girl
who comes straight from private life,--a fortune, great influence, or
superlative beauty. With a large amount of money a girl can
unquestionably tempt a manager whose business is not too good, to give
her an engagement. If influence is used, it must indeed be of a high
social order to be strong enough favourably to affect the box-office
receipts, and thus win an opening for the young debutante. As for
beauty, it must be something very remarkable that will on its strength
alone secure a girl an engagement. Mere prettiness will not do. Nearly
all American girls are pretty. It must be a radiant and compelling
beauty, and every one knows that there are not many such beauties,
stage-struck or otherwise.

The next question is most often put by the parents or friends of the
would-be actress; and when with clasped hands and in-drawn breath they
ask about the temptations peculiar to the profession of acting, all my
share of the "old Adam" rises within me. For you see I honour the
profession in which I have served, girl and woman, so many years, and it
hurts me to have one imply that it is filled with strange and terrible
pitfalls for women. I have received the confidences of many
working-women,--some in professions, some in trades, and some in
service,--and on these confidences I have founded my belief that every
woman who works for her living must eat with her bread the bitter salt
of insult. Not even the plain girl escapes paying this penalty put upon
her unprotected state.

Still, insult does not mean temptation, by any means. But careful
inquiry has shown me that temptation assails working-women in any walk
of life, and that the profession of acting has nothing weird or novel to
offer in the line of danger; to be quite frank, all the possibilities of
resisting or yielding lie with the young woman herself. What will tempt
one beyond her powers of resistance, will be no temptation at all to
another.

However, parents wishing to frighten their daughters away from the stage
have naturally enough set up several great bugaboos collectively known
as "temptations"--individually known as the "manager," the "public,"
etc.

There seems to be a general belief that a manager is a sort of dramatic
"Moloch," upon whose altar is sacrificed all ambitious femininity. In
declaring that to be a mistaken idea, I do not for a moment imply that
managers are angels; for such a suggestion would beyond a doubt secure
me a quiet summer at s