Morning journal and courier., 1892-05-28

wAKEMAN,s wANDKRINGs.

wAKEMAN's wANDERINGs. Haunts of London Actors-A Splen did Tribute 10 she GentiIity and Manlfness of British Actors-Theii London Home Life and Haunts a Famous Clubs Charmingly Depie ted.
 LONDON, May g. | To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 In nearly every great American city W, have some particular locality constantly | frequented during certain hours of tn, day by actors great and small. The casua passer fingers cautiously within the region Even one least accustomed to striking city phases is instantly impressed with the un usual character of the neighborhood and with the manners and dress of its frequent CTS.
 Public houses of a cosy rather than 6 sumptuous sort. are characteristic of the place. Windows above 1t are filled with strange costumes. Little low windows and still tinier glass cases or receivers here and there display curious examples of the wigmaker's art. "Voice Training" can be secured up this dingy flight of stairs. GA School of Elocution" will be reached through another dark entrywsy. The le' gend, "Fancy Steps," will appear where the stairs hint of serious stumbling in stead. Next the roof of one building Pupils" will be "Fitted for the Stage "Banjo Taught" has broken out upon eve. ry doorway directory. And signs of ''Dra- matic Agency" where the first and peren. nislly successive footing of actors is done, cluster like beacons of wreckers to entice the veteran as we'll as the youngest skip, per upon the shoals of treacherous drama. tic seas.
 In general and particular everything needful to 'the profession" and many things which its members could safely es- chew, are gathered in and about this strange little city world within the great city. It is called "The Rislto." And upon these ''Rialtos," by day, walk for pleasure or profit, in idleness or anxiety, in pompous planitude or in pitiful poverty all those hundreds and thousands who by night charm and cheer us upon the mimic stage.
 Our American "Risltos" are more marked in concentration and character than those of European cities. This is particularly true in New York In London, where are the haunts of probably more actors than exist in any other four or five of the great est cities, there is no spot which exactly corresponds with the American actors t'Rialto," except one. That one is the greatest resort in the world for music hall performers. It is just across the Water loo Bridge from the Strand, on the Surrey side of London; is called in local parlance, Poverty Junction;" and of this locality and it's odd frequenters l shall speak at length in my next letter.
 But between these folks, who are called 'fprossers" or "pros," in the vernacular, aud the actors of London there is an ever impossible gulf. In our country there is considerable commingling and association of these elements or classes. This almost wholly accounts for the characteristic groupings of business and loungers form ing our stRialtos." Here the actor not only scorns the "pros" as he would 8 tramp, and will have none of him as a companion, but he will drink no liquor, eat no food, transact no business, and fre- quent no thoroughfare or haunt, where the "pros" is permitted to come.
 There are reasons for this close drawing of professional lines. An important one is found in the fact that for a very long time London theatrical managers have sustained an absolute monopoly of all dra- matio performances. By law the proprie- tors of music-halls are forbidden to pre- sent any exhibition of dramatic nature. Their compensation is in being permitted bewitching barmsids; of itself 8 great source of attraction and profit. To the Legitimate" dramatic performer, any one who has appeared in "the 'slls," from his standpoint of ethics, can by no possibility ever become genuine actor or attain to his social standing.
 On the other hand you will seldom find an English, Irish or Scottish actor who is not gentleman born and bred. I do not mean that he is always of the SO called British gentry" stock.
 But I do mean that the stock from which he has sprung is usually of the best quality; that he has had the advantage of being we'll bred; has been given excellent ty training; that he is reader, student and traveller; and that the best regime and athletic sports have done for him, physically, what his education has done for him mentally, and his unavoidable cul' ture, off and on the stage, has done for both his ethics and his manners. This is universal rather than exception al. He is therefore justly proud of his vocation. Such names as those of Shakes peare, Kemble, Garrick, Macready and Mathews furnish endless pique and spuI | to his ambition. His excellent social sta | tus keeps him in touch with the best rath | CT than the undesirable elements. He ii we'll paid and certain of employment, if he has ability and experience; and if he pos | sesses only the former, with some learning behind it, his period of apprenticeship ii one of fair opportunity and considerats | treatment.
 Without leaving his home and his daily hsunts and work, he has before him tho | highest opportunities to which an sctol can attain within the confines of London | itself And his every surrounding, acces sible aid in his profession, and. even ir | his hours of relaxation which bring hin the fine friction of the brightest minds oi | our time, he is as an actor continually uu willingly and perforce bettered and i'm
 proved.
 The latter is as true today as it was 1T Shakespeare's time. And all this is wh,
 the haunts of London actors differ iron
 the haunts of American actors; and why | also, their environment naturally produces l the ablest delineators not of intense aui exaggerated character and situations, a | with the French, and somewhat with oul | American school, but of those fadeles
 good and mellow comedies, dramas ana
 tragedies which appeal to the intellect anc
 heart rather than to sensation hunger, thu
 nerves and the passions.
 These changeless conditions naturall,
 give London actors as a class but tw' places that may be regarded as their req l haunts-their homes and their clubs. Tn
 first of these may seem to Americans sI
 odd sort of aetors' retreat. For thougl
 we have many among us who possess gen
 uine homes, and it is good sign that thei
 number is increasing, there are too few ac
 tors who possess or seek home It i
 different in London; and think there i
 nothing on earth achievsble in which
 London actor takes such manful and e1ul | tant pride.
 They are seldom grand affairs It i
 good homeliness which make them remark
 able. The exegencies of provincial pro
 fessionsl travel and frequent American
 tours often render their continuous occu
 panoy impossible. Frequently the bus
 band goes in one direction and the wife
 if she be an actress, in another. But tn,
 abiding-place is Mecca to both, and ther, is always some one to hold the belonging
 together and train the little ones agains
 the homecoming.
 The English actor has a grand abhor
 ence of big and showy home. I coult | nrint the names of scores whose income