
sweet creature, rs tiresomely good as a
Sunday school book heroine, why, don't
you see, it naturally follows that you will
use up all the faculty for goodness you have
and show your claws, put out your thorns.
from very necessity, just where you least
desire them among your friends.
II Just envy you newspaper people. When
things get perfectly exasperating, as they
will sometimes, you can shut yourself up
scorching somebody for the paper next
while must smile languishingly |
and tenderly into the eyes of an unsympa-
thetic audience and at critics whom know
are even then thinking of nasty things to |
write about my shortcomings. II
Monday and irons on Tuesday, sweeps on
Friday, bakes on some other day and
bundles the baby up and goes visiting the
.est of the time. An actress days are ali
alike. In the first place each is only a |
traction of day, for she breakfasts when
other people are taking their lunch. One !
aour of the half day she must devote to
bathing and dressing. another hour to ex-
,rcise of some kind, for embonpoint is her
'ete noir. You can't play ineenue parts if
'ou weigh 2co and your waist line creeps up
inder your armpits. There are |
Walking, Delsate antics, stupid |
1ulleys and dumb bells, massage
half a dozen things equally tiresome-
. remedy, but it is only eternal vigilance
hat makes any of them effective and going
without every blessed thing to eat and |
rink that you enjoy. There is her mail to |
ook over-the same struggling aspirants
or hlstrionic fame who desire to recite be-
ore her or to have her secure a position for
hem equally as good as her own from
as oh lurute and devoted to their
'wn friends as political chiefs. the auto
.raph fend, the photograph collector s.who
lnows he could purchase her picture, but |
would prize it SO much more highly if abe |
ave it to him." the ravlnRs of the youth
nj "masher," the advertisers of nostrums |
md lotions, soaps and hair bleach, and eft
usions from the sort of people who seem to |
ave nothing to do but to open correspon-
lence with every noted individual from the |
,resident's wife down to CArmencita.
"A woman who ia an actress, az we'll N a |
roman who isn't, finds that good dressing,
vhether on or of the stage, demands per-
onsi supervision in selection and arrange |
nent of materials, and care in repairing as |
veil. Modern stage dressing deserves to be |
auked among the fine arts. The pIisten-
ng display of tawdry finery, cheap mater /
al, and imitation laces and Jewels. of,m.
,ined in the old time STACEY fashion and
Eorn in disorder and shabbinsas, In not Al |
owabls. Historical costumes must be q