Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-19
SHE'S STAGE-STRUCK.
Ingenious Letter From q Denver
Girl to q Theatrical Agency.
WOE OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND
Who Got Awfully Sick Because an Actor
Wouldn't Write to Her.
GLOWING DESCRIPTION OF A BEAUTY
LconREsPoNpENCE OF THE DIsPAroH.l

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsPArCH.1
NEW YORK, July 18.-There are good
many sweet young women still unfettered
by matrimonial bonds who are dreaming OF
the beau ideal of manly beauty and excel
lence with whom the whole world must
sympathize-especially that large portion
of the female world that chafes under the
marital collar. There is one particular
class of these dreamers that seems always to
demand some special consideration. That
is the one affected by the stage-struck girl.
The great metropolis swarms with the
stage-struck girl; but they do not
come from New York. They are the pro-
duct of the farm, the village, the small
cities-the result of early secluded lives,
of romantic novels, occasional glimpses of
the drama and of the poisonous innocula-
tion of the amateur theatricals. If the
glamor and tinsel of the real professional
stage could be swept aside long enough to
afford the stage-struck girl the most casual
view of the life, such girl would return to
her housework with conviction that it
would be far better to wash dishes and run
an elbow laundry than seek her fortune
upon the boards. And the amusement going
public? Well, it, too, would be better off
if half the women who are crowding the va
rious avenues to the professional boards, or
have gained an insecure footing thereon,
were at domestic service where they
properly belong.
Romance Is All Right.
Iwould not eliminate romance from girl
hood; would simply steer it clear of the
theatrical channel If one could faithfully
exhibit the wrecked women that strew the
dramatic shore that result might be easily
brought about. If one could adequately
convey an idea of the toll, the hardships,
the anxiety, the bitterness of soul, the deg
radiation and the meager and wholly unsat-
isfactory returns for all these, it would
serve. If one could communicate half the
knowledge gained by 25 years intimate as
sociation with the stage and its people,
perhaps the desired end might be reached.
But these are alike impossible.
1t is one of the burdens laid upon weak
human nature, that we are prone to decline
to learn from the experience of others and
to refuse to listen to the words of wisdom.
The stage-struck girl is in that respect
usually Incorrigib1e What advice shall I
give the young and tender maid who writes
the letter here given? 1t is but one epis-
tolary effusion of the many received by the
dramatic agents and theatrical managers,
but it is sample A well-known lady who
conducts large theatrical agency was the
recipient:
A Plea for a Mashed Sister.
DENVER, Col, June 3d. 1881.
DEAR MADAM-I wish to ask you Ii you will
do me a favor. There is a girl with whom
-
struck, and she asked me to write to you and
ask you If you would write to her yourself
or else ask some young actress or actor to
write to her. She is very talented and very
pretty; she is not commonly pretty, but she
is very handsome. I will describe her as
best can: She is tall (but not very and
has jet black hair, violet eyes, red lips and a
complexion like an apple blossom. She has
beautiful neck and her cheeks are like the
hearts of pink roses. She has also very
pretty teeth: they arc white and even. You
cannot imagine how pretty she is, and she
used to be very healthy, but she went to see
"The Stowaway" and got mashed" on the
hero, and while ne was there she wrote to
him a note and he didn't answer it, and it
made her feel SO bad that she was very sick.
1t would be dark day when would write
to an actor and not get an answer. would
get revenge somehow. She told me his name
once, but have forgotten tit is EdmundS
or something like that-anyhow his last
name begins with &c" and when she talks
his name is Walter. If you conclude to write
to her, please address to Miss Nellie Fisher,
Curtis street, Denver, Col, and I will give
much. Yours truly,
ALICE EDWARDS,
Curtis street, Denver, Gel.
smshe Is not not allow allowed Ito to have re-" any les
have them come to my house. A. E.
Entirely Too Disinterested.
Poor, dear, stage-struck grill Note, please,
even the disinterestedness of her sex. There
is a suspicion, it is true, that Alice is in
evident love for her friend will excuse her,
I'm sure That love is abundantly shown
in the liberal description of Miss Fishers
beauty. "She is not merely uncommonly
pretty but she is very handsome" Could
anything be more touchingly testimonial of
the closest ties of human friendship?
There is no qualification anywhere except
that "she is tall (but not very)," which
gives the reader an unusually accurate idea
Of the stage-struck girls height. The
ordinary feminine description Of another
would be "she is an awfully pretty girl
but little too tall, +" or ''she would be q
beauty if she wasn't quiet so stout" or
'her face would be perfect if her dear lit
tie nose wasn't so awfully sharp, you
know"
But there is no such string to this adula-
tory bouquet. In the polite parlance of st.
Louis she goes the whole hog
'eViolet eyes" "apple blossom complex
ion," 'cheeks like the hearts of pink roses"
is this beautiful, if rather horticultural, de-
scription of Miss Nellie.
Something Left to Imagination.
Tbora eaams IN ha q mental rasarvotion oo
to Nellie's hands and feet-about the only
items of which we are left in doubt. This
may have been pure oversight on the part
of Alice, or it may have been Intentional.
1t is possible the hands may remind US of
Cincinnati hams, and the feet suggest corns.
The suspense is painful and think. under
the circumstances, unnecessary. There is
naturally burning curiosity to know what
kind of hands go with the hearts of pink
roses, apple blossoms and yiolets. Hands
and feet cannot be disguised in the glare of
&bo foot1;rbfs A 1ioo daor