The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-02
THE MILLS co.

sided, and in the course of the meeting
delivered an address which contained,
among other forcible statements, the
following:
was monstrous that children of seven
and eight years should appear on the
stage for the amusement of the pubic.
What is really monstrous is that root
ed hostility to the theater and a gross
ignorance of theatrical conditions Should
be permitted TO distort the judgment of
a parliamentary committee. We, VINO
are familiar with those conditions, know
that a theater bears no manner o. re-
semblance to a factory. Child life in a
theater is not child labor. In theater
children are not sweated: they are pet
ted Life for them is both an education
and a recreation. To Mr. Russell 1t is
shocking thing for child of seven to be
a fairy in Shakespeare; but the cnlld OF
seven would not exchange the dream OF
low for all the gloomy pleasures that APP
peal to Mr.. Russell.
"Moreover,to many child, that fairy
land is the beginning of a professional
career. I need not give to you the
names of all the great artists who have
been born on the stage, Graded on the
stage who shocked the T. W. Russells
of an earlier day by presenting to
delighted public the spectacle OF IRE
sponsibIe childhood tripping gayly on
the boards. Ask Marie Wilton, Madge
Robertson, and Ellen Terry whether
they had a terrible time during their
infant apprenticeship whether they
vearned for a Perseus like Mr.. Broad
hurst to save these little Andromeuas
from a dragon of a stage manager.
s.These great artists will tell you that
thew trace back to their earliest years
the impressions which have been most
valuable to their artistic development.
Not that this alone would be sur
ficient argument for the employment OF
children in theaterS if that employment
Iinterfered in any degree with their
general education, if it stunted their
physical growth, if it cast the gloom OF
uncongenial and unhealthy Toll upon
their young souls.
But everybody who has any knowi-
edge of the theater, and whose mlnd II
free from cant and intolerance knows
that the employment of children pro-
duces none of these dire results. The
bill before parliament ignores the real
issue; it proceeds upon the assumption
that a child of seven or eight suffers
positive harm from work in tneater.
whereas any experience shows the re-
verse to be the truth. And If, Tor the
sake of a cast-iron uniformity, this aD-
surd interdict is put upon such employ
ment a large number OF poor ntti'.
children will be cut off from the chief
low of their lives-banished from their
farmland to the street, and many :
humble home will be impoverished by
the loss of the salaries so cheerfuily.
so benefc1aliy earned Dy tns Siiei
bread winners. Against such blunder-
ing legislation We enter an emphatic
protest 1t will do no manner of goos
to the children; it cannot give them any
opportunities they do not already pos.
4 sess. So far from securing to them a
Measure of comfort and happiness il
will destroy both. and instead of pro-
teoting their tender age against hard
ships. it will deprive many of them of
the orlly friends they have in the world
To such children the theater is truly a
home, a school. and a benevolent insti,
4 tuition. all in one. and the measure
which deprives it of that character win
certainly be the most gorgeous ana
/ callous piece of folly that ever called
( itself an act of parliament. Chicago
I Tr:b-ne.