The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-24
FALLEN STARS IN ENGLAND.
THE SOCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL
STANDING or OLD ACTORS.
sfummers with Neither Genius Nor GOOD
Looks Have Hard Fates-How They
Manage to Liyc-ToIiring the Prov
inces-- Distinctions Actors Have won.

One rainy night not so long ago, you
might have seen little old lady get out OF
a third-class carriage at "the Junction. II
Ia always known as "the Junction Tie
vast drab Cockney world south Of the river
has grown understandable tired OF hearing
the word Chaplain" The old lady, with
her worn umbrella, was obviously very
poor.
Moreover she was anything but neat.
She had nothing Of the prim. mild look that
Is supposed to go with responsibility in the
case OF old ladies' in black. Her face was
strong featured and deeply lined, her com
plexion rough. her whole aspect only saved
from harshness by curious suggestion OF
humor and human experience, Yet she
thanked the workingman in the corner
who opened the door for her, with graz
ciolsness that was quite an ovcrpowermg
reward.
Who was she2 Every one wondered. 10
tell the truth this remarkable old person
says the London Chronicle, was just an
actress-a hummer of the old fashioned
sort. who had known hard times and very
little else since she was young and charm
ing. This, if people had known, was
great day for her She was, after some
eighteen vacant povertystricken months,
TO appear as a comic innkeepers wife, In
wpetched melotlrama subsequentlypr produced
at an outlying theater, but not considered
worth touring The character was sup
nosedly buxom, but the part neither 'fat
nor particularly appropriate. She played
it, however, for all it was worth, and slapped
the potboy's ears with will. She knew
her luck in getting even part like that.
Poor, brave cid girl!
A trihng incident, to be sure. just now,
however, at the height Of the West End
season, when favored actors and actresses
have been gathering at the royal garden
party. and have considered themselves quite
outra ged at exclusion fromthe royal enclo-
sure at Ascot-just now she is not without
her significance, is the old lady Ct Chaplain!
She represents class that the stage adulat.
ing public is only too prone to forget amid
all its talk of the social advancement OF the
actor. What, after all, does that social adj
vancement come to? We hear Of the popu-
lar West End favorite earning the salary
of cabinet minister, figuring at Lady So
and-So's crush. taking a launch up therlver
orbeing seen of morning driving in the Row.
But what of the others? What. above all,
of that increasing class, the mere
mummer-the habitualiy resting mum
mer-of the suburbs!
1t is by no means the only class OF mod
ern player who challenges our sympathy
rather than our envy. 1t is also, to very
great extent, a special product OF our time
Quiet, for the most part, law abiding, tru-
gal, clutching the fringe Of respeotao;l u ~
It is far more pathetic phenomenon IN us
way than the frankly Bohemian hummer
Take. for instance, the dingy lads and
dragged ladies of the provincial tour, with
their Sunday journeys, their seedy lou snSs'
their card parties, their. good, fellowship,
their slipshod finery. Take the actually
starving and down at heel hummer OF the
pavement, and of domicile that it Is best
to forget The fate Of these-so FAR as their
calling is conoened-is not 30 p oignaahdi IA
spair is a large brotherhood. 1t is enriched
by all professions. When mans toes are
visibly peeping through his boots 1t does not
much matter whether he be tinker, tailor,
doctor barrister or actor. 1t Is any Joo
for a crust.
As for the touring crowd they have their
salary, presumably. such as it Is. !hey
have besides little or no appearance to Keep
UP, no lynx eyed neighbors to watch their
clothes getting shabbier, no handy trades
men to tempt them with credit. True, un-,
der the present rivalry OF the provincial
music hall, their lot is anything but rosy.
Still there is always the vagabond charm
about their existence Here to-day ana
gone UO-IlOTTOW Is IL HlStlou VI INV s''eN
has it's compensatlons. go
1t is a very different thing with the poor
mummers who are becoming such curiously
common and depressing objects OF London's
drearier suburbs They h"ye neither
give them pride and spirit. They are
various in kind. There are, as we have
noticed, the old players who have had their
day, like the old lady in the train. These
have at least the resource OF letting lodg-
s,,nra tN hn nth Vhav along
somehow, in shabby genteel fashion, with
few pupils, perhaps, and occasional APP
pearance in a semi-amateur show. lhey
are the cheerier sort.
On the other hand, still more character.
istic of the time is the remnant OF the well
educated young people who went on the
stage just ten or twelve years ago, when
the theater Yves booming as e possible
middle class profession, without quotation
marks They are those who were not
especially brilliant or good looking, and
have not succeeded. The girls-thank
heaveni-have had generally a home 70 go
back to or a husband waiting for them,
but the young men seem to stay on. lhey
have generally played for few years, in
the provinces, but they have grown sick
of knowing on"-sick Of the trashy plays,
OF the vulgarity and hopelessness OF the
touring life. When they are absolutely
the country with any sort OF part they can
suburbs in the vain hope Of finding some
back way to the West End stage.
Some Of them, to their misfortune, have
a little money of their own. On this they
live while they hang around, haunt the
agents offices, meet one another at West
End bars when they can afford it, and at
the local public fotise afterward, talking
interminable shop, feeding their, hearts.
on the popularity and reported salaries OF
the little galaxy of West End celebrities
whom they proudly refer to as we What
becomes OF them-or, rather, what. will
become Of them-Heaven only knows!
Above all, it is upon them that there falls
most heavily the disappointment which the
last decade or so has brought-in spite of
all these flutterings of fashion-as to the
actors real social position. What bright
hopes there used to be An that regard
What wonderful things seemed in store
when Sir Henry Irving, risen by his own
genius to be the equal friend Of statesmen
like Gladstone and poets like Tennyson won
for the profession it's first knighthoodl
But have these hopes been realized? Are
they any nearer fulflment?
So far as we have seen, they are not.
Famous and brilliant actors, like famous
and brilliant people of all descriptions, may
be-as they always have been-lionized by
focas ha ha