New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1893-04-19
THE PLAYERS"
. .st~T. . :

: r. $500 fss4szSss -,
When Melllcent Dwight packed her
three g3wns, her notice book, heT char.
aeter photographs and her letter of in
PRODUCTION in the attic room Of a New
York boarding house her joy was TN
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 20, and visits New
York for the first time with 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 young woman who is assured of
champagne and sweetbreads at the
weeks end and wondered whether it
would be three Gays or five before she
''signed" with the influential manager
and engaged quarters better beftting
| the comedienne Of metropolitan COM
pany.
Two weeks later Mellicent occupied
the same attic room on the east side, but
boarded cheaply at a Third avenue eat
| ing house, where she could breakfast
heartily for Is cents and dine luxurious
ly for 20.
One week more and Mellicent was
boiling her breakfast cocoa over the gas
| jet and washing her handkerchiefs in
| the bathtub and fattening them on the
| window pane to dry. In those days she
BACKED 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 was
dog cared.
On one end Of her bureau was box of
letters from the man who wished to
marry her. At first Inefficient used to
read and sigh over these pledges Of afec-
ton. It was such a pity, she thought,
that he cared like that for a girl who
never could marry him. Now she read
and sighed over them with different
| emotion. ct can't come to that" she
would say.
At the start there had been a certain
| piGuancy in the venture. To be talented
and 20 and to seek her fortune alone in
q great city read uncommonly like the
! first chapter OF a romance. Besides New
York cal)tivated the girl. Her rounds of
tie 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
IL, 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
''Soubrettes and Ingenues," seemed tc
Mellicent q unique and exciting expert
eIce, one well worth hours of waiting
and the comments, sarcastic or indifffer-
cnt. Of the manager and his satellites.
Ill this, however, as I said, was at the
start.
!! 70 be the heroine Of a romance is one
thing, the heroine Of realistic novel
quite another.
I'm beginning to suspect the truth
Of all these horrid stories of baffled genius
struggling against adverse fate,'' she
wrote near the close Of the third week
to the man who wished to marry her.
| Managers all seemed in league against
her-all save one, who, from the begin
ming, had treated her with unaccounta-
BILE forbearance. He had even sent her
tickets for a new play. There was a
soubrette part in it that was badly done,
he said. The author was friend of his
and-well, he couldn't promise anything,
but he'd like her to see the part.
The soubrette was bad-worse even
than Mellicent had hoped; weak, com.
mon, self conscious.
eff such people can obtain engage
ments, then why not I?'' she said the
next morning in reporting the play.
I'm not a raw amateur; studied for
two years with a well known actor and
stage manager. Eve played over and
over again at students matinees and
later in professional performances il
small towns. It's only chance want
a chance to speak a dozen lines, that's
ali, but they won't give me even a hear.
ing" 81
Mellicent's cheek burned. She SHOOK
the brown locks from her moist fore
head and eyed the agent aggressively.
: he shook his head deprecatinglY. He
. 80