The times., 1898-09-25
MATE LEE, ADVANCE AGENT.
The Second Seven-Days-Ahend
Woman in Stage History.

The Second Seven-Days-Ahead
Woman in Stage History.
Mate Lee" is, in its dual simplicity, a
rather singular, not to say sudden sort of
a name. There is a masculine sound to
ii which suggests a hero of one of Clark
Russelrs sea tales. But on the register
at the Hotel Regent. where 1t prefaces
the title, advance agent for Blaneys s
Female Drummer Company" it stands
for one of the most enterprising and at
the same time most interesting young
women that ever undertook to manage
the business end of a theatrical venture
Mate, of course, is a nickname, but she
prefers it to Mary Manning, which was
bestowed upon her In early youth. Miss
Lee herself, is quite as remarkable in
some respects as her front name In the
first place, she missed by just one pre-
decessor, being the pioneer woman ad-
vance agent. Belle Archer, according to
theatrical annals, was the first Seven
days ahead woman. and since her ex-
perience there has been none other until
the appearance of Miss Lee
She differs from the male type of the
genus advance agent, she does from
great many women. She is very quiet.
very business-like, and does not take ,lp
the dramatic editors time telling funny
stories about the star. She wears a shirt
waist, standing collar, and a club tie.
and natty white fedora hat.
In general appearance she Is not at all
unlike the popular misconception of the
personality of Miss Johnstone Bennett.
the principal member of the cast of "A
Female Drummer. And she declares
that because she wears a shirt waist. a
fedora hat and a high collar and does
work which men do, she has been called
masculine.
"Of course I love the sweet, dainty
things that women wear when they can
she said to a Times man, but ruffies
and fiounces would not be al all suitab BILE
TO my work. ! have to get around a
good deal and long skirts. dragging across
dirty. wet pavements. would be a serious
Inconvenience. Besides. I'm believer in
the germ theory: the hygienic side of a
short skirt appeals to me as well as the
comfortable part OF 1T
When Miss Lee was asked to relate
some OF her experiences she looked very
much as though stage fright extended
even to her end of the business
You see. I've only been in the business
short time one can have had only a
limited number OF experiences. Before
that | was In the newspaper business, In
Pennsylvania. / was born in TitusviIle-
how long ago? Well. for the purposes of
this interview youli have to guess
Il had been great theatergoer, and
knew some people in the profession. One
young actress. who is in the cast of "A
Female Drummer and / were very good
friends, and when she heard Mr.. Blauey
say something about a woman advance
agent for the show. she mentioned me-
Both she and Mr.. Blaney wrote TO me,
the latter making an offer. which I ac-
cepted
We've been East ever since we opened
eight weeks ago. From here we go to
Toronto; quit jump. isn't it? Then we
will work our way West"
The dramatic editors have been very
good to me- she said, land I've had a
great many compliments on my stuff.
turn in good copy, or at least / try to,
and give them as little trouble as pos
sible," which shows that Miss Mate Lee,
in spite Of her limited experience. knows
one thing of inestima BILE value and which
a great many OF her male co-workers
have not yet learned.
but the loneliness of the life makes
me blue sometimes" she resumed and
1 have to fight pretty hard TO keep from
doing something not at all masculine. 1
have always lived at home, and hotels
seems very desolate and lonesome places.
THE only relief from that is in the
newspaper offices. I am used to them, of
course, and l believe I'd rather breathe
the atmosphere of dusty, paper-littered
newspaper office and listen TO the rattle
of typewriters and telegraph key than
live on Olympus.