Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-08-17
Clara Morris Tells Of the Early Days
in Her Career.
EXPERIENCES OF 4 YOUNG ACTRESS
Temptations and Trials That Beset
Almost ALL
A SING CIDEN T S


scended upon me--such friendly, kindly.
generous letters hey are, too, and when
the writer's are young, they ask ques-
tons, several of which are put with such
persistency, such frequency, that they seem
to indicate general curiosity about GER
tain features of theatrical life. In defer
ence to that feeling I make honest though
possibly inadequate answers to them.
Beginning at the first one then: What
is the most unpleasant experience In the
daily life of young actresS?"
Without pause for thought and most
emphatically, too, l answer. Her passage
unattended through city streets at night is
made unalloyed misery through terror and
humiliations. The backwood's girl makes
her lonely way through the forest by
blazed trees-but the way Of the lonely
girl through the city streets is marked by
blazing bushes.
Tt is an infamy that girls honesty
should not protect her by night as we'll
as by day. Those hideous hyenas Of the
midnight streets are never deceived. By
one glance they can distinguish between
a good woman and those poor, wandering
ghosts of dead mOdeSty and honor, who
fit restlessly back and forth from dark
alley to bright gas glare. But bring one
of these men to book, and he will declare
that decent women have no right to be
citizens were to maintain public highways
for the sole use Une-half the time Of all
the evil things that hide from light to
creep out at dark and meet those COM
paniOnS who are fair by day and foul by
night.
Some girls never learn to face the home
ward walk with steady nerves, others
grow used to the swift approach, the rap
idly spoken word and receive them with
set, stony face and deaf ears-but, oh!
the terror, and the shame of 1t at first.
And this horror of the night takes
many forms. that it is hard to say which
between the vile inuendo whispered by
sober brute or the roared ribaldry of a
drunken beast.
An Exciting Episode.
In one respect 1 differ from most Of my
companions In misery-since they almost
invariably fear most the drunkard, while
1 ground my greater fear Of the sober
man upon the simple fact that I cannot
Outrun him l can drunken one, at a
pinch. One night, in returning home from
performance Of Divorce very long
play, that brought me into the street extra
late, shrieking man flew across my
path, and as a second rushed after him,
with knife uplifted for a deadly blow his
foot caught in mine. He pitched forward,
the knife sank into his victims arm, in.
stead of his back, as he had intended
and with the cries Of ''Murder!" "Police!'t
ringing in my ears, l ran as If l were. a
murderess! These things are in them
selves nigh price 10 pay for being an ac-
tress.
had friend-an elderly relative Of one
of our greatest actors, who for independ-
ence sake taught music. One night she
had played at concert and was return
ing home. Tall and slight and heavily
yelled, she walked alone. Then, suddenly
appeared well looking young son of
Belial-undoubtedly gentleman by day.
light. He tipped his hat and twirled his
moustache-she turned away her head
He cleared his throat-she seemed quite
deaf. He spoke; he called her grille"
She walked faster. So did he. He pro-
tested she should not walk alone She
stopped. VIII you please allow me to
But no; that was just what he would
not do-and suddenly she answered: Very
well, then, | accept your escort-though
under protest.
way was long-the silence grew painful!
He Ventured to suggest supper as they
passed restaurant-she gently declined
AT last she stopped directly beneath a gas
lamp, and from her face, with sorrow hol-
lowed eyes and temples, where every one
or her seventy-six years had been stamped
in cruel line and crease and wrinkle, she
lifted up the veil and raised her sad old
eye eyes reproaehfully to his He staggered
back-turned red-turned white-stammered
took off his hat-attempted to apologize-
then turned and fed.
And what" l asked. Ibid you say to
him?'
"Say-say?" she repeated. Justice need
not be cruel-why add anything to the sight
of this!' And she drew a finger down her
withered cheek.
Once She Was Fair.
1t was said with laughing bitterness, for
she had been very fair and well guarded,
too, in the distant past, while then-I could
but catch her tired hands and kiss them
In burst Of pity, that this elderly gentle
woman might not walk in peace through
the city streets, because fate had left her
without a protector.
Appeal to a policeman, 1 think some one
says. OF course, If he is about-but recall
That famous old recipe of Mrs. Glass
First catch your hare. and then But,
believe me, they rarely appear together
your tormentor of women and your police
man-unless, indeed, the former is stupidity
in liquor. And what good If he is arrested?
shame VIII prevent your appearing
against him. Silence and speed are gem
orally the best defensive weapons Of the
frightened, lonely girl.
once through fright, fatigue and shame
lost all elf-control, and turning to the
creature whom l could not outwaik,
cried with sob: "Oh, 1 am SO tired, so
frightened and so asnamed-you make me
wish were dead!' And to my amaze
ment he answered gruf1y: ITS pity
I'm not" and disappeared in the dark side
street.
After an actress has married and has
protector to see her safely home she is
apt to recall and to tell amusing stories
Of her past experiences, but 1 notice these
tales are never told by the girls They
become funny only when looked at from
the point Of perfect safety, though, like
everything else in the world, the dreaded
midnight walk shows a touch of the ludi-
crous now and then.
Hard Work This.
recall one snowy Saturday night, when
had played five-act play twice, with but
sandwich for my dinner. the weather
forbidding my going home after the matt
nee. So, being without change to ride, hum
cry and unutterably weary, / started, bag
In hand. to walk up 9Th avenue. On the
east side stood club house, whose peculiar
feature was vine-hung veranda across its
entire front, from which an unusually long
Hight OF steps led to the sidewalk.
Quite unmolested had walked from the
stage door almost to this building when
suddenly, as II he had sprung from the
very earth, man was at my elbow, adj
dressing me. The fact that his words, in
a foreign tongue, were not understood, did
not In the slightest degree lessen the ter
ror his evil face inspired. / shrank away
from him and he caught at my wrist It
was too much. l gave q cry and started
on run, when, tall and broad man an