The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 24, 1907, Page 16

PARIS, Feb. 1171907, 1 uight, in Paris, ‘twe debutantes were driven from the without & hearing—ia & ¢ dead rats, bofied petR~ toes and bad eggs stage ates a decorons ’“ was nto e ruthless mety sad In ten transformed Paris critics have called this attack n women 2 —to eycuse the clubmen: wh ized 1t by command of other however, but“th g of that form e s ne Cabal It e that “The Dream of Eg . pieces like it are The pictuz- etwo women had to them—and 114 save them! re is no proud © has not her early with twelve Spain sufficed . When Cleo de Me- T o ere to do her por- e de Pougy was pre- suaded to avoid ¥ pretending sudden The he-warning. And 1f' there itions of late warning “has omen _ struggle as Vacances ywers, a night. t enough to fight tho Cflna 2 "‘e pesalty. The Bot “Vautrin’ patd Goncourt pecl: brotliers, their Henriette “Tann- hengrin’; but nowa- mark s meta- playw ilght “ or r, actress or professional beauty, re ‘ndeud that a .Collette «Willy eOusl.‘ to” handed it is obstinate, waiting 10 'be’ crushed!s ‘4 The Cabal-Rife-Today . It ‘may, therefore, astonish you 'to’ learn thatiths Cabal was,never more rife ithan+in- the Par.s of today.< “The word comes from the Cabbala,ithe joc- cult = e of the ancient Jewish rgb- blis; and if in.the couwrse of evolution 7O BE O NOT 7TPOXBE — it has beecome vulgarized down -to‘the everyday doings of pretty women, in and- out the great Parisian “swim,” it still preserves a power of binding and loosing, making -and unmaking, taking and leaving. There are cases that seem positively mysterious—like . that of Carmencita and Otero,- who dawned on Paris at practically the same time. Carmencita enjoved enough prece- dence to put Otero ;. jier in the situa- tion of an imifator. Carmencita was acknowledged a true artisté. a2 superb type; she had the sacred fire. She was beautiful, She had meade a furor in Sargent had painted her. The eritics raved about her. Yel.‘ London. suddenly, one evening, in her second : Paris engagement, an ominous As she finished her bolero with the-“fire and the brio of a thing“shappened. beauteous devil—the claque. failed to function! There was silence. . In.the audience every ~-at: his -neighbor. And with that dare not ong looked Something must be wrong. that silly’ Paris vanity admit ignorance men 'in the audience. took on-a‘ knowing look andiwomen smiled disagreeably. “In- the ‘midst ‘of an uneasy buzing, Carmencita angrily stalked from the stagel The thing could happen nowhere but’ ‘in Paris, whére the sheep of Panurge’ still pant to get into line. Some thirty doubtful ‘fellows in free seats, pald to epplaud,in unison. at. their chief's;sig- nal,'had falledito applaud; and/the‘Pa-" rislan’ public’ is ‘So ‘used to ‘being led ,that not a’hand clapped the artiste they had delighted irj the night before! ° That night’ a dozen stories ' ran through Paris to discredit Carmencita— TRPROLEL Eiisabeth Parkinson may reslly Bemsie Abott may h:.v; » glimpse of ‘mprant of ft.- Butvhltcvnn)...i Of one thing be sure—the clague meyer fafled Otero. From the start she put her ‘interests in the w»'dd care of a curlm personage, Kam- AHHL who wielded & ‘strange influence 4n ‘his any. .Kam-Hill, chanteur mon- @ain, knew his Par{s. Rumor made him oh‘t,a nobleman' of fallen fortunes but " +igh connections. bermnly he enjoyed’ enormous pérsonal success; and had Carmencita been his protege that night you may be sure a member of the claque would have warned him that some one had pald them to fail her! Was it a private enemy? Possibly, but not probably; certainly not danger- ously. The greatf, the dangerous Cabal of Paris is that of the Clique of Wo- men; and Kam-Hill would have seen to it that his protege stood well with them. Ask any of these young beauties who has made her and who can un- make her; and ‘she will reply: “the Sis- ters!” It is, In the argot of this world, “les soeurs” (the sisters), “les bonnes fem- mss”, (the good women)! It is the miss of .successful peauties by profession, on and off the stage. They have the col- lective favor of the clubs. Each one, besides, has the ear of some influential banker, bourse man, or commercial or industrial giant. Academicians bask in their boudoirs. Supreme Court judges are proud jo take tea with them. Sena- tors and deputies boast their friendship, Beauties Who Conspire These silly-looking beauties conspire ke trust megnates—and for the llke end, to keep up their monopoly. Thelr radiating system extends up- ward to academy, courts, university, ad- ministration, legislature and, by the clubs, to soclety itself. the way of hnngeri-an and underlings, Downward, by, their mysterious influence is grounded in the very heart of the people—from whom they spring. 3 Among these photographs there are two girls whose launching in the Paris One, still fu the quadrilles of the grand opera ballet, grew ambitious at the age of seventeen and desired Reutlinger to séll her pho- tograph. It is the usual thing—one swim I witnessed. PR HNOW, 7'//,5 pOWIA) o THE all Ous, mere explianal gossipy public to . killed Carmencita. show why it had As she had no one to fight her battles, her“engagement dwindled; and’ she never. got another. She ' liked Pan’ and -returned there often. . Yet 'she was dcad as a Paris personage. * .