The San Francisco call., 1905-06-18

y II
answer to my question
cheerfuIly, almost gayly,
and then. for Gretchen is a German,
with German conscience and scruples
and exactness, her kindly face clouded
with gravity and regret, and she went
on:
"But-they don't stay married; they
come rushing back"
I had asked Gretchen what becomes
of all the chorus girls
That has always been fascinating
mystery TO me.
OF course. when you are very young
and have never been any nearer to the
beguiIing chorus than your opera
glasses will bring you, still young
enough, ] mean, TO believe everything
you see IN print because it is in print
and not understand half of it, you
know exactly what becomes of the cho-
rus girls. You know so many things
exactly at that age.
You sit so demurely in your orches-
ira seat, under your mama's or your
chaperone's wing. so demureIy that the
admiring blase world looking at you is
sure that butter wouldn't melt in your
the chorus girl, that creature of de-
lightful audacity in dress and abandon
in movement upon the stage, being
whirled away from the stage door in
an enchanted carriage to an enchanted
existence of delirious excitement and
luxury and adulation.
You never picture her in her hall
bedroom. sitting on the side of her lit
tie iron bed, easy in her 75-cent XII
mona with her hair braided down her
back, eating her midnight supper out
OF cracker 3ar and a deviled ham tin
sumptuously arranged upon the top Of
her trunk.
You never picture her wiping the
dinner dishes for her mother before
she hurries to the theater on a street
car-if she is lucky enough to have a
home.
You never picture her smuggling
10 his elbow and walking home with
the stage carpenter or the property
man, or that unromantic, impecunious
brown bird the man of the chorus, and
figuring out ways and means of fur
nishing e three-room fiat.
Nor going to o'clock mass every
morning in Lent and knitting bedroom
slippers for needy friends as a Lenten
duty-as I remember one New York
chorus girl doing, chorus girl who is
now leading soprano with a salary in
three figures.
Nor going TO IL o'clock service every
Sunday morning with her mother-as one
OF the prettiest Of the Tivon girls does
and reverently making the responses with
the same sweet voice she tra-la-las
with in THE Tenderfoot"
Even when you are older and fancy you
know better you still regard the beguii-
ing siren OF the chorus with distrust and
suspicion. When Tom, Dick or Harry. to
whom you are engaged or married-yes,
even when you are married-takes you to
the theater you watch him out of the tail
Of your eye when the lightsome chorus
comes pirouetting out Of the wings. You
watch with the tensity OF a cat at a
raousehole for the slightest CLEAN of in
terest in his eye and you try to follow
that Illicit CLEAN straight to the fascfnat-
ing naughty She whose witchery struck
the spark,
Women are queer creatures-the most
liberal and sophisticated, the narrowest
and most prudish, harbor alike deep down
IN their hearts the belief that the chorus
girl is a danger and a menace, their
natural enemy.
They may envy and emulate the prina
DONNA but the chorus girl they suspect
always; she is fly in their honey.
To the wealthy mother Of sons she is a
perpetual nightmare, designing creature
setting her snares in the becoming ef-
fulgence Of the footlights-"audaciou
thing!''
To the insecure and jealous wife she Is
more painful than a thorn in the flesh.
To the suspicious fiancee she is a peril
Gus possibility.
To the ingenue she is a revelation of
the unknowable as productive of thrills
as the most daring Of midnight incanta-
lions on Halloween.
To the aedgIing Johnny she is-yell,
! won't say what she is, for the Johnny