Show THE STAGE CHILDREN Tiny Actors and Actresses Appearing Ap-pearing in New York A LAW WHICH IS NOT ENFORCED It Says That Boys and Girls Under Sixteen Years of Age Jlnst Not Take Part I Theatrical Performances The people of the state of Now York through their representatives in Albany assembled sembled decreed some time ago that no child under 10 years of age should appear on any theatrical stage as a performer The many horrible sensations of the post such a tho Italian padrone system of child slavery that ed to the passage of the law are matters of history too familiar for repetition hero I i a unhappy fact that easily within tho memory mem-ory of the present generation there wero hundreds hun-dreds of children many of them mere infants in-fants who were compelled to toil far beyond their feeble strength who were robbed of their earnings by their parents and their owners and whose only guerdon was starvation starva-tion and brutal ill treatment MAIiEL EARL There was a reaction of course when the public learned the facts No palpable iniquity iniqui-ty stands long against popular indignation when the public is once thoroughly satisfied that it i a iniquity and in this matter there was no chance for an argument The reaction reac-tion took the form of a Society for the Pre vention of Cruelty t Children which was modeled after Mr Henry Berghs famous 0 cioty for the protection of brutes It is presided over by a very wealthy gentleman gen-tleman named Elbridgo T Gerry who i eccentric and conscientious equally etio equally conscientiou with M Bergh The cause ho espoused was wa-s obviously praiseworthy that the society found no trouble in procuring tho passage of laws intended for the numerous intnded protection of tile little ones and very little trouble in getting extraordinary powers delegated 0 its officers in the execution of those laws Among the statutes alluded t was the one mentioned relative to the just mentono relatv 0 employment of children under sixteen years of age In theatrical performances and the lko It will surprise a largo portion of the public pub-lic though not those who go t the theatres 0 know that this law is absolutely a dead letter There ore more than a hundred children performing publicly on the stages of the New York theatres every night all of whom are under tho age mentioned and many of whom a wee little creatures hardly able 0 speak plainly Section 293 of the penal code says A i person who employs or causes to b employed em-ployed or who exhibits uses or has in custody tody or trains for the purpose of the exhibition exhibi-tion use or employment of any child apparently ently or actually under the age of sixteen year or who having the care custody or control of such a child as parent relative otherwise soils lets guardian employer or otherwis sl let out gives away s trains or in any way procures or consents r the employment or 0 such training or use or exhibition of such child who refuses to restrain chid or neglects or refu rt11n such child from such training or from engaging en-gaging or acting S in a theatrical exhibition is guilty of a misdemeanor The law further provides that any fines penalties or forfeitures imposed or collected for a violation of this provision of the code must b paid on demand t the incorporated Society for the Prevention of Cruelty t Children In overy case when the prosecution shall be instituted or conducted by such a society Now how i this law observed Take first of the most of the one popular plays te present season in Now York The Seven Ages I ha run for some mouths and bids fair t continue on the boards for a considerable time It abounds in tableaux and scenic effects ef-fects and in i the groups that are arranged i UUU wIn = w U fVSUL 1 UUeuces are about a dozen little children from 3 to 0 or 10 years old They have little speaking t do and they do not join in the singing with which the play abounds but they do dance and peso in the tableaux and thoy do both very prettily In one scene in the playa play-a wedding feast i represented At the back of the stage is set I flight of ten or twelve stops down which the bridal couple coma t the festivities They are preceded by two little tots under 4 year of ago who scatter flowers the stairs small fower over stir They are s smal that they can hardly come down tho stairs OERTIE UOS without falling They never fail 0 please the audience immensely I tho last act not earlier than 10 oclock in tha evening a babo in arms less than a year old brought on audtloc some very taking business us the actors < 1 it in bidding her greatgrand father good night What of iti Well I nm not moralizing condemning tho exhibition It nor exhibiton pleases tho audlonco and I personally can see no harm in It but it i i beyond question a flat violation of tho Inn which has been repsatal night after night for mothn svitb the full ln wlc of tho Society for tho Prevention f Cruelty to Children r I vr n 1 r r M < nUpit o A popularity second r that of very few plays of this Little Lord ti generation Litle wr Fauutle roy becaiio s much the fashion that I stylo of dress fur I children modeled after the stage costume C tho little hero of the play was adopted generally by foshionablo Now York mothers and for aught I know by mothers all over the country The title role in the play was taken by a child who is now famous fa-mous all over tho United States Little E ale Leslie is the child She is said 0 be now 13 years of ago and certainly i not much mora than that Tommy Russell I boy no older J a old played for a time on alternate nights lest the work of should nght le acting prove too severe for Elsie Tommy 1 said t b 13 Years old but ho i now practically oi Uu < r > i shelf for a while He h begun tho rapid growth of a youth and wU b of little service ser-vice on the stage until ho shall attain matu like it rity or something lke It The part assumed by these children i avery a-very long and trying one I have heard capable pablo critics declare it t b equal in its demands de-mands upon the actor t the part of Hamlet which is low the longest speaking part in any English play No legal obstruction of consequence has ever been placed in the way of tho production of Little Lord Fauntleroy on the score of cruelty to children and now that the play Issccecat the Bowery thea ire where it ran so long by The Prince and the Pauper Miss Elsie Leslie i retained on the stage playing the principal part in the now production Her work for the season is hardly less arduous than that ot any adult now on the stage for the new part