, 1892-02-13
NYM CRINKLES LETTER
Some Sensible Talk About Put
ting Children on the Stage.
WHERE THE HARM IN 1T LIES

tate to Exhibit Themselves for Pennie,
at the Fund Fair.
Copyright, lss2, by American Press Associa.
NEW YoBK, Feb. ga movement on the
part of the theatrical managers has beer
made to modify the law relating to the
employment of infants on the stage. They
held a meeting the other day and appoint,
ed "a committee to draft a law and go &c
Albany with It.
Children have become a source Of large
revenue to the theaters, and the managers
are more FESTIVE than ever under the occa-
sional interference Of the president Of the
Society for the Prevention Of Cruelty to
Children. As a rule the papers take the
side of the managers. But If | could nave
my way there should not be a child upon
the stage. II is OF little consequence that
they are well taken care of while In the
service, and do not have arduOus tasks i'm
posed upon them, and generally get away
early. The real evil is that the business OF
personal exhibition enlarges the very quail
ties OF personal vanity and personal guile
which it is the effort of good education
everywhere to keep down. l have seen a
good deal Of the children on the stage and
have taken pains to watch the effects of n
public career upon their plastic natures,
and ! invariably reply to all the arguments
OF interested managers IhaL the nJIle ones
ought to be in their cribs.
This view is dead against the popular
and superficial notion, which is that pre-
cocity is smartness and infantile mimicry
Of adult airs an evidence OF genius. We
have had a series OF infant prodigies in
succession presented for our admiration
by sordid parents and guardians who wish
TO turn a penny out of ~babyhood, and in
every case the exhibition has been painful
TO men and women who nave the faintest
conception OF the responsibilities and du-
ties that attend these young beings. Some
time ago IA 6ve-year-old infant was trotted
out under the catch name OF Little Tues
day" She had been taught to initiate the
vulgar high kickers of the variety stage
ard to draw her boneless little body up
into all sorts of voluptuous mimicry, and
this spectacle of innocence giving a zest
10 abandonment set a lcwd crowd wild
with admiration.
1t was thought to be a marvel of genius
that II child could be taught to go through
some of the antics Of a trained figurante,
and hold its skirts up and show its pulpy
little legs, and sing n slangy song and
make grimaces Mt the men in the audience.
This painful spectacle of vulgar precocity
was pulled and Landed by the press, and ]
do not think there was n serious objection
raised to 1t in the face of the determine.
tion to make money out of it.
II you will permit me to set down my
opinion here, it Is that these little ones
might be in better business. don't know
that their physical health is endangered,
but their future usefulness AS men and
women is, and you will find that the con.
servatiye sense of the community, which
is never expressed in a meeting Of man.
ayers, is quietly opposed to IN infant
school of theatricals, so long as theatricals
have no higher aim than the exposure OF
innocence in thcmarket place.
This brings up another matter. A move
ment is on foot to get up a great theatrical
fair for the benefit of the dramatic fund, n
very worthy concern by the way. 1t is
proposed to make money ut the fair by get
ting all the popular actresses to exhibit
themselves in booths and avail themselves
of all the privileges of their popularity to
get money. At II meeting of some Of the
actors, Mrs. Kendall, with one of her gener.
GUS impulses, said hat the actresses would
do anything that was required of them to
help on the affair, and she and Mrs. Agnes
Booth and Miss George Cayvan would
dance n skirt dance If they desired IL.
Mrs. Kendall seems to have n shrewd
sense that this is just exactly what the un.
thinking public would like to have them
do, and with the ready a~daptability of an
actress she is willing TO meet their desires.
However, ! was glad to meet one actress
who shrank a little. II was Miss Ehie
, Shannon, of the Lyceum. She said to me:
Il hesitate to have anything to do with the
fair, except to contribute. The idea of
l.utting ourselves on exhibition avowedly
to catch pennies somehow seems to me to
be accommodating ourselves to a vulgar
curiosity"
OF course there are two sides to this, as
TO all other questions, but it is rather de-
~licioust to find n professional woman shrink
ing n little from commercial exposure.
Modesty is almost as rare an accomplish
ment in an actress as sensibility Is in a
medical student.
What is now called high kicking" is
the slum side OF theatrical art. 1t really
has no place in public discussion Of the
drama, apd probably would not have II it
were norffor the press illustrators who de-
light to ring all the changes on it. Public
decency may well cal the time on it"
when infants are trained to it and the
mothers OF the drama recognize its. attrac-
tiveness.
Meanwhile the public flock to Miss
Helyett" at the Standard, where the obso-
lete can can has been revived, and Mrs
Leslie Carter, who boasts of not being able
TO pay her livery bill, continues to exhibit
her poverty in costumes.
3uob a LILLE lOIltu IL Is htI NOTh W
arouse serious attention to anything the
thester is doing. Modjeska has given way
with her semi-Shakespearean repertory to
the wild insanity of "O'Dowd's Neighbors."
Mr.. Crane is doing a clumsy farce at the
Star, an extravaganza of the tinkling kind
reigns at the Broadway and the Casino and
the Bijou, and drops to vulgar tomfoolery
at the Park. do not recall n winter when
the aggregate of attractions was so trivial.
The only serious play with IA meaning to
it and a possible moral is 1.-The Lost Para
disc" at Proctor's, and that excellent
drama does not do much more than pay
expenses, in spite of the fact that Miss
Sydney Armstrong, who plays the principal
role, is at this moment the most deserving
of all the women who are appealing to us
in good work.
Mr.. DAILY leans to the side Of farce, and
MIR. A NJ. Palmer has gone back to the
well worn Jim the Penman."
Great plays, or mt least plays with "A pur-
pose at once interpretative and timely, are
not forthcoming this winter. We may be
said to have settled down into a carnival
mood Those of us who are musical 20
regularly to Paderewski and see him shake