The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-01-21
A MILLION MATINEE GIRLS.
Some Valuable Statistics as to Their
xQbits

There are million matinee girls In the
| United States fiend for statistics has es-
timated In the course of a theatrical
season. he says, they eat as much candy
of various kinds as would fill eighteen of
the largest freight cars; the money they
spend on theatre tickets in a single win
ter would pay the salary of the President
for one whole Administration: the lines
they go 10 form at various times before
the box Office when star is shining in
his or her orbit if all put together would
reach in close penitentiary file from Buff
falo TO Chicago and the tears they weep
would make very satisfactory sprinkle
in summers drought
Having brought together all these in
valuable estimates the statistician very
properly assumes that without the matt
nee girl the theatrical business wouldn't
be worth tuppence in this country and
that because OF her we have the best light
ed, ventilated. decorated heated and ad-
mirably equipped stage ard the most pros
porous theatrical mara cement in the
world.
There is a popular impression abroad
that the women who resort to the theatre
for the chiefest amusement of their lives.
go to adore the leading man. but French
man who has been travelling in this coun-
try and publishing his impressions in
Partisan daily, stands witness to the fact
that no heroes of romance ever received
the honest, wholesale and practically zeal
Gus devotion that the feminine audiences In
America shower on Maude Adams Julia
Marlowe Mrs. Carter or Annie Russell. For
once in a way a Frenchman drew a just
conclusion from his observations in our
country and every one of these actresses
owes her power to the special influence
she exerts upon those Of her own sex.
Julia Marlowe does it largely with her
gifts for weeping. In and out of the pro-
fession she is recognized as the most in |
fallible tear compeller on the stage. She |
forces her audiences TO shed no perfunctory |
b~inies that when wiped stealthily away /
leave not trace, but when her own sobs |
rise as signal the women from gallery to !
orchestra break into general good hard |
cry that shakes pompadours to their /
knocks back combs from their |
and renders the prettiest nose in
the world brother TO beet in size and |
color
An interesting development Of late in the /
matinee girl is that she is not ashamed to 1
cry over her heroine. and come away bear
ing traces of the conflict with her feelings.
just as this winter she has developed the |
habit of going out between the acts to
snatch a sustaining snack of something at
the nearest confectioners. Maccaroon>
washed down with boiling hot chocolate
into a cup Of which a great lump of va
nilla ice cream is dropped is the favorite
the acts bracer. 1t is technically
known as a CONSIDER" and has been found
Of infinite value 10 the women who stand
in lines hours at a time in order to pur-
chase those seats most envied of the matt
nee girl the front row chairs in the gal
ery or balcony. These places are more
coveted than anything short of the first
row In the orchestra, for from them and
them alone a complete view Of the stage
can be commanded and with her elbows
On the rail her chin in her hands and her
eyes fascinated by the tableaux, the whole
souled admirer of the leading man can
drink in the love scenes without Interrupt
lion.