Los Angeles herald., 1908-09-07

NI OIHlNG recently III tiie pupuc eye
~ has aroused the Indignation In
~ stage circles that greets the new
book, "a Little Brother of the Rich,
which Joseph Medill Patterson, the mil
lionaire Socialist, has just launched. In
it, he goes out of his way to assail the
purity and goodness of the stage, and
especially to cast aSpersions on the
members of the chorus, and the latter
are highly aroused over his structures.
Already steps have been taken by the
New York stage folk to give the lie to
the scathing denunciations he makes,
and general meeting of stage people
is to be held to express the indigna-
tion of the profession.
Mr.. Patterson's book is an extreme
ly frank, not to say plain, expose OF
the alleged sins of the rich. He assailS
society women for their lack of fam
lily, dissipation, love of dress and dis
like for home life. He speaks OF the
rich men in no less severe terms, emu
merates their follies in scathing words
and emphasizes as one of thier sins
habit of running after stage folk. For
instance, here is the way his hero sums
up the situation at critical moment:
Finally Carl broke the silence. It's
getting pretty tiresome. Same old
people, same old food and same old
booze; same old bridge, same old
racket; same old staying up all night;
same old horrible, deadly, changeless
boredom. I've lost interest. It's all
over with me, inside of me.
Nothing matters much, anyway;
at least, nothing around here. l don't
even give damn any longer how
much that man Alaire hangs around
the house, nor how much people laugh
at me for 1t. Do you know, I seri-
1fY1lF nf
thing, and going back to Blanche and
marrying her. Anita'd marry Alaire
now.''
Blanche. the chorus girl referred to,
in her own defense says:
"Well. it's you and other men that
make girls wear tights. Girls don't
wear them for the fun of it, but be-
cause you men pay them to. And
they've got to have money to live on.
You pay girl Sc to stand up all day
and sell goods and $18 a week to wear
tights. Let me tell you one thing,
Mr.. Man, If I had to do 1t over again
I'm - If I'd ever go to store work
at all-Pd light out straight for the
stage. You pay us three times as
much for showing our legs as for SELL
ing your wives hardware"
Stage Folk Indignant
The eastern stage folk have espe-
cially taken offense at Mr.. MedilPs
view of their profession. They de-
clare that it is not true: that honor
is as much respected on the stage as
off; that girl can be as honest and
clean in the profession as out. and
that the wearing of tights is as much
a matter of course as is the wearing
of decollete gowns in society.
Local stage people take equally
strong exceptions to Mr.. Patterson's
80 IVcnaoiol1u do 10nq1 phnruS naO-
pie. as represented in the colony of
them in the Gayety company at the
Grand opera house, find fault with his
views.
'Tts all lie," said Hattie Trainor,
one of the young women In the Gayety
organization, last night when Mr.. Fat
terson's article was shown her. There
isn't q word of truth in it. We do get
more pay than do clerks in the average
store, but we earn it. We work all
day and half the night. We necessarily
spend much of our salary for clothes
for stage use, and we have to live at
greater expense than does the girl
whose home is always in the same
town. But as to our being paid more
to show our legs it is simply the
maunderings of a mistaken mind.
Nowadays many chorus girls often
never show their legs as he vulgarly
expresses it.; they wear long skirts.
MANY a production mas no call Tor
tights at ALL Show girls. the most re-
cent development in the line of chorus
work. almost exclusively wear full
length gowns, and ponies while in short
skirts are so attired for dancing pur-
poses necessarily. The day of the old
Amazon march and f1uffy-sk -skirted ballet
is gone, and Mr.. Patterson Is a quarter
of a century behind the times, even If
he doesn't know It,.
"Of course there are times when we
wear tights; all stage folk must, even
Julia Marlowe and Mary Anderson
have done so. That is one of the re-
ouirements of the profession. But tights
are not nearly so suggestive as the
new sheath gown.
"As to the morals of our profession,
will just leave them to God and our
consciences. The divorce records,
think, will prove my assertion that we
are as constant In our connubial rela-
tions as any other one class OF people
known. Mr.. Patterson is simply a cheap
sensationalist, and he has taken the
usual way of the half baked writer to
get it-by attacking stage folks NOR
ais.
Miss Trainor's assertions were sus-
tained by the other members OF the
company, and much indignation was
expressed at the tone of the Patterson
book.
There are probably some things a want ad
cannot dO--perhaps q good many things.
But it's strange how hard 1t Is to think Of