\ On the nther hand, 'Otero's d cing was Isughed; at\lrom the. begl‘nlnx.' Crities dl!mls!ed her with the onegword —"vulgur" Yet' ahsxwent from' ll\'(- L T s lamethlns‘ to “be'a’ bride, d somethlng to be a heroine But Mis. Frank” Flood” of M’Hwnukee, “tormerly Misn Gertrude Ea,wyer of ' Ménomin Mich., is both. / Miss Sawyer, who is the daughter of s a prominent buslness ‘man of "Menomi~ nee_and wn.s ‘one ot the 'belles of that city, became Aa her;ome lut fall when! she rescued five children “from’ drown- ing in Greén qny August 25, with the A e P Hefoinc au -afe!y\a,,nm-. -hp lcerQue ersonage without one’s photograph in the shop windows. “Madame desire?” the clerk Inquired; 2nd when he learned she did not want to pay, but to come into the “grande collection,” he said: “Madame {s presented by——?* And this in spite of her position as a child of the grand opera since the age of seven, Indeed, a girl may even sing a 800d role at the opera, yet not bscome .p Parlslan'pe"gnggs; and it is_still iz " hasten to ad@—its last expression ‘r’ The San Francisco Sunday Call. s 7-”5)— Sz = e NE W wrd’zig’ TS ¥ SUCCESS <of the Opera Comlqua. where three performances have made a p}lm:'- donna—on condition of being it else- wheére than in Paris. The young heauty of the quadrilles, therefore, wisely returned in a week, n.ccompa.nlgd by a known star of -the ballet. = Reutlinger willingly sent out her” photographs. The star appeared with her'a few times at Cafe de Parls -upyer;;;and the girl had her freedom of'the gay capital. What engagements ‘passed between them remained private, but’'the girl's mother admitted philo- of “Laké Rescue Elopes e ‘"”dc"‘“flren of ex 58 man Isaac . Stephenson,’ Migs Sawver attemmez to TOW.d short afstance, alons. the shore and drove them u:teen hours the" bru\'a gir! bu.ttled vith the “aveg and comtoned lnd en- couraged the m;ue chl‘lafen the wind abateq an sha !lnnuy 8ot | them mrly flead from exhaustion ‘and” exyoluro, Naturally she was much admired for her heroism as well as for her beauty, but among all her lovers she clung to B % ‘n jan oPen- b&gf_. A storm cmq up Frank Flood, formerly a clerk in a n;(o tha llke. and for Auenomlnee bank. Her father: obhcted to the proposed marriage, ‘but, . of courae, a girl as brave as H(s.s Sawyer “would ot give up’ the man she loved. The' marriage: took place without™ the + father’s “knowledge -and the happy ° .couple are" now living nLllr Flood's home in Milwaukee. -uphflcany that “It costs -dear to' be solacee!” In the other case & .very buuutu! strl whose - mothar ¢ suddenly® lost -money wished to begin ‘as a kind' of small star, doing elghteenth century chaf- Sons in costume at the:small but seleét establishment they:call the Mathurins. Well, the first night a real cabal downed her. All around in the audl- ence men and women talked loud dur- ing her. first. couplets.. The claque, working feebly, was drowned in scrap- ing feet, spitetul laughter. And, as the courageous girl would have gone on” again:to fight it out, the manager, with an’ impulse of xe’nern:lty. caught her arm and sald to her' low, the phrase of ‘the Scripture: “Make to yourself friends of’the mam- conversations and mon of unrighteousness.” A .week or two, later the girl's.name appeared again upon the bills as “Pu- pil of Madame_ Bob-Walter!” = Maddme Bob-Walter 1s now in the automobile business; but she remains none: the less of the unlncorporlled umcl.mm thq Sisters. Geod n.tu:odly she occu- pled ‘a.front seat at the Mathurins that - of w night. Between the early numders she rose, nodded to old friends and swalled and dloomed and gurgled. When her “pupil” came op she applauded, and the claque spplauded, axd the audience all applauded!- And the girl whose mother lost her momey Was launched, quicker than | the average, In the “swim” of Parfs. That is to say, it remained with her—her charm and talent, or their ab- sende—to succeed or fall; not be killed i{n advance, hearing! she would without a 3 Individuals and troupes from forelgn . eountries, even, easily pass through the Paris music halls in short engage- ments without dreaming that such oc- oult Dbarriers exist. against your setting personage. The ‘claque itself, you simply a machinery. The Cabal Is up as a Farislan understand, is Paris managers are always overpaying t! and getting back half of the m commissions for their private Thus to moupt Ir recelpts— & new plec prefer . tog borrow. The occult of . the. claque suppiles {t, and for payment he receives many seats ‘each ' night - through the run. Thus he has interest to’support the piece and sell his t s, often at & premium. So he organizes the ap- plause in the claque visible. s+ ‘When. any.pretty woman wishes to rise in grade she begins by “mmking herself noticed.” ; Money passes be- ‘tween her and the ghief of the claqueg and she gets so‘ mueh’ applause extra, honestly delivered. But when the Parisian beauty wishes to go deeper she consults. the occult backer of the claque. The first thing this mysteriqus personage will ask Is “Have you anything against you?* Is there risk.of the great corpora of the sisters coming down upon (They ‘are lovely cannibals with sharp ened teeth. " Ask Colette Willy. o4 AN “.EZRICAN IN PARIS.