The Topeka state journal., 1903-06-06
Sir Henry Irving's Opinions on
Stage Children.
Says Child Life in Theater Il
Not Child Labor.
LIFE is AN EDUCATION
Ellen Terry Began as a Child.
as Did Others.
Other News of the Plays and
Players.

FIayofSs
Sir Henry Irving has given utterance
to some sensible and pertinent opinions
concerning the employment of children
on the stage. In 1894 the British parlia-
ment passed a law similar to the one in
force in this country making the en-
fploying of children on the stage depen-
dent on the obtaining of a license
granted by the courts on receiving
sufficient proof that the child Is ID
good health. The law has proven sat.z-
factory to all concerned. but recently
some eager reformer introduced a bill
in the house of commons forbidding the
employing of children in any oecu-
patton between the hours of in the
evening and 6 in the morning" The
theatrical managers of London, seeing
the passage of such a bill meant the
banishment of all children from the
stage, appealed to the standing commit
tee on trade, TO whom the bill was re-
ferred, and asked that amendments
be made 50 that the provisions of the
existing act might be retained. The
committee rejected this appeal and re-
ported the bill favOrably to the house
of commons, where it viii be discussed
and put to vote.
Inc IHCdIGT managers OF LOnQOn QelQ
a meeting on May Is at Drury Lane
theater to protest against the passage
4 of the new bill. Sir Henry Irving pre-
sided, and in the course of the meeting
delivered an address which contained,
among other fOrcible statements, the
following:
Il see that Mr.. T. w. Russell said it
was monstrous that children of z and
/ s years should appear on the stage for
J the amusement of the public. What IS
iG at q rooted hos
tility to the theater and a gross ignor-
ance of theatrical conditions should be
permitted to distort the judgment of a
! parliamentary committee We, VINO are
familiar win those conditions, know
that a theater bears no manner of re-
semblance to a factory. Child life in a
theater is not child labor. In a theater
lchildren are not sWeated they are petted-
Life for them is both an education and
recreation To MI Russell it is a
shocking thing for a child of to be
fairy in Shakespeare; but the child OF
would not exchange that dream of JOY
for all the gloomy pleasures that appeal
4 to Mr.. Russell.
Moreover. to many a child that
! fafrvland is the beginning OF a pro1es-
siOnal career. I need not give to you
the names of all the great artists VINO
I have been born on the stage, Graded on
the stage who shocked the t. W. Rus
sells of an earlier day by presenting 10
( a delighted public the spectacle OF lrre-
sponsible childhood tripping gayly on
the boards Ask Marie Wilton, Madge
Robertson. and Ellen Terry whether
they had a terrible time during their
infant ticeship-whether they
yearned for a .Perseus like Mr. Broad
hurst to save these little AndrOmedas
from dragon of a stage manageFs
These great artists will tell you that
they trace back to their earliest years
the impressions which have been most
valuable to their artistic development.
Not that this alone would not be a suf~
f1cient argument for the employment of
children in theaters if that employment
interfered in any degree with their gen
! eral educa ton, if it stunted their phys
/ ical growth if it cast the gloom of un-
congenial and unhealthy toll upon their
young souls.
But everybody who has any knowl-
edge of the theater, and whose mind is
free from cant and intolerance. knows
/ that the employment of children pro-
duces none of these dire results The
( flll before parliament ignores the real
issue; it proceeds upon the assumption
that a child of or suffers positive
harm from work in a theater. whereas
any experience shows the reverse to he
the truth And if for the sake of a
cast iron uniformity. this absurd inter
dict is put upon such employment a
/ large number of poor little children Wih
] be cut off from the chief joy of their
! liVes-baniShed from their fairyland TO
/ the street, and many a humble home
will be impoverished by the loss of the
salaries 50 cheerfully. so beneicially
earned by the small brea dWinners.
Against such blundering legislation We
enter an emphatic protest It viii do
no manner of good to the childrens N
cannot give them any opportunities OF
education they do not already possess
So far from securing to them a measure
of comfort and happiness, it win de-
stroy both, and instead of protecting
their tender age against hardships, it
will deprive many of them of the only
friends they have in the world. To such
children the theater is truly a home, Il
school, and benevolent institution all
in one. and the measure which deprives
it of that character will certainly be the
most egregious and callous piece Of
folly that ever called itself an act OF
Dsrfiame-t"
Such truths spoken by a man who
knows whereof he speaks, and whose
Intelligence and humaneness are we'll
known. might be read and pondered by
a goodly number of overzealous persons
here in our own country who are stilI
ever ready to look askance at the
stage, at players. and al the association
of children with theatrical folk