though less exacting than Fauntleroy i I long and i a hard one i Little Wallis Eddinger is another juvenile prodigy who plays Little Lord Fauntlaroy and though hu i not now playing in New York lI ba appeared there in several mat nee pormnc of that play without interference inter-ference Ho was then less than 7 years old but is now in his eighth year He i under engagement t appear in Master and Mal In Richard Mansfields company and will take I part i that play which i said to b very severe in its requirements Gertio Homans another little beauty is hardly more than 7 years old but she has attained considerable fame by plying very prominent port in Booties Baby a piny which had a very successful run in i New York lat year She is still on the stage though not at present in New York Little Dot Clarendon is still younger She Is not C old but she is 1 yet years appearing every night at the Bijou theatre where sho takes a part In Hoyts Midnight Bell There i I school scene in which she is one of the scholars Thero are eleven other chil dren in the see who a from 0 t 13 years old They go through ordinary school exorcises exor-cises and sing four songs in cbom Then Dot gives a recitation and usually responds to tho encores a she has the recitations in her repri Her case wn specially investigated in-vestigated by Mr Gerry in person and he told her sho might do all this regardless of tho law but that she must not dance tht mut dnce or sing Tho other children however sing every night nipht A powerful melodrama was running in New York recently in a Bowery theatre called Roger la Honks I it one of the prominent parts was taken by Marguerite Fields a child loss than 7 years old She represents a child who is brought into court to testify against her father who is accused of a capital crime While on the stand she is subjected to 1 rigid examination and sticks bravely t the lie that she tells t save her father She plays the part with a wonderful display of emotional power and has already been called by the critic a second Clara Morris She has been on the stage for a year already THE BAKKISOS SITS Drifting Apart an emotional play that has just been played for 1 short engagement in Harlem has a childs part in it which w taken by Mabel Earlo who is almost 1 baby but who does such work n adults find sufficient cleat for their The is lon cent powers part i a long ono and there is a death scene in it which acted a she acts i a strain on the nerves that would b severely felt by anybody Tim announcement i made that on March 31 Little Tuesday will take a part in Sangers play called Pine Meadows Little Tuesday although onlY three and I half years old selected her own name Her p eats called her Little Tot but she changed it and they acquiesced in the change Sho i spoken of by r Fernandez who has trained all or nearly all the children now on the American stage including her ow daughter Bijou Fernandez a a truly wonderful won-derful child She sings recites and dances with remarkable ability and gives an imitation imita-tion of Richard Mansfield in Richard III such a few actors can equal She has already al-ready appeared il public at an authors matinee mat-inee in Honor Bright and her parents ore sanguine of her brilliant success i the coming com-ing engagement I mentioned Bijou Fernandez Few then ire goers would consider her a child now for she is almost 1 woman in size but her mother tells me sho is only 12 years old and I dont know where t find a more competent witness Yet Bijou who is now playing the of in As You Like It part a singing page I at Dalys has been 1 publicperformer for over nine years She took tho part of Puck in the same theatre some years ago and i chnwino base aSia nnillrl nut A crirdle round the earth in forty mi te swung across the stage from fly t fly on a flying trapeze On one occasion when 11 Gerry rn witnessing wit-nessing this performance tho child narrowly escaped death by an accidental fire He has never Interfered with her performance The Earrison children four sisters all under un-der tho prescribed age at which children may lawfully act on the stace aro all accounted as clever a they certainly are beautiful Two of them have played in Booties Baby and two have with Clarion and Stevenson appeared i The Prince and the Pauper and all have proved acceptable actresses Perhaps tho most remarkable defiance of of the law all things considered is the Pup pen Fee scene which may bo seen any night in the grand opera in tho Metropolitan Opera house Puppen Fee means in the German tho Dolls Fairy and in one scene in the opera this fairy comes into a toy store whero cixtyfivo children stand in case representing represent-ing dolls They are from 0 t 15 years of ago and are dressed to represent all sorts of dolls Their part i n very severe one r quirlnc them to stand motionless as repre crating dolls for about six minutes They itand cri very small pedestals with their feet lose together and a very slight motion rculd cause any ono of them to fall A o wave of tho fairys wand they all come to life and march around the stage in serpentine lines linosMr Mr Gerry was invited to a dress rehearsal of this ballet before tho public performance and ordered that sis of the smallest children who had been trained for the act should b taken off The other sixtyfive are acting every night Mi Gerry i one of the principal princi-pal stockholders In the Metropolitan Opera 1 ou The latest instance in which this theatrical business ha been interfered with is CIte play of Bluebeard Jr in which I dozen little children are drawn on thestago in a big char i iot representing a shoe They jump out f com the shoe sing Ring a Rosy and The old woman who lived in a sho and runoff MrGorry prohibited tbis The manager appealed ap-pealed t tim mayor of the city The mayor under the advice of the corporation counsel refused to sanction the performance The I manager defied arrest and went on with the regular performance after obeying the law I for two weeks S far no one ba been arrested rested ret What does the public think S far a I can learn tho theatrical public managers and audiences alike believe thero i no harm in viplatlng the law provided the children an > not overworked or abused in any other way Certainly audiences arepleased with the performances for I coyer child actor will hr batter than almost our other crdt r I known 17c one however pretends t say I that the law sanctions their appearance and from tie t time the society causes some ones arrest Beyond that tho law i never taken into account DAVID A CURTIS |