The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-10-26

mark. 1t opened at 9 O'Clock. The
orchestra seats We're three lire (sixty
cents), but a chair in a kennel called
q .loge" above the orchestra level cost
q Ire or two more. Rather a slim at
tendance in the costlier parts of the
mouse, but IN the rear, in the thirty
and twenty cent seats, the benches
were packed, mustly by young men.
AS a WHOLE, the audience would be
classed in Europe as "bourgeois"-not
OF the element which works SO long
and hard as to render smart looks diff
hcult of attainment. The perform
ance taken in its entirety, told the
story Of popular s~hoW-place develop
ment in Interlarded in the
dozen numbers on h program were
six, given by young women soloists,
girls of about one type, dark-eyed,
5~etty-haired, s~hort-skirted, much be
spangled. Each sang half a dozen
songs. Not one singer was possessed
Of a toierable voice, or Of more than
ordinary good looks, IL of much
knowledge Of the stage business of a
qualified singer. The airs they sang
were commonplace and mOnotonous;
but they were ~appiauded. One of them
was called out repeated. Why? Those
who could understand what the words
Signified knew better than +. There
was no mistake possible in the ges-
lures and chances.
7 asked one of the guides as to the
average salary of these young women.
The reply was ten lire a night-about
two dollars. Talent which on serious
cultivation is not pronounced receives
in Europe q beggarly compensation.
Even that which is good. but not vet
famous, may wait long FOR %recogni-
ton. Only q few nights before, while
attending a performance of The
Pear Fisher in Naples, an old resi-
dent of that city said to me Here, in
the Mercadante. ] heard Caruso when
he sang at a salary Of five fracs a
night" An American dealer in fine
hand-painted fans, on entering an
atelier in Vienna, where he was al
ways sure of bargains, observed that
the tinest artist among the five paint
erS of the force was missing. Yes
TO better his conditions; he has be-
come a train-car CONDUCTOR
Orchestra music Is much more COM
mon throughout Europe than in
America; the theatre, concert hall,
and hotel and restaurant or orchestra
are usually double the size of ours. l
was told in Paris in Paris by an old
time American Journalist, who is now
q real Parisien, that some of the first
JioliniStS of the Superb opera or or
chestra there are paid $40 D month.
an evidence of the superadbundance
Of talent Just a grade or two short of
the highest. In England, some of our
American vaudeville stars, accustom-
cd to their hundreds q week. are Of
fered only as much q month unless
they happen to strike the popular fan
CIV. Then they may have as many as
f0ur engagements in London every
night. AS to journalists, | heard rath-
er pitiful tales as to theif
ton in nearly every country / visited.
There are, of course q few celebrated
mems on each of the larger daily news
napers, but on the press, as in art.
second rate or average talent
in tn market and consequently runs
few automobiles. It's tendencies are
rather to street cars.
But-the labor question. Dear
friends, that is precisely what 1 am
writing about. In America our Husl-
clans are organized; for ninety-nlne
hundredths Of them their art, they
have found out, is a mercnantaole
commodity subject to competltlon
which unchecked would WORK injury
TO all in the profession. We nave a4so
large art work factories, where the