The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1909-08-25
The Lure Of the Stage
CONTINUED from Page one.)

4 week each. Edythe thought
his too much, but when the land
lady with frowsy hair and hard
mouth said. From four to twelve
per week." Edythe was glad to
accept her new friends offer.
We sat down in the stuffy bed
room to talk 1t over. Our more
acquaintance threw
light into many dark places. Its
| cinch," quoth she. THE towns
,ull of buns and has-beens, and
lretty little. girl like you ought to
pc found quick" She advised
against certain managers, con-
lemning them in bitter terms,
md spoke well of others. You'll
have to sign one of them contract
things" she said, but read 1t be-
fore you do. You're liable to get
stung for the SIS bit, and a girl
can't do it. l get $40, and them
81 count. II you can dance and
sing, you better get next to a mu-
steal comedy road company"
Edythe approved all this. This
little girl, hardly out of short
skirts, was unafraid. This was
her romance. l think she was sur
prised that she was not to meet
such as Frohman and Belasco,
and / know she had dreamed of
$50 a week. She had expected
to be in a chorus the first year."
She is confident of ultimate fame.
1 saw Edythe early the next
day. She was a little awed by
the sights she had seen, for she
had boldly and alone tramped
Broadway after 1 left her. She
told me that men stared at her
something awful" but she was
still unafraid.
She put on the same shapeless
white dress and we set out to
beard the theatrical lions. How
can i describe what we saw in the
next three days! Before the door
of every agency, from early morn
until 5 o'clock, stood the motley
ranks of tired, ugly, hysterical,
determined. desperate or patient
girls.
When a door opened they
would rush in, sometimes to be
rebuffed by an impudent under
strapper and again to be received.
When an agency is in need of
people an under manager receives
N an outer office. He merely
judges applicants upon physical
These men disquali-
fy on sight girls with small fea-
lures. girls too thin or too fat,
girls who do not carry clothes
we'll. for conspicuously bad teeth,
etc.
When a girl doesn't please she
Is merely told to 'step out"
When this happened to Edythe
she was not abashed, but didn't
ike that man"
There are three Judges of ap-
Dlicants: physical, muscular and
final. The latter is the show
owner or manager and he looks
sharply at the young lady's face
md body and quickly passes her
IN or out.
1t happens this year that there
s stringency of good show ma
.erial owing to the fact that
are selecting types, and
Idythe passed in to see the big
BOSS fairly regularly. But there
vas always something wrong.
There are three general types:
show girls, tall and statuesque;
or well proportioned
girls, and ponies, or small girls.
Idythe is pony.
where is the Great White
Nay?" little Edythe asked me on
he second day Of our fruitless
,unt. She had her fanciful idea
If New York's wicked avenue of
nirth.
You are standing on it," 1
old her, and she replied: "Is this
all?" l thought: "You do not
zee the dragons, but they are here
md how quickly would devour
'ou; you do not see the Thaws
nd Whites, but they are here
With their Evelyns; the Great
slack Way lies just down yonder |
rom the Great White Way and it |
s an easy reach from one to the
ther for such an absurd innocent |
s YOU"
Poor little Edythe and such as
he! Still is she unafraid, and |
till must we seek her bauble in
hat weird world of make believe,
low becoming very real to me.
(MISS POLLOCK'S STORY |
WILL BE CONTINUED IN TO-
TIMES.