The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-03-05
GIRLS, WATT
DON'T JUMP INTO MISERY!
Be Absolutely Certain That You Are Among the Few With Some
Genuine Talent Before You Quit the Parental Roof.
BY BARBARA KENT.


%ROHERE are still and We suppose always will be, sage-sruck iris
whose n aim in life is to go to New York and make a start
IA Much has been said and written against this ambition for the stage,
but in spite oil all some young women cannot be discouraged.
Not so very long ago a girl came to ne with the request that I assist
her in getting a position In a shop SO that she might carr enough money
to e o back to her ome lin som obscure country town in South Jersey. h
told me a tale which would brng tears to any one. Her father and mother
had ave- a few hundred dollars sin order o end her tic New York, because
she vas Of the opinion she could make her fortune O the stage. She came
to the metropolis full of ambition and tramped Broadway from one end to
the other, and eyen importuned stage managers, directors producers. pnhna
donnas, and even chorus girls themselves and the wardrobe women, only to
get a pull" She failed, and somehow or other drifed to Newark. I met
her in a charitable institution, where she wa applying for assistance.
She is only n ut of many who insist that they were born for the stage
only to find that their place Is 1t home. 1t Is probable that the girl oft tall
emit beauty and brains has a right tic carry herself to any market she chooses
OF the class who haven't ability their number is legion. Eordes o. them come
to New York every fall. hungry poorly clad and lonesome. They sit n their
miserable hall rooms and write cheerful letters home telling mother, brother
and father thai they are hits of the town. In a hole in the wall at $o a
they exc out a miserable existence. And then when they are at the n
of their money, and can't get positions, they either forget their relatives and
go wrong or the memory of a dear mother and sister will keep them long
enough above ground to W. money to go back home.
l know many girls who read this will think that I am exaggeraung. /
only wish that the opportunity we're offered me 70 take some of gu to the
wouh-be homes offs some of these stage struck girls. 1t is ptful and heart
breaking. They hope against hope untHt they go down, down, unless SON
sood, KIND charitable woman starts them m the right pat gan tney IRE
lost to the world. While lei lear parents in some far-of town are hoping
against hope that they will oon hear Of their daughters success she walks
the streets looking for employment and stares starvation in the face
Girls, be SUR of your talent before you leave your home. New York
and, in fact any large city-is full of men and women eager to take a po-
stion, and unless you have rich relatives there, who will care or you and
use their influence, you had better stay at home with your parents
stage at its best does not offer a very brilliant and satisfying fu-
Iture. One Out of ten, perhaps, has hi divine spark. the personality and
magnetism to make a success on the stage. One in a hundred makes a nv-
ing. perhaps; the rest-the great majority, the fotsam and jetsam of a big
They spend thdrt time schemtng what they can do to keep alive between n
.gagements or else drift into the underworld, nut Of sight and mind.
No salary is paid girls while rehearsing, provided they arc fortunate
enough to ret a position. II unsuccessful the. close frequently at the end of
a weeks run. In all cases the two weeks notices hang over their heads
land exposure, Illness jealousy, wire-punng, all add extra wrinkles Or new
gray hairs II business ones usefulness and value ae apt to increase with
lis long
Therefore, dear girls unless you have real talent steer clear of the stage.