Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1894-11-08

can be more natural than for women
whether maids, wives. widows or mis-
tresscs, to whom q sexual faint at.
taches, to reap the greatest possible
benefit from that faint by exploiting it
and, incidentally, their dramatic as
plrauons upon The boards?
Now, this is gross injustice 10 the
honorable women of the theatre and
concert hall To put II plainly. IL IL
possible 70 succeed GA the stage and
remain chastc. Personal purity Is not
nco-lsistent with professional success.
The sheer the mocking laugh, with
which such an assertion win be re-
eeived in many Il green room, dramatic
lagency and managers office Is not 10
be taken MS throwing any real doubt
on the correctness of the assertion. but
rather as ridiculing the audacity OF
the professional woman who dares to
raise such II question by risking such
an assertion,
4 As Il proposition which is worthy of
hearing and OF consideration | make
bold to say that . young woman In
DISTRESS, n widow left helpless with
/ family To support or an abandoned
wife. With nothing hut her own talents
between herself and the streets, may
hope To attain an honorable career
3and an uncompromisiug triumph in
/ the theatre.
/ You can run over on your fingers all
/ the names of successful actresses and
singers "a whose skirts no scandal has
attached ut whose fair fame not even
the harnies and hangers on of the pro
/ fession have dared to throw mud.
will not be so prcsumptuous as to men
ton them, and be crushed with the re-
tort: WHAT Are there no othersT
There are great many more than the
scandal mongers imagine
/ But | feel safe In saying that my
own experience shows how the mother
OF -four helpless little girls, widowed
and left pcnuiless through no fault OF
her own. may turn to the stage and
find not only helping hands but fair
chance to earn bread and butter. and
more, too. without bringing n blush 10
hrr children's cheeks Like Marehesl
| consider my whlstlIng unique form
lOi NifEfilks anu uili Dluuh VI
my money by whistling for It,
The relations between managers and
stars are often such as to encourage
/ the censorious that any honest woman
ON the stage ought to be pardoned for
entering u public protest against them
/ The suspicion that surrounds those re-
/ lations In so many cases Is so well
/ founded even IL 1t be founded on ap.
pearances only, as 10 support without
! difficulty the edtice OF smut which IL
so readily built upon IT, The induce
ments young women are supposed to
offer OF to he obliged III. or asked to
offer to managers In order To secure
/ engagements IN comic opera companies
ARE notorious topics of gossip, IL those
relations and those Inducements are
Hes vile. infamous falsehoods. SLAM
ders In seven league boots why, then
| | for one think II time they were
stamped ms such aud the tongues OF
ten thousand critics, In press aud pull
lpii harroom and loafer's corner. 81.
fenced once for NIL If they are not
Hes. lei The shame OF their truth fall
whore II belongs.
Let the men who are responsible for
such state Of affairs be pllloried. |
for one am tired OF hearing Insinua-
lions against the honor OF women who
pursue il professional career as con
scientiously rs they would a perambu
lator And | am tired OF the cant and
/ hypocrisy which masks the dishonor
III Is vain To deny.
Instead OF publicity Ia ones daily
/ life being an encouragement OF loose
ness OF MORALS us the critics would
rules OF common sense and common
decency. to be the exact opposite. The
\ very fact that an actress or u singer
or whistler, for that matter, lives
and exists by living In the public eye
ought 10 ms Ike II all the harder for her
to transgress public conventions. And
j 1t does.
/ What is to be thought Of the shame
4 Iessness our clerical and our barroom
critics alike imputc to professional
women If they disregard those very
obligations to correctness Of life which
that publicity does and ought to entail?
Now do they?
And how much, by the way, Of the
immortality OF professional women are
"managers" responsible for?
II these ISLANDERS are true lei II be
conceded publicly. II they are not
true frt them be denounced publicly
nDnIYDI Nm DEBIT