The morning news., 1897-02-10
THE GIRL IN THE CHORUS.
She Manager Finds Her More
Trouble Than the Prima Donnas.
From the New York Times.

Don talk TO me about the chorus cir"
said the manager of one of those large ag-
SfegauonS in which the shapely young
woman with a strong thinking part large
~ ngureS. she is more bother than the
most caprlciOuS prima donna that was
eyer born, and | know what l am talking
apout. rake the company l am now with.
have you noticed the young woman in the
purple tights, who does a little fencing act
win about as much grace as COW would
put lhto carrying parasol? WELL she
was pretty good; by that l mean not stuck
on herself, until one day in New York
some wretched near-sighted man outside
the Herald Square Theater mistook her
Tor Adele Richie and addressed her by
Jhat actress name-that settled 1T. IL
ddoesn't matter that she only resembles
MISS Rltcme in that she has fair locks,
she feels sure she is her counterfeit pre-
sentiment and now carefully studies ev-
cry photograph of Miss Ritchie, copies
her style of hair-dressing; even puts in
suck-pn just as it Is shown in the pic
ture, and has her room absolutely paper
ed with likenesseS of her, nothing pleas
ing her so much as 10 have some one
IS Miss Ritchie. This may be all very
nice for the chorus girl, but il is some
times very embarrassing TO the model af-
ter which she copies OF course you know
of the one who thought she was the exact
counterpart of Della Fox. In fact. she
was enough like her to be her twin sister;
She deceived the cheap dudes entirely and
they bought her supperS and flowers ana
presents, thinking they were out with the
genuine Della Fox, and It was not untll
the double grew so conSplcuouSly trlSky
that she was a real INJURY to Miss FOX
that the poor Johnnics realized they had
been entertaining the shadow, not the
substance. In this very company Is one
girl who thinks she looks like Pauline
Hall, and because of the fanced resem-
blance went and had a beautiful head OF
| long Jet black hair cropped short, and she
| revels with pride in her bobby tresses
imagining that She has won distinction
through the sacrifice. SO 1t goes some
think they look like Lillian Russell-look
as much like her as l do. Others know
they are living images of Caroline Miskel
| Hoyt, and so on. What glory they expect
| to achieve by the resemblance, even
| though It exists TO a marked degree, which
| in nine cases out of ten IL does not, can
| not say. ! only know that it is a chorus
| girl fad and as such must be tolerated.
Never ask a chorus girl to speak a
| line or she is forever afterward ruined for
| chorus work She gets the big head even
| before she opens her month 10 say, on,
girls, that will be fun; or, goodness gra-
| cious, there's man. as the tcchnicalittes
| of the text may require. You so to her
| and say, Miss Lulu. or Gladys or Blanche,
| or whatever her name may be, i want you
| to speak this line tonight. Her eyes at
once brightens, she holds her head bit
| higher, and in less than five minutes she
| is putting on airs with the girls whose
| dressing room she has shared for months,
| whose curling irons she has borrowed and
| whose assistance she has accepted in be
| ing pulled into the clothes in which she
mob of village maidens who always flock
on and off the stage just when there Is no
/ possible excuse for their being there.
| Night comes and also her cue. In a voice
| that the leader of the orchestra can scarce
! ly distinguish she utterS the four or five
! words allotted to her. She does not care
| that her effort has made no impression up
| on the audience. She knows she is a good
| thing. and from henceforth vii, not allow
| her light to be hidden under bushel
| Il will never so back in the chorus
! never! she announces. one might as
1 well be dead as to forever stand and say
nothing and until she is convinced by
| the seVerest sort of downright brutal elo-
| quence that she hasn't the faintest outline
of Sara Bernhardt or a Melba about her,
| you will have trouble at rehearsals, quar-
] rels in the dressing room, and goodness
| knows what e.se besides.
"The chorus girl can break up an actor
| more successfully than a hiss from the
| gallery or the sudden exit of a whole row
| in the audience during one OF his best
/ scenes. She manages to do this by stand
! ing in the wings and giggling or talking
! so lOud that the man on The stage loses
| his head completely. The people in front
| can't hear and wonder whether stage
! fright or paresls is responsible for the per.
| lines have fallen fiat or he has forgot
| ton to give them entirely, he goes back
| and glares at the girl Miss Blanche, dc
Byy your doe Ptoed m my very wSy Gyht Mr
| Irving, how can you say such thing?-
me laughing; ! guess not. Why, ! never
|
did l Name? | think you are real insult
/ ing and then all the Mamies and Maudies
| call him horrid beast, If not harsher
4 names, and he is henceforth unpopular
and is guyed numerically, until. in many
cases, really clever man is driven out of
| the company just through the nagging of
/ these girls. Oh. | know EN-" and the
| manager looked volumes that the writer
! tried hard to get him to express.
kickersLwell, | shouid say sor-the
| o. 81 rnf
| into hard luck, and then watch them. /
| remember once we had big company out
| in western town, and we opened on
! Sunday night to big business There were,
| however, attachments against us, and the
| receipts We're gobDled up almost to the
| last penny When the inevitable smash
| carne the cbor,ie 5irIs cot togetbar "a
| with wise mods and sage shifts they said
| some one was getting the money" and
! looked at me, even though l had helped
! them back to New York, travelling first
| class, too. with sleepers, and they had a
| halfweelS's salary to boot in their pockets.
| Ungrateful little wretches they seemed
| to think even despite the fact that 1
| was prowling around on my uppers, that
| must have chunks Of gold to which they
We're rightfuly entitled"
"But aren't there any chorus girls who
| scribed?"
yes, a few; but as a rule they are uv,-
| fully hard to get along with and as stuck
| on themselves as though they were the
/ leading women of the profession. | think
the average tIoi uS Eiii goes INTO tne DlSI-
ness in the sheer hope that she may at
tract some wealthy man and make one of
those marriages of which they are al
ways and forever telling. Every girl on
the stage who has married a title or
money they know by name, and they
glibly converse about Mrs. Gould -
though they had been the bosom friends
of Edith Kingdom. May Yohe Is NV
Lady May to them, and under each perox-
ide curly crop fingers the hope that they
may some day pose or kick their way into
the ranks Of the aristocracy."
But there must be some sweet, attrac-
tive and really refined girls among the
number who earn livelihood in this FASH
ion"
'There are, but they are not the sort
that the public sees in restaurants or
prancing up and down Broadway or
Chestnut street, carrying pug dogs bou-
guets and satchels, with their big hats
The chorus girl loves a big hat, envel-
oped in n viel, the dots on which are al
most as large as the hat itself No. the
quiet unobtrusive ones go out the stage
entrance, attired in modest gowns OF ex-