The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-02-25
NYN CRINkLES LETTER
Some Sensible Talk About Put
ting Children on the Stage.
WHERE THE HARM IN 1T LIES.
1t Is Their Moral Not Their Physical
Nature That Is Injured-Aotresses Hest
tate TO Exhibit Themselves for Pennies
at the Fund Fair.

Nature That Is Injured-Actresses Hest
tate TO Exhibit Themselves for Pennies
at the Fund Fair
copyright, 1892, by American Press Associa-
tion.l
NEW YORK, Feb. "A movement on the
part of the theatrical managers has been
made to modify the law relating to the
employment of infants on the stage. They
held meeting the other day and appoint
ed a committee to draft law and go to
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 rule the papers take the
side of the managers. But if / could have
my way there should not be child upon
the stage 1t 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 1t is the effort of good education
everywhere to keep down. have seen
! good deal Of the children on the stage and
| have taken pains to watch the effects of
| public career upon their plastic natures,
and invariably reply to all the arguments
of interested managers that the little 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 have the faintest
conception of the responsibilities and du-
ties that attend these young beings. Some
time ago five-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
and to draw her homeless little body up
into all sorts of voluptuous mimicry, and
this spectacle of innocence giving zest
to abandonment set a lewd crowd wild
with admiration.
1t was thought to be a marvel Of genius
that child could be taught to go through
some of the antics Of a trained fgurante,
and hold its skirts up and show its pulpy
little legs, and sing slangy song and
make grimaces at the men in the audience
This painful spectacle of vulgar precocity
was pulled and lauded by the press, and
do not think there was a serious objection
raised to it in the face of the determine
ton to make money out of it.
If you viii 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-
sentative sense of the community, which
is never expressed in meeting of man
ayers, is quietly opposed to an infant
school of theatricals, SO long as theatricals
have no higher aim than the exposure of
innocence in the market place.
This brings up another matter. A move
ment is on foot to get up great theatrical
fair for the benefit OF the dramatic fund, a
very worthy concern by the way. 1t is
proposed to make money at 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 a meeting of some of the |
actors, Mrs. Kendall, with one of her gener-
Gus impulses, said that 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 skirt dance if they desired it.
Mrs. Kendall seems to have a shrewd |
sense that this is Just exactly what the I'M
thinking public would like to have them |
do, and with the ready adaptability of an |
actress she is willing to meet their desires.
However, / was glad to meet one actress |
who shrank a little. 1t was Miss Efie |
Shannon, of the Lyceum. She said to me: |
Il hesitate to have anything to do with the /
fair, except to contribute. The idea of |
putting ourselves on exhibition avowedly
to catch pennies somehow seems to me to |
be accommodating ourselves to vulgar |
curiosity"
OF course there are two sides to this, as
TO all other questions, but it is rather de- /
licious to find a professional woman shrink /
ing little from commercial exposure 1
ModeSty is almost as rare an accomplish \
ment in an actress as sensibility is in i
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, and probably would not have if it
were not for the press illustrators who de-
light to ring all the changes on it. Public
decency may well "call the time on it"
when infants are trained to it and the
mothers of the drama recognize it's 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.
Just at this moment it is hard work TO
arouse serious attention to anything the
theater is doing. Modjeska has given way
with her semi-Shakespearean repertory to
the wild insanity of "O'Dowd's Neighbors."
Mr. Crane is doing 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 a winter when
the aggregate of attractions was so trivial.
The only serious play with meaning 70
1t and a possible moral is 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 ri this moment the most deserving
of all the women who are appealing to u
in good work.
Nh DAILY leans TO the side Of farce, and
Mr.. \. NJ Palmer has gone back 10 the
well worn Jim the Penman."
Great plays, or at least plays with pur-
pose at once interpretative and timely. ara
not forthcoming this winter We NAV be
said to have settled down into a carnival