The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 7, 1904, Page 10

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. vl be, as she tries to be allows herself to be vholly and widely di- re robbed of its would to say noth- £ Johnnies,” as they ted to news interest by f €& pretexts for glaring head- s stories of the chorus girl brand hot and at high other warm passages like a fuge before they is a fixture, a fea- all, ghe is peerless as & continuous surprise party. other lines she has a mission. and magasine constant and urgent need trations that must om the chorus.ranks. has never been in a green- cenes the novelty newspaper cial favor those wishing etimes permitted to in- precincts, where such e as may meet the require- pointed out, introductions follow and engagements are planned. A girl who has been on the stage or who har taken a course in Delsarte is always preferable for illustrations to one who knows nothing of the expres- 4 sion of emo- tress always wants not picture, but a catchy for this reason lends her per- work of the mo- of action or the exp: The a a pretty more to the the general run of real, live girls is very different from the res ensemble who is featured as ng an appetite two and a half vards long and warranted not to shrink, with a thirst that would make the Mississippi River look like a syphon out of bt s= and which develops into an enormous capacity for midnight suppers and a hankering for automo- biles, nothing of the hansom habit as a digestive proposition. The chorus girl as she however, is generally a hard worker, who knows and sees little of life outside of the drudgery of rchearsals and the glam- our of footlights. Sick well, rain or shine, hot or d, the chorus girl must be on time, and for the slightest infraction of rules or a want of promptness she is heav] fined, which makes a serious inroad on her small salary. The prin- cipals of various shows receive princely to say is, salaries, but the girls who make the "light and beauty, the change and mo- tion, get very little pay, out of which LycrY” f’/\z‘z‘.?::'y))", o A STAR they a.e onoliged to furnish shoes, gloves and other odds and ends, and every one knows that long kid gloves ' LOOPING THE LITERARY LOOP | " SR Soate o 2 EORGE ELIOT FOOZLEIT was & novelist. That is, ‘'he was ad- dicted to the typewriter habit and spent mest of his small change for return postage. There are thn ¢ classes of people who commit fiction—those who have a mis- sion, those who have time to kill or burn and those who need the money. The first are seldom heard from, for the reason that the world has too many other troubles to stand for being preached at when it is looking for sur- cease of troubles at a dollar and a half per. The gentlemen who punish the typwriter because they haven't any- thing eise to do can usually find some one who will take their money and run the risk of publishing their books. Pub- lishers jare very human in many re- spects, even as other people. But it is the gentlemen who write novels be- cause the wolf is hammering on the front door and thelr children are cry- ing for bread who usually make a hit with the dear public. When 2 man knows that his continued stay on this mundane sphere depends on his turning out a marketabie article he is far more likely to round off the corners and puity up the nall holes than if he is merely trying to make some one believe something that isn’t so or driving away an attack of double-distilled ennui. To return to G. Eliot Foozleit, he didn’t seem to fall in any of the above classes. That's the trouble with a real nice, compr: ensive, scientific classifi- carion. Just as you have it all laid out and propped up at the corners so that 1 are sure nothing can get by it you iscover that all the cases you want to get your brand on are going the other way. However, we shall stand by our classification. It's & good one, even if it doesn’'t fit. As we have intimated two or three times, Foozleit showed the innate stubbornness of his nature by his absolute refusal to fall in with the arrangement that we have made. Therefore we shall be compelied ollow him out into the open and d him as he runs. - To-begin with, he had the sympto we * of a failure. Fables for the Foolish by Nicholas Nemo of a mission. To be sure, he wasn't a Christian Scientist, or a vegetarian, or a Socialist, or even a’ firm believer in the good old doctrine that the world is going to the dogs. All of these working hypotheses are good things for a budding novelist tu have in stock, but Foozleit didn’'t have any of them. His principal mission was to convince the publishers that his books were worth selling and the public that they were worth buying. We may say in bassing that his mission appeared at the outset to be a first-class imitation He would probably deny that he ever wrote to kill time, but that is the only charitable explanation of some of the stuff that he