The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-24

hold a person so far off as extreme polite
ness-do you understand, child?"
/ hesitated a moment and then ven
tured on the suggestion that even Vul-
gar people would not venture to take
liberty with a person who held them at
arms length-courteous.y That / sup
posed she meant politeness might be
protection.
She nodded her head and said: ''Yes,
stronger than chain-mail my dear! Re
member that"
To me the manual of arms was mere
chid's play, and the drill veritable de-
light The second day l scrubbed down
the movement In the o der that they had
been made, and learned them by heart.
with the result that on the third day
sat aside chewing gum viii the stage
manager raved over the rest
Then the star-Mr. McDonough-came
along and furiously demanded to know
why l was not drilling. The gentleman
sent me out of the ranks. sirv' 1 answer
ed, because he said, / knew the man
ual and drillw
"Oh, indeed! Well, there's not one of
you that knows it-and you n-ver VIII
know it, You're a set of numbskulls!
Here" he cried. catchir g up a rife take
hold Of this-get up h. re-and let's see
how much you know! Now. then, should
er armsr'
And standing alone, burning with
bushes blinded with tears of mortifca-
ton, l was put thrJu h my pa ,es with
vengeance, but KIN W the m anual thor
oughly as / knew the drill, and when it
was over Mr.. McDono gh took the rifle
from me- and exclaimed: well, saucer
eyes, you do know i'll m id If you
don't-and I'm sorry, little girl, l spoke
so roughly to you!"
He held out his fat white hand to me,
and as ! took it, he added: you ought
to stay in this business-you've got your
head with your
It was a small matter of course but
there was a faint hint of triumph In 1t,
and the SAVIOR was very pleasant to me.
Naturally, with a sa airy of but three
dollars a week, we turned to the man
agement for our costumes. / wonder
what the danseuse Of to-day would think
of the costume worn by her sister of the
"sixties?" Now, her gauzy, mb-betray-
ing skirts reach but to the middle of the
thigh-her scrap of a bodice, cut far be-
low the shoulder blades at the back, be-
ing absolutely sleeveless. is precar.ously
held in place by a string or two Of beads.
To be sure, she is apt to wear a collar
of blazing diamonds, instead of the SIM
pie band of black velvet that used to be
sufficient ornament for the peerless Bon
fanti and the beaut fJl and modest
Betty Rigl, who, In their graceful ignol-
ance of splits and athletic tours dc
force" managed in their voluminous and
knee-long skirts to whirl, to glide, 10
poise and float, to show, in fact the
poetry of motion.
But we, this unframed ballet, were
not Bonfantis nor Morlachis. and we
wore our dancing clothes with a differ
ence. In one dance we were supposed
to be fairies. We wore fiesh-colored slip
pers and tights 1t took one full week
of our two weeks engagement to learn
how TO secure these treacherous articles
so that they would remain smooth and
not wrinkle-down somewhere, or twist
about. One girl never learned, and to
the last added to the happiness OF the pub
lie by amb,ing about on a pair of legs thar
looked as If they had been done up in
curl papers the night before.
We each had seven white carleton skirts,
as full as they could be gathered-lors
enough to come a little below the knee
Our waists were also flesh colored. and
were cut fully two or three inches below
our collarbones, so you, see, there was
plenty of Goth at our backs TO hook
our immature wings to. We had wreaths
Of turnips-and garlands of white roses
to wave in the dance. I remember on
girl with the curled legs was loathed b.
all, because she lassooed every one sh'
came near with her garland-so. you see
we were very decorous fairies, whether
we were decorative or not.
OF course. we were rather substantial
and our wings did seem too thin and sma
10 sustain us satisfactorily. One girl
took hers off in the dressing room ami
remarked. contemptuousiy: THAT they
couldn't lift her cat, event!
But another, who was dictatorial and
a'so of suspicious nature, answered say.
Hgely: you don't know nothing about
wirgs-and you haven't get no cat, no
how, and you know it-so shut upv" and
the converse ton closed.
In our second costume we were frank
ly human. We sdH wore dancing skirts.
but we were in colors, and we had, of
course, shed our wings-nasty, scratchy
things they were, remember Then. for
the drill and march. we wore the regular
fire zouave uniform.
1t was all great fun for me-you re-
member, l was not stage struck. ORA
matically speaking, I was not yet born
l had neither ambition nor fear-I was
simply happy because l was going to earn
that. to me, great sum of money, and
was going to give it my mother. and
planned only what I should say to her.
and had no thought at all of the theater
or anything, or any person in it.
The donnings of feshings for the first
time is an occasion of anxiety to any
one. man or woman. l. however, APP
preached the subject of tights with an
open mind, and Blanche freely gave me
both information and advice. She chill
ed my blood by describing the mortifying
mishaps, the dread disasters these gar
ments had brought to those who failed
to understand them. She declared them
to be tricky, unreliable and malicious in
the extreme.
There's just one way to succeed with
EN-" she said, land that's by bullying
em. Show you're afraid and they will
slip and twist and wrinke-down and make
you a perfect laughing stock. You must
take your time you know, at first, aud Fl
EN- on very carefully and smoothly over
your feet and ankles and up over your
knees See that they are nice and
straight or youll look as If you were
walking on corkscrews; but after that
bully EN-. yank and pull and drag 'em
and when you have 'em drawn up as tight
as you can draw 'em, go at 'em and pull
EN- up another inch, at least They'll
creak and snap and pretend they're go
ing to tear, but don't you ever leave
| your dressing room satisfied. unless you
| feel you can't possibly get downstairs
without going sideways"
But" ! demonstrated, they'll break
and let my knees through"
"Oh, no, they won'tw she cheerfully
| answered. They'll make believe they're
going to split at the knee. of course. but
instead they'll just keep as safe and
eha elrN