The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-26
TnEBOoK SHELF
By THE BIBLIoPHILE

wishes that women never had to be sub jeeted to such beasts by essaying the stage as profession.
 Mrs. Hartley tells Miss Burton about the episode and declares that she will make her husband resent it te the fullest letter of the law, and Miss Burton. who knows thing or two" says to hef quickly:
 You see grille. you've got an awful lot to learn. You're new 10 the game. That's the reason these things go so hard with you
 Do you mean that these things" are part--a regular part-of the business? ?' began, with burst of resentment I don't believe it. I can't believe itl I'm sure my experience was exceptional I know that girls that typewrite for liv ing, clerks and even housemaids have un- pleasant experiences, for I have read about 1t in the papers. There are bad men in all walks of life. l travelled nearly a whole season before 1 was married, and"
 Miss Burton was a woman of wide ex- perience and something of a cynie.
 Girls like you. she said to me. are drawn to the stage by its Illusion and romance With others it's the looseness, the freedom from restraint, that appeals. There never was a woman with a screw loose in her moral machinery who didn't banker for the stage.
 Every millionaire, every fur-tongued man about town, looks upon the women of the stage as his legitimate prey. You've only got to mention the fact that you are, directly or indirectly, connected with the show business to lay yourself open to the advances of the male creature who thinks he Is sporty
 T felt choked with indignation. T don't believe you. l don't believe it's truei I stormed. Look at such women as q named a number of prominent women stars). They are honored and re- spected.'
 You mean their accomplishment, their art is honored. Each and every one of these women has been grist to the mill Do you suppose that side of 1t ever reaches the public? No, and what s more, it's none of the publics business.
 These women are successful The price they have paid is their own secret. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not sitting in judgment on the women of the stage any more than I would sit in judgment on you if you went wrong. I'm telling you the conditions that exist, conditions which every woman who enters the the- atrfcal profession has got ito face sooner or later. You had your first experience today" = s e M Finally the, husband and wife are en- saBeu to piay Tn the same company, and the divers jealousies and misunderstand- ings arise through the leading lady making eyes at the husband, and, 'carry- ing on" with him to an outrageous ex- tent. until the wife dragged her to the wings and beat her with clenched fists. v
 A child is born to the Hartleys, and the husband shortly afterwards Is engaged by Americas Foremost Producer who comes in for the worst sort of treatment at the hands of the author Chicago is lambasted from A to 2. and the writer says that Pittsburg and Cin- einnati may be vulgar and commonplace, but there is only one Chicago.
 She attacks the vulgarity of the men and women in the audiences and handles them without gloves. t Clara Morris has written some appro- bious epithets against the stage and "Our Own Mary Anderson hasn't pictured stage life in any too glowing colors, but it has been left to the author of My Actor Husband to write the most scath- ing criticisms ot 1t and it's methods of lany latter day writer