tried to inflict upon a weary world. It was under the last heading, how- ever, that Foozleit came nearest to falling. In fact, it was when he at- tempted to perform the feat implied therein that he did fall—flat. He un- doubtedly needed ' the money, but somehow he didn’t seem to be able to get in sight of it. His trouble was the very common one of being possessed of e superabundance of hindsight,to the great detriment of his available supply of foresight. He could always tell what was going to happen abeut & day after it was all over. This is a quality not confined to novelists and weather bureaus, but it worked par- ticular harm in the case of G. Foozleit. The weather bureau can continue to guess and it will usually happen in the course of time and meteorological . contingencies that the weather will come within hailing distance of con- forming to the conditions lald down for it. ‘When G. Eliot appeared on the liter- ary horizon the historical novel was on the rampage. Richard I, Godfrey de Consomme and all the innumerable host of captivating young men who as- sisted George Washington to be the father of his country held the center of the stage. The air was filled with strange oaths and obsolete slang that would have netted a man about ten —e days in durance vile if he had polluted the atmosphere with them under the influence of spirituous beverages. The difference between a historical novel- ist and a plain drunk is thgt the for- mer will never sober off and therefore must be treated with due leniency. When G. Eliot got his eyes open to the demands of the hour it was {mpossible to throw a stone in the State of In- diana without hitting a man who had at least two volumes to his credit. He thought he saw an opportunity coming around his way and made a grab at it, but, alas, it was only & fleeting show. His grab consisted of a powerfpl tale of the reign of King Canute, the first man to make successful use of the wa- ter cure. It was a hot book all right, but by the time G. Eliot had it off the stocks the tide of historical novels be- gan to run out—a thing which had happened to the authors’ ideas long be- fore—and no one was reading anything but religious works with a high moral purpose. Of course, G. Ellot was seriously wounded in his most tender feelings, but, carefully concealing the wound under a small mortgage on his house, he blocked out an affecting and su- premely moral tale that was calculated to reform the head waiter of & Raines law hotel. Anything more convincingly moral than that is beyond the power of mortal man to concelve. There can be no question that the moral reformation of the world would have beén accoms plished and the millenntum would have been ushered in in a blaze of glory— and royalties—if the chfld of G. Hliots brain had been permitted to see the light of day. But by the time G. Hliot had'rolled up his sleeves and unlim- bered his typewriter people had begun to get ready to get tired of religious novels and were lining up to buck the center of the social problem. Once again G. Eliot was due to have his tenderest feelings walked on and he was right on hand with the goods. After he had scraped the dust out of bis eyes and boxed his intellectual com- pass again he got down his encyclo- vedia and made up the finest pattern for a social study that you ever did see. In order to secure the necessary misinformation he disguised himself in a celluloid collar and a false accent and concealed himself in the Franco-Irish quarter to see how the other half-and- half lives. ‘When he came in from the bush he discovered, with the feeling that he ‘would have classified as one of sicken- ing horror, that the world had con- tinued to revolve on its axis and that nobody cared for underdone sociology Wwith a sauce of harrowing detalls. By this time the great reading public of the United ‘States and Springfield, Mass., had landed on the domestic tale as about the best thing for a quiet evening’s entertainment. G. Eliot was down temporarily, but he was a long way from out. The tale of sweet do- mesticity for his and the sooner the quicker. The story that he knoeked together in the course of the next six months would have brought tears to the eyes of a cigar store Indlan. But when it came to the publishers the touch failed to materialize. G. Ellot was informed gently but firmly that the only thing that wasn't a drug on the -market was a hand-sewed, leather- lined historical romance. That was just the moment that Mr. Foozleft had been waiting for, although he didn’t know it. King Canute, wha was collecting dust in the dim recesses of the pigeon holes, was dragged out and introduced to an expectant public. G. Bliot had discovered that novels move in cycles and that if a man can only walt long enough the procession will come around his block. Thereatter all that he had to do was to keep an eye on the publishers’ announcements and fire out hig old manuscripts in the proper order. He has at length dis- Dosed of all of them and is resting in his country home {n the Berkshires and writing magazine articles on the lite ary decline of America. To all aspiring novelists we would point out as a re- sult of our careful investigation of the career of Mr. George Eliot Foozleit that often the best way to get the half- Nelson on an opportunity is to start backward and meet it coming around the block. (Copyright, 1904, by Albert Britt.) - and fancy shoes are not given away as stamps. The consequence is that these girls are glad enough to make a few extra dollars by posing and are obliging and agreeable. 