Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 252, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 October 1912 — RICH SOCIETY GIRL TO GO OUT “BARNSTORMING” [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RICH SOCIETY GIRL TO GO OUT “BARNSTORMING”

Miss Natalie Siddons Randolph, debutante of wealth, has determined up-

on a stage “career.” And she will start the aforesaid career as a “barnstormer.” Now, all this would arouse but little comment if Miss Randolph wer& an ordinary girl, endowed with but a modicum ofgood looks, less money, and an every day desire to “get on” |n the world. Hundreds

of this sort of girl have sought the stage as the easiest way to fame and fortune. So be it with the others, but not Misß Natalie Siddons Randolph. As was intimated, she is not an ordinary girl. As proof of this, here are some o£ the things she will have to give up when she begins “careering” as a barnstormer: The social prerogatives of a debutante of last season. An income of $25,000 a year. Her friends. Her beautiful home. Her maid and the personal services to which she has been accustomed all her life. Her automobiles and horses. And the thousand and one things the feminine mind craves —not overlooking the “creations” of a French chef. What Miss Randolph gains for her sacrifice certainly has all the appearances of a mess of pottage, or in the language of the United States —a lemon. The greatest promise so far held out to her is that If Bhe succeeds as a “barnstormer” she will be given a “prominent” part in one of the Broadway productions. If she succeeds? Even If she does in a large way, will it recompense her for the toilsome path she first must climb? What she gives up as a debutante will he replaced by this: Association with a company of “talent,” probably of the most mediocre sort. Work —and work of the hardest kind. Long “jumps” at night, and