light meals are provided. There is
a form of application to be filled in, which demands the following
particulars:--

Height.
Bust measurement.
Waist measurement.
Skirt length.
Age.
Line of work.
Remarks.
Ride horseback. Cycle. Swim.

The pictures take about ten days to prepare, and as a supplementary
trade, undoubtedly this work is of value to the actress.

An evil which attacks the theatre of the present day is the horrible
mantle of respectability which has settled on the profession.
Respectability in Art is a blight which undermines, and the moment
any worker or profession of workers is accepted on equal terms by
the non-workers of the community, misery invariably ensues. It is
impossible for a non-worker to comprehend the life of a worker, or
to make any margin for the work, which, if we judge by the example of
their own lives, they evidently despise. The restrictions which all
honest work brings, along with its compensations, are annoying to
ornamental parasites; and the contempt for restrictions is apt subtly
to undermine the mind of the worker.

There is no doubt that for the average actress, when such an enormous
number of people are rushing into the theatrical profession, there is
little security. The life of a successful actress is undoubtedly one
of the very best, so far, open to women. It is not a fact that the
best and greatest actresses are always the successful ones: but it is
a truth that all the successful ones have some natural qualifications
which have enabled them to gain that position.

Then what is the matter with the theatre? and why has it become such
a miserable life for the average worker? It is an unskilled trade,
and the people who have control of the trade have a contempt for the
average worker. They believe they can teach in a few weeks, what they
have not, in years, succeeded in mastering themselves. The unfortunate
worker is taught like a parrot, used for a short time, and then thrown
on the scrap-heap of the unfit for the theatre, when the theatre has
unfitted them for more honourable work.

The employer is at the present moment a man, and a man will offer a
salary of 30s. a week to a woman, because she will take 30s.: but he
will not offer that sum to an actor. There is a subtle assumption that
because women will take less, they are not entirely dependent on their
work; and a manager will sometimes offer a large salary to a woman who
drives up in a motor ca