The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1893-05-18
PLAYERS"

-
When Mellicent Dwight packed her
three gowns, her notice book, her char
acter photographs and her letter of in
PRODUCTION in the attic room of u New
York boarding house her joy was un-
confined. The boarding house was east
of Third avenue, and the attic room was
four flights from the street; but when
one is talented and 90, and visits New
York for the first time with a fattering
introduction to an influential manager,
one does not count stairs.
On the first evening Mellicent ate her
gristly roast and wilted salad with the
air of a young woman who is assured of
champagne and sweetbreads Mt the
weeks end and wondered whether il
would be three Gays or five before she
''signed" with the influential manager
and engaged quarters better BETTING
the Coincidence of a metropolitan COM
pany.
Two weeks later Inefficient occupied
the same attic room ON the east side, but
boarded cheaply at q Third avenue eat
ing house, where She could breakfast
heartily for Is cents and dine luxurious
" for 90. - -
u One Week more and Inefficient wa
boiling her breakfast cocoa over the gas
jet and washing her handkegchiefs in
the bathtub and fattening them On the
window pane to dry. In those days she
blacked her boots with ink and stuffed
her mirror frame with newspaper adver-
tisements for ballet girls and lady fen
GERS. The letter of recommendation
which the influential manager had kindly
returned was streaked and worn by con-
slant handling, and the notice book waa
dog cared.
On one end of her bureau was a box of
letters from the man who wished to
marry her. AT first Mellicent used to
read and sigh over these pledges Of affec-
ton. 1t was such a pity, she thought,
that he cared like that for a girl who
never conld marry him. Now she read
and sighed over them with a different
emotion. ,"'It can't come to that" she
would say.
At the start there had been q certain
piquancy in the venture. To be talented
and 20 and to seek her fortune alone In
. great city read uncommonly like the
first chapter of a omanc Besides New
York captivated the girl. Her rounds of
the day finished, she would ride from the
Battery to Harlem on the elevated, price
diamond necklaces and air her three
gowns with the best of them on that
Broadway promenade whose glitter was
constantly suggestive of footlights and
an orchestral accompaniment.
The agencies charmed by their abso-
lutte novelty.
To penetrate to that private territory,
to see a slip bearing her name and adj
dress placed in a ~pigeonhole labeled
ssSoubrettes and Ingenues," seemed to
Mellicent a unique and exciting expert.
ence, n well worth hours of waiting
and the comments, sarcastic or indiffer.
ent. of the manager and his satellites.
All this, however, as / said, was at the
start.
To be the heroine of a romance is one
thing, the heroine of a realistic move
quite another.
I'm beginning to suspect the trutl
of all these horrid stories of baffied geniul
struggling against adverse fate" sh'
wrote near the close Of the third weel
TO the man who wished to marry her.
Managers all seemed in league agains
her-all> save one, who, from the begin
ming, had treated her with u~naccounta
BILE forbearance. He had even sent he
tickets for a new play. There was
soubrette part in it that was badly done
he said. The author was a friend of hi
and-well, he couldn'tpromise anything
but he'd like her to see the part.
The esoubrette was bad-worse eve,
than Mellicent had hoped: weak, CON
mon, self conscious.
IF such people can obtain engage
ments, then why not r. She said th
next morning in reporting the pla,
.Tm not a raw amateur; I studied fc
two years with a well known actor an
: Stage manager. I've played oyer an
over again at students matinees an
Inter In professional performances i
small towns. It's only a chance / wan
2chance TO speak q dozen lines, that
I'll, but they won't give me ever o hea.
ing"
Mellicent's cheek burned. She shoe
the brown locks from her moist for
Led and eyed the agent aggressively.
He shook his head deprecatingly. (