The New York herald., 1922-01-08
BY SANFORD GRIFFITH,

most interesting OHereQ In IuOHtnS
BY SANFORD GRIFFITH,
SDccidl Correspondence 10 THB NEW YORK
HERALD.
PETRoGGAD, Dec. 29, 1921.
out of her rags, cinders and squalor
to become an exquisite princess,
clad in ermines and brocade. experienced
but once what the little ballet girls Of the
ex-Imperial Russian ballet relive every
night Once highly cultivated orchids pro
tected from hard realities of the struggle
for existence, they now must elbow and
struggle for food like everybody else in the
hungry. impoverished city of Petrograd
They lead scullery palace existences
| saw the opera "Czar- Sultana' at the
Petrograd Imperial Opera. The stage was
radiant with the variegated colors Rus
SLAMS love and was in harmony with the
highly colored, half Oriental music.
The old king, loaded down with silks and
Jewels, waddled across the stage, waving
an inviting hand to the many guests as
sembled at his wedding feast. Tables were
loaded down with juicy roasts exotic
fruits and cream cakes
The ballet, fluffy in swansdown and lace,
fitted about dropping flowers at the feet
of the new sovereigns of the realm. The
people in the house were transported into
another world What happy lives those
kings and noble ladies still seemed to lead
in hungry Petrograd
Wearing Superb Costumes, actors
And Dancers Freeze and Starve
But behind the scenes found a different
picture. Prompters and stage hands stood
about shivering in their overcoats. The
temperature on the stage was several de-
grees below freezing. Dancing there in
tights and fiimsy lace was about as cozy
as q similar dance in Central Park on
New Years.
The little dancer who raised her golden
goblet-wood of course-to toast the health
of the monarch, off the stage admitted
with a laugh that she had never tasted
champagne in her life. But this would be
entirely superhuous, she hastened to ex-
plain, If only there were enough bread and
butter.
II suppose we are bourgeois" bal
lerina who Joined the conversation re
marked with laugh, because we find we
we have butter and sugar to eat with our
black bread" She told me that she still
manages to get little of both by selling
the last OF her jewels and trinkets at the
uublic market Her salary was just suf-
ncient to keep her shoes in repair.
Another ballerina whom | know, once
the spoiled child Of Grand Dukes, the wife
of a distinguished general now goes to the
market herself to sell her old clothes. She
showed me calloused hands-more sensitive
about them than she need TO have BEEN
caused. she said, by wood chopping and
by doing her own washing and housework.
One of the younger dancers, who had
made little speech of greeting in English
when visited the opera for the first time,
admitted that she had never ridden in
carriage in her life. Sending her flowers
created something Of commotion, because
10 one buys flowers in Petrograd now. No
one can buy flowers without arousing the
suspicious OF the secret police OF being
dangerous capitalist. Indeed the outlay Of
some 10000 rubles seemed enormous there
though IL was but the equivalent Of so
cents. The little dancer was also some.
what agitated. never having received
flowers before
The singers and dancers cannot afford
a carriage now One Of the ballerinas was
brought to the theater every night by her
husband on a little childs sled. Another,
great favorite. when the snow was too
deep for her to walk the half mile to the
theater was triumphantly borne TO the
theater on a sleigh drawn by a number of
her admirers The dancers agreed that the
hardest part of their work is to trudge
long weary miles through the snow across
the city four times each day on foot.
Salary of So Month
Is Often Badly in Arrears
The salary of ballerina translated into
real money was about s6 n month. This
would hardly buy black bread enough to
keep soul and body together over this
period. Other food they can only buy by
disposing of some trinket at the market.
AZ pinch some were forced TO accept the