The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-04-21
FLORENCE AND F00TLIGHTS

Florence Maude was the holder of the
heavyweight defamation championship
in Hopkinsville. When she let down her
back hair and besought father, dear faith
er, to come home with her now, halff the
men in the audience would look around
hastily as though they thought they heard
some one calling them.
) AS was only natural under the circum-
S-tances, Florence soon began to have vi
sIons of herself pushing the bouquets out
of the way and gliding swiftly between
solid rows of the most approved style of
Johnnies to the stage door, where her au-
tomobile lay in waiting.
She had heard great tales of the sal
aries that leading ladies received for do
ing perfectly simple things, as much as a
hundred dollars week for walking about
on a stage and talking in a natural tone
of voice. for two or three hours every
night When they were not doing this,
they were giving delightful little suppers
At last Florence Maude reached the
point where she could no longer restrain
her vaulting position. She was dead sure
that the world was standing on tiptee for
her to come out and show just how it
should be done. Accordingly she packed
her child's size Saratoga and took the
$40 accommodation from Hopknsville to
Jones Center, where she was to connect
with the Accidental Limited Her cry
was, ION to Gothami" That's a greedy
good kind of a cry. but people who have
tried it have found Gotham a mighty hard
kind of a place TO get on to.
hyl fol l,oi
herself in a boarding house. where she
wouldn't be set back more than twenty
Ave per at the outside. she started out on
Q still hunt for the deadly manager in his
laid She had written To two or three
that she was coming. but they hadn't
even answered her letters. Probably they
were too busy looking for play for her
Hear idea of the way that she would
break into the theatrical world was mod
eled largely on a story that she had read
about young woman from Manayunk.
who got her picture into the shop win
dows the first month ont. married a men,
her of the Stock Exchange, was divorced
In six months and was now drawing a
hundred and fifty Perhaps. All that
this young lady had done was to walk
into the office and smile 1T the manager.
Florence Maude had been practicing on
ner smile for year and she was sure
that she could bring down the toughest
manager on the Rialto
Being naturally a kind-hearted girl.
Flirence Maude didn't want to keep the
poor manager waiting for her. She didn't
know that a theatrical managers princi-
Pal occupation is waiting for good ac-
tresses to come along; most Of them are
still waiting The drst office that she
fis,sted into was presided over by 4 small
boy with a Zangwill cast Of features and
q osire TO ohlige that would have made
q street. car conductor look like the orig
final Lord Chesterfield. This accommo-
datiig young gentleman assured Florence
Maude that the manager had been called
SUDDENLY to fight bin in the legislature
making q working knowledge Of the Eng
ush language Indispensable for singers in
como opera. lie also informed her that
bad,ing actresses were so thick that win
Ter that business traffic had been ordered
on Broadway from Twenty-sixth street 10
The Hotel Metropole.
Florence Maude's ambition was pulling
beck on the leading strap as she dragged
q out into the street again The auto
,nobile and the midnight suppers didn't
lem so imminent as they had the night