The record-union., 1897-06-06

The Black Crook In the European
capitals a great dancer gets from So
900 to $1,000 for the season of about
three months.
"One hears, too, about the magnifi-
cent presents lavished on ballet stars
There is some truth and a good deal
Of nonsense in the tales. OF course,
there are foolish men and there are
| unwise and not overgood young women
in all walks of life But one cannot
set down individual cases, individual
examples, as the rule of life or wealth
in the ranks of the ballet. The honest
remuneration to the star of the ballet
is ample, but not enough to make her
extremely wealthy. Arabian Nights
tales are told of riches amassed by this
and that star; but, as a fact, the sala-
ries paid are about on the scale /
have mentioned.
Speaking of the healthfulness of
dancing, one hears strange and wholly
! untruthful tales about the sufferings
endured by dancers while smiling be-
fore the public, and about the cruel
training of young children. The dancer
| who smilingly pirouettes on her toes
| before the footlights is suffering no
her to dance on her toes, if she is we'll
and carefully trained, as it is for Miss
| Smith to dance in the german in a
fashionable drawing -room-if anything,
| Miss Smith, in her tight shoes and
heavy draperies, is the real sufferer.
Dancing to the real dancer is q de-
light, and as invigOrating and inspiring
| as is a gallOp across the downs to a
real horsewoman. The only ballet girl
who suffers is the acrobatic dancer of
to-day, the terrible young woman who
seems to believe she is reaching the
hight of art when she kicks a tam
BOURNE three feet above her head or
is eXemplifying the acme of grace when
she does the split'-that outrage on
art and nature. There are some girls
who are natural born contortionists,
who can naturally twist themselves in
to all seemingly impossible positions.
These may not be injured by these
terrible acrObatic dances any more than
is the gentleman who amuSes an audi
ence by swallowing a sword or eating
glass or tenpenny nails. But there are
young girls who have acquired these
accomplishments by practice, not by
freak or anatomical construction, and
what they have endured in their gym
nastic preparation heaven only knows.
such stretching of limbs, such con-
slant twisting of joints and unnatural
outrage of natural laws as they submit
to is ruinous to their health, and their
life on earth as we'll as on the stage
must be greatly shortened. 1t is simply
horrible to contemplate what racking
of their bodies is undergone, what dis
tress and disorders of their system are
the results. l have been told that in
some isolated cases where nature has
not prepared them, some inventive ge
MUS has devised a machine in which
they were daily stretched and twisted
gradually till the required fiexibility
was acquired. Let US hope such cases
are few; that such stories are exag
gerated.
1.-The whole school of contortionist
dancing, high kicking and splitting is
a modern innovation that will die out.
To my mind it is an outrage on the art
of dancing, a freak upon nature, of
which the public will soon tire, and we
shall see on our stage in its place a re-
vival of genuine pantomime and grace
full ballet dancing that will again de-
light US"
London Truth: The announcement
that NJ Paderewslki will accept engage
ments for private parties this season Cat
So, 600 an evening" is a new departure,
so far as he is concerned, though, con-
sidering the large fees gained this way,
it will astonish nobody. The artists of
the opera have, with two or three excep-
tions-the most notable being Nine.
Patti and NJ Jean de ResZke-alwayS
been available to accept (for a consid
eration) the invitations" of wealthy
hOstesses.
1t is out of town that the actor who
delights in gags is in his glory. When
he gets to new town he looks for local
affairs that will bear comment on the
stage, and when he gets one he makes
the audience laugh with it, largely be-
cause a remark on a local subject is
the more unexpected from an actor
who is known not to belong in the
town One popularity of gags" is that,
of all other classes of jokes, they viii
the least bear repeating. Sometimes
they convulse the audience, and the
man who was the most amused of all
at them finds to his dsmay, when he
tries to tell his friends about them,
that they fall utterly fiat. This, it may
be remarked, is the reason why some
thousand of them are not quoted here.
The reader is really escaping more than
he realizes.
Washington Post: Here is a story
from William Harris, who superintend-
ed the production of "Courted Into
Court" May Twins new piece:
1T was out in Omaha a short time
ago that the piece was first produced"
he said, and at the rehearsals all went
well until Miss Irwin discovered that
in the banquet scene in the second act
there We're thirteen people at the table.
Originally twelve sat down, includ-
ing the father-in-law of May Irwin III
the piece. The uncle who has agreed TO
act as butler. objects to this and takes
seat himself. This made thirteen and
Miss Irwin objected. She said it would
be a Jonah for sure I thought out a
plan and told Miss Irwin that at the
dress rehearsal the next night I would
remedy the trouble-and I did | had
the big table cut into five parts. All
kne guests assemble. MISS IRWIN dis
covers the fatal thirteen. Says the
dinner can't go on. The guests say
that viii be all right, and, taking the
table apart, have five separate parties
at as many different tables This acci-
dental bit of business, arising wholly
through a superstition, has proved one
of the hits of the piece
New York Post: Jean and Edouard