The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-09
Now FIRST PUBLIsRED.l
oprRIGHTED 1888, BY TIE AUrHoRl

/ knew that her voice was one Of considerable
| purity and power-the sensation she had
created at the Thorreli Moor concert was
! some evidence of that-and she had shire wd-
! ness and common sense enough 70 know that
/ il she could once get a start on the boards
| she was not likely 70 be failure thereon.
! But the great question was how was she
| TO begin9 She was a novice in all affairs
/ pertaining TO the stags-did not even know
! personally any one to whom she could APP
/ ply for the information aud help she desired
| TO obtain.
! While matters stood thus Salone noticed
| that couple Of girls besides herself were
! lodging IN the house. From the win
! dow she had watched them sally out each
! afternoon brightly dressed and attractive,
/ and during the remainder of each daY she
/ had heard the girls in the house. They
went out with uutailing regularity every
evening about $50 o'clock aud returned
| with a like regularity ABOUT midnight
/ more frequently after - than before 1t.
Occasionally as Salome lay awake in her
| bed she heard her fellow dodgers come into
| the house, making the place echo with their
/ loud laughter and merry songs Sometimes
! the lasses were not alone, for the equally
noisy and merry voices Of gentlemen min
/ gled with the thinner notes Of the girls.
! One morning Salome spoke to Miss Pedley
! about the girls, and her amazement may be
| imagined when she learned that they were
a couple OF music hall artistes who were
| then appearing nightly in the grand panto-
| mime at Drury Lane
| Salone received that information with a
thrill OF pleasure. She thanked Mrs. Ped
| ley for the information, and asked for
further particulars respecting Miss Flo
| Thompson and Miss Violet Stanley" as the
panror1ime girls dubbed themselves.
The e ldlsdy was ouly too glad to oblige
her uusgiioner. She ran on at q consider
| able Islgsl about the vices and virtues OF
! Lsr locgsrs, and from what she heard
| SalcIe came to the conclusion thAt her
| fellow dodgers were very much like other
! young people who were rather fond OF
| pleasure, loved life, good living, dress, and
the best that they could obtain, but were
in other ways little different from, and GER
tainly no worse than q multitude Of other
| lasses in less trying situations.
Even if the girls did bring young gen.
tlemen home with EN- sometimes they knew
how to take care OF themselves they did,
and she was not the woman TO stop lasses
from having their bit Of pleasures"
Tue morning after this conversation Miss
Nellie Barring was introduced to Miss Flo
| Thompson aud her companion, Miss Violet
Stanley, and the trio had long chat TO-
geLher, and after ward partoOk Of tea in
company. With the exception Of their
somewhat free and easy manners and lam
guage, the White Gypsy found the girls
pleasant enough. Both OF them were de-
cidsdly good looking, we're only a year or
Two older than herself, and were in receipt
of salaries which enabled them to live de-
Gently and dress fairly well.
Before she had been acquainted with the
artistes twenty-four hours all their past
history and future prospects were laid bare.
Miss Thompson had been a mill girl in Old
ham four years before, when she was seized
with stage fever, aud resolved to take her
chance on thu boards. AT first she began
by appearing As q supernumsrary at the
local theater, with the extraordinary
screw Of q shilling q night.
After year or SO of that kind Of appren-
ticeship she had obtained an engagement
with touring company Of hfth-rate actors
and actresses who CHANGED TO visit the town
and with them SIZE Travelled for several
months playing very minor parts and exist
ing as best she could on the guinea a week
which represented her earnings
But while she knocked about the country
with the crowd OF mummers who ranted
their way through the interminable dialogue
and marvellous situations with which THE
Gypsy's Vengeance" abounded Miss Flo
Thompson-her real name was Mary Jane
Smith-had her wits about her, and was
picking up all she could in the way OF i'm
provement as an artistic.
herself to dance tolerably, and when the
company broke up at the end Of the tour
through the provincial towns she quilted
the stage and started on her own account
as a ''seriO-comio singer and dancer" be-
Cunning her new career in ons Of the small
concert rooms at Preston.
Once started fairly in the music hall bus
mess Flo Thompson had done middling,n
so she phraSed il. Even in the free and
h.,
was possible on stage In legitimate business,
and being ? decent Curn,n the music hall
agents had found her plenty of shops. She
was now earning, as one Of the principal
dancers In the ballet, sufficient money to
keep her In clover.
The other girls story WINS very similar.
Miss Violet Stauley-otherwise Susan
Wtkinson-had been a shop-girl In Liver
pool, but firing Of the drudgery had run
away from home, got on the boards as a
spectacle figure" in a noted comic opera
and after that had gone to the lower con-
cert halls, and worked her way up as her
companion bad done.
Sucn were the stories 10 which our heroine
lent a willing ear. The pair of music hall
artistes had not climbed very high yet, she
thought, hut they appeared 20 be happy and
contented with their lot. They could keep
themselves comfortably, And-in this faot
lay the principal charm Of their position
they wore perfectly free, absolutely mis-
tresses of themselves, and could move about
az they listed.
When Selome questioned the light-hearted
twain as to their plans for the future, when
the pantomime season was over, they told
her that they had decided to travel TO-
gether on the music hall boards as the
Sisters Lancaster, duettists and dancers. {"
Salome had noticed the peculiarly which
had marked the conversation Of the others
in respect TO herself. They spoke to her
freely as enc Of Themselves, using the phra
seology in vogue among those who make a
livelihood by entertaining others; and that
they looked upon her as ''sister pre-" was
evident Probably the fact OF her being in
apartments in a house frequently made use
CT by professionals" had something TO do
with their mistake; anyhow when Salome
explained that she did not belong to the
profession" both Miss Thompson and Miss
Stanley expressed considerable Rmazement
and not little incredulity.
you are chatting US, Miss Baring!" Miss
Thompson had cried with questioning eyes,
II am certain you are one OF US and that
have seen your name billed somewhere or
other"
$50 am II" said the other girl with the
same certainty of utterance. why, l am
almost ready to swear that saw you an-
nounced to appear. In Shefiield-I believe
1t was-when was there last summer"
"You are both mistaken, )" Salome replied,
pleasantly, "for never was on the stage in
my life. The only attempt l ever made in
that direction was at a school oonoark at n