The Theatre And Its People

artists and some geniuses, and it has also developed more numerous representatives of mediocrity. There used to be a prejudice among managers against any other training than that which was had in the theatre. The recruit from outside the ranks had to begin with the smallest parts and work along slowlyand unaided. Here and there a retired actor gave lessons to novices singly, but schools of acting were unknown. The conditions have changed within ten years. The majority of the new people in stageland are young men and women of education and refinement. They come from all kinds of families in the social scale. Two girls made their debuts as sisters in a play. They had been chosen for their similarity in looks and manners. In reality, one was the orphan daughter of a stableman, and the other the heiress of a millionaire. A young actor in the same company was the grandson of a President of the United States, and a second was a beau from a purse-proud family. Both were university men. A third, the son of a rural clergyman, had worked as a waiter in an eating-house while preparing for the dramatic profession. But all these five were alike in being ladies or gentlemen in the bestsense of the term. They had been graduated from a dramatic school at the same time, and had obtained their first stage employment together in these minor parts of a play. When once the prejudice of managers against school-trained actors was removed a change for the better began. Young people...