The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-09-06
WON'T WEAR TIGHTS
Henrietta Crossman Says She
Will Reform.
WHAT OTHERS THINK
Another Will Reform TO Keep
from Taking Cold.

The question is How many Of our ia
nous leading actresses will follow Miss
Henrietta Crossmans example?
VIII the Rosalinds of our future ap-
pear in trailing skirts and The violas in
crinoline not too clinging? VIII Maude
Adams give US L'Aislon in a rainy day
costume ana Sarah Bernhard do Hamlet
/ in pinafores?
are tights and trousers TO be left for
! the sole feminine use OF the beauty bal
lets and the girls of comic opera and
/ buriesque. who snap their fingers at the
dignity of the drama and do not bother
their brains about the ethical question
of reform?
i love them says Miss Crossman,
referring with frank audacity TO tights.
but | am weary of them. Which. after
/ all. may be quite womanish' and Miss
Crosman is the true type of the home
/ loving American woman. Il envy man
one thing. and that is his dress and the
/ freedom it gives him. Il have had quite
a taste of it and | speak with authority.
! Trousers, plain, homely, hoIrid trousers
are simply delightful-yes, that is the
word-delightful." And she laughed joy
ously at the very recollection.
1t was in Denver in 1900 that the actress
first donned knickerboekers. Maurice
/ Campbell the condolences husband and
manager had selected for his wife com
edy called Mistress Nell in which the
leading role was that of young woman
who masqueraded in boys attire. Mis-;
Crosman saw great possibilities in the
part. 1t was new idea, artistic. SIM
! ply captivating. But there were the
small clothes" Horrid, ugly, incongru
Gus knee trousers that stern playwright
demanded and which would give one
unused to them lost, barren. almost bar
barrie sensation. Then. too, what would
he public say?
IT was fine role. finer than any that
had ever fallen TO her lot The play
would succeed. she felt sure. and she had
/ been praying for great success.
Mr. Campbell urged that they Were
not tights, simply knickerbockers Mod
est Miss Crosman flushed at the Ye:y
mention of the word tights. Never,
never, not even for the sake of her be
/ loved art. would she wear feshings. She
thought it all over long ana carefully.
and finally the great possibilities won.
The coincidence now tells of that nerve
racking opening night in Denver and
laughs softly. The knickerbockers came
just in time for the dress rehearsal and
/ there was no opportunity TO get used to
the.
When l took my first step in them it
seemed as though | were just learning TO
walk she said in relating the incident
| the other day TO a writer for The New
York Worlds Sunday Magazine at her
summer cottage at Lake Surapee, y. II.
II had strange sense of something
lacking. a wild freedom of stride and a
buoyancy almost indescribable. The re-
straininS influence of skirts was totally
removed and ! was at loss to know
/ just how to measure my pace accurately
When | stepped on the stage l did not
feel myself / was near fright
My fingers came in contact with the
knickerbockers instead of touching the
soft folds of skirt. My feet seemed sud
denly to have grown wondrous large and
I could have sworn that l had decreased
! in height / hardly knew whether the
audience was amused by the lines of the
play or by my attire and l felt an al
most uncomfortable impulse to rush to
my dressing-room. 1t was not that L felt
indelicately CARRIED. for those knicker-
bockers We're modest enough and were
worn for art. II was simply that 1 wanted
and felt that l must have clothes. clothes.
clothes
But one adapts oneself to the unusual
in things and haforp
the play was done those odd garments
began to appeal to me from sheer com
fort The freedom which at first seemed
so strange became agreeable. There was
buoyancy that woman in hampering
skirts never knows. and an elasticity of
movement that fairly fascinated me and
won my heart"
Miss Crosman's success was so great
that thereafter every person who wrote
a play with a boys part for a woman
sent it to her. Mr.. Campbell rec lived
them by the score from known and un-
known authors. Sometimes they came in
at the rate of twenty week In all this
time not one was presented in which the
( leading character wore skirts. Miss eros
man and feminine attire seemed to be ut
terly divorced so far as the stage was
concerned.
Following Mistress Nell the comedi-
enne made a record run as Rosalind f.
AS You Like 1t. OF course she wore
Youths dress. dainty and fetching. And
she wore IT, too. with modest grace
and charm that won the hearts Of women
and the admiration Of men. Then came
The Sword Of the King" IN which she
appeared as the piquant and kniCkeTbock-
cred Philippe Drayton. Her success was
immeuse-nearly as great as Nell
This very success set Miss Crosman 70
thinking. Did the public have DE ide
that she could appear in nothing bat knee
pants2 She consulted her husband He
had been thinking too. he gave some
good business reasons why his wife ard
star should abandon boys attire and r.
turn 10 skirts
Eiss Crosman has a good business head.
hut her artistic sense - strongly devel-
oDed. and she thought Of the short. en-
trancing Nell. Rcsalind and Philippa trou-
sers and the freedom they gave. Then
she put down small. weIl-shod foot de-
terrninediy and declared. somewhat rue
fully Il IS true Put me in skirts. Mr.
Nanager-H Husband. and let the public see
that l have rot forgotten how 10 wear
chem bscomingly. Let them he free and
fuzzy. clinging and binding. or light or
heavy. ] will wear them stoicaliy. Oniy
in AS You Like II Will I ever again
appear In other than womzn's gsrb