The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-14
AN ACTRESS WARNING TO GIRLS.
What Miss Clara Morris Says of the
Hardships of the Profession.
From the Century Maya


From the Century Magazine.
1 know, she says, of but three powers
that can open the stage door to girl who
comes straight from private life-a fortune
great influence or superlative beauty. With
a large amount of money a girl can I'M
questionably tempt a manager whose bus
mess is not too good to give her an en-
gagement If. influence is used, 1t must
indeed be of a high social order to be
strong enough to affect favorably the
boX-Cffice receipts, and thus win an open
ing for the young debutante. AS for beau
ty it must be something very, very re-
markable that will ON its strength alone
secure girl an engagement. Mere pref
tiness will not do; nearly all American
girls are pretty 1t must be a radiant
and compelling beauty, and every one
knows that there are not many such beau
ties, stage-struck or otherwise.
You will say good-by TO mothers pet
ting; you Will live in your trunk The
time will come when that poor hotel
trunk (so-called to distinguish it from the
trunk that goes to the theater, when
you are travelling or en- route), with it's
dents and scars, will be the only friendly
object to greet YOU in your desolate
clearinghouse, with its one wizened, I'M
willing gaS-burner, and its outlook upon
DICK yaIuS anu cats, or roofs ana spar
rows, its sullen, Manufactured bed, its
despairing carpet; for, you see, you will
not have the money that might take you
to the front of the house and four burn
ers. Rain or shine, you will have to make
your lonely, often frightened, way to and
from the theater. At rehearsals you will
have to stand about rwearily waiting
hours while others rehearse over and over
again their more important scenes; yet
you may not leave for walk or a chat
for you do not know at what moment
your scene may be called You will not be
made much of. You will receive Good
morning or Good evening from the
company. probably nothing more. If you
are travelling, you will literally live in
your hat and cloak You will breakfast
In them many and many a time, you will
dine in them regularly, that you may
rise at once and go to the theater or car
You will see no one go nowhere.
If you are in earnest you will simply
endure the first yeat-endure and study
and all for what? That, after dressing in
the corner farthest from the looking-glass
i'm dismal room you would scarcely use
for your housemaids brooms and busters
at home, you may stand for a few mo-
ments in the background of some scene
and watch the leading lady making the
hit in the foreground. VIII these few
well-dressed, well-llghted music-thrilled
tilOLIeutS Tepdy you LOT the loss or nome,
love, home comfort, home stardom?
We are not the radiant, winged crea-
lures, we actors, that so many fiighty
young stage-struck girls think we are
Our wings only unfold in the calcium
light; in the daytime we are merely hard
working, everyday men and women, with,
here and there, one who carries the mag
&c wand of Imagination, at whose waving
all sordidness disappears, and who bears
lightly the trials and tribulations of this
truly hard life.
But, little stage-Struck girl, you who
thing to fr1sk gayly up to the head of the
profession, pause before you try to force
your way into the theater where acting
is either a veritable high art or a drudg-
cry. There is no middle course between
these extremes. Better, then, to be pa
dent at home. Find occupation there. if
1t is nothing more than the weekly put
ting in order of bureau drawers for some
unusually careless member of the family.
But having a good home thank God and
your parents for it, and stay in 1t.