The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-05-09
SHE WANTED ROOM.


even hesitat;ng. "On that train, speeding
to the great, distant city where could per-
haps find the realization of my ambitions
where, after all of this dullness, this rust
ing away, / could find the means of express
sion that l seek! All, me!' and Gertrude
sighed heavily and felt of her sidecombs to
see if they were still in their place.
1t Is not meet that the reader should be
bothered with superfuous detail, but
word of explanation with reference to Ger
trude must necessarily be written at this
point. Gertrude, ravishingly beautiful
young creature, was living in her native
burg, little, inconsequential town in cen
tral pennsylvania, and she hungered to get
out into the great, wide world. The squalid,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS existence of a comfort
able home, the indulgence of fond parents,
the watchful and protecting eyes of broth
ers-these did not suffice for Gertrude. In
very truth there was void in her bosom
vague, uncomfortable yearning which she
only half understood, but which often
brought her to the verge of tears. She knew
that her folks had done the very best they
could for her-that they had given her
high-priced seminary education-that she
was so cherished at home that they wouldn't
even permit her to do a hands turn she
didn't want to do-Gertrude was well aware
of all of these things.
She felt at times just trihe ungrateful
in that she could not manifest more inter
est in the kindly offices that were constant
~ being performed for her by all of those
around her-and yet, there was that ire
pressible hankering which she could no
more crowd back than she could stem the
tide of the sea.
n ohaJ rbo1o hoip 70
be an actress The very thought of play
ing Juliet to the Romeo of Faversham or
Bellew aroused within her such an ecstatic
storm of joy that she could scarcely eat her
meals. Gertrude had been reciting Cur
few Shall Not Ring" and such other pieces,
that so supremely test the abilities of the
actress, at the church strawberry festivals
ever since her return from the seminary,
and everybody had told her that it was only
a matter of time before she should cause
Maude Adams and Julia Marlowe to creep
into the underbrush and live on wild ber-
ries for the remainder of their lives.
And so Gertrude hankered with the whole
strength of her being to go to New York
and get an engagement to play Lady Mac
beth with Mansfield or somebody or other
like that. She had often preached the sub
ject to her parents, but they had not been
able to see it at all, so to speak, and thus
at the time our story opens there was
shadow on our heroine's life that often
caused her to forget to put her hair up in
kids.
On this day the sight of the speeding
train was particularly hurtful iron in her
soul, and once more she pleaded with her
parents to permit her to go to New York
and there adopt the stage as profession.
Miracle of mirscles At last, tired of her
opportunities, they consented. The next
week was one of hurried preparation, and
exactly one week from the day this story
opens Gertrude was on the train toward
which she had cast such longing eyes such
a short time before.
"She'll be back soon, mother" said Ger
trude's father to the woebegone mother,
as the train pulled out of the station.
He was an experienced, shrewd man, and
he had in his minds eye the whole picture
of the disappointments and cruel trials that
he knew were in store for his daughter
He felt for her in advance, but he could
not help the situation; he had done the
best he could to restrain her, and so had her
mother and brothers; but she was resolved
to be an actress, and he wanted the child
to find out for herself the impossibility of
that dream ever being realized.
He saw her, in his mental vision, going
from one managers office to the other in
the great city, meeting rebuff after rebuff,
and even being furtively smiled at by the
sardonic theatrical men when she suggested
playing cleopatra" the first rattle out of
the box. Then he pictured her, after months
and months of Intellectual effort to gain
hearing in her favorite roles, finally meet
ing up with fatherly, kindly-natured man
ager, who would take her aside and tell her
a whole lot Of things that she urgently need
ed to know-that the road to success on the
stage is a craggy one, that the great actress
is born, not made; that even the mediocre
actress must devote years of study to her
profession before aspiring to even fairly
good parts, and that she had better return
to the shelter of the protecting home and
take up some other line of life work. Then
Gertrude's father pictured her as giving
way to flood of tears when she reached her
room after this talk, and as deciding, after
a long, sleepless night, that, after all, the
quiet, peaceful life of home was better suited
to her temperament than the tempestuous
struggle for recognition in the great city
and then the good old father portrayed her
as coming home, little pale, perhaps, from
the shock of her disappointment, but with
her head high, and resolve to devote her
self to the nursing of the sick of the village
and such kindly works.
This is the way the old man had it all
doped out in his mind.
But Gertrude's father was just about a.,
900 nautical miles from hammering the
spike on the head.
Gertrude got a job just one hour and
forty-two minutes after she struck the
great, distant, smoke-hidden city. Gertrude
hiked straight for the office of the manager
of 'Snoronora," and she told him that
billet as one Of the sylphs in the octet was
about her measurement. The manager just
gave Gertrude one look and said "all right"
for Gertrude was constructed from the
ground up and she looked the part of the
octet girl to the 7. She wired home to her
pa that very night: GIVE caught on with
the double eight" and thus were the fond
visions of her elderly, prophetic parent
knocked into a cooked hat.
Gertrude knew what she wanted all the
time.-Washington Star.
The Girl and the Gold Braid.
Once there was man who had brass but
tons and gold braid all over his clothes He
wore dinkey cap with yellow stripes on it,
and his belt was buckled up to the last notch
A beautiful maiden saw him and said:
ooh, amt he just scrimpaloorious! How
brave he looks, and know he is hero by