5 The majority of them have others dependent upon them, and between re- hearsals, at times without even a cup of coffee, they will wait most amiably through any number of poses with changes of gowns and incidentals that consume time. B COMIC Oreg FORCE It does not take long to size up these girls, and many favored of fortune would do well to take a few lessons in old-tashioned deportment from them Even among so many acknowledgedly pretty it is often difficult to select ex- actly the style girl suited to the pur- pose. Sometimes a blond, sometimes a brunette is required, and if the girl has a pretty face the chances are that she has not the gowns, and you can very cleverly guess her moral status by the quality and quantjty of her togs. Theatrical managers will not allow a girl to take her costumes from the green ryooms except it be as a very great favor, which they do not fail to impress upon the one asking it. In which case, the party asking must be responsible for the safe return, within the specified time, and not the actress, whose purse may not be equal to the demand. Besides this, they must be sure that the party is reliable as well as responsible, that no delay may occur in returning. When pictures are taken for the show itself the mistress of the ward- robe must attend to all such details. Many of those girls are very beauti- ful and yet possess but one fairly pre- sentable gown, in which, with dainty shirt waists, they manage to make a good appearance. 3 When u girl has no gowns of own and has to be ragged up in bor- rowed fogs the whole perform very funny, yet has a dash of They are all rather bt may be expe of the “real sw her emot Perhaps worn an and her refreshing. . After which she Had bee: the taken, she stood b a miring herself with all the abandor a.child. ing a preamble of ag ogies’ a uch' beating about the ‘bush, . sh rved -herdelf if she might have a couple of neg taken of herself, as she could sell the pictyres to_sge al papers that ha quested them, but which she ha obliged having n wear, “and 1 never looked so my life as I do now.” In these days of jaded soc anities naturalness of su. engaging and enthusiastie, is a freshing contrast” to those who are taught that to laugh ‘is provincial and enthusiasm plebeian, Mothers of eligible sons would do well to keep their tender darlings from thege girls, forted to make a g and tocultivate the arts and graces that make them at’all times charming com- paniofs. They know only too well that & pleasing personality is the surest road to success, and they know also that ‘they must kéep well and bright that they may preserve their good looks. They are eager for the advert: that helps them and many of would gladly pose for alone because popularity is always a large stock in tr: for the girl whose good looks is her only dov One little girl wh is always in demand is a perfect r fature Lillian Ru 1, and although sought after and pictured so frequent- 1y, is yet unspoiled, and as sweet, mod- to refuse ising hem this privilege est and unob ive as it i{s possible for a girl to be. She has several de- pendent upon her and when posing gowns are ays' furnished her. The dainty tiny maids, known in the New York stage vernacular as “broil- ers,” are a pretty and bits of femininity. show be large and to 1 y papers p lures of these g appear, and a r written to the theater exy want of models, and the name of the photc T reference, seldom fails t ecure a courteous response, the pay and desir sement being both 5 r be cordia fun much vim otry these gir luxury with litt it. Contact with these girls in bus relations would change many peor an views. and if mothers of eligible sor are wise, they will lock the boys glass cases whenever the New Y« chorus girl comes to town. She Is pretty, so bewitching, and so amiab x 1y bubbling over with the Fizz She is always -obliging and eager to earn a pittance, and her wo fault is the splendid contrast she makes with the society girl with he steel riveted face and armor plate eg Usm and artificial manners. The chorus girl is a relaxation, and therein a snare, and taking her all all, she is so pretty and bewitching that the boys are in danger—and th hubbles—well! . Ring off, did you say? Oh, well, we are not telling all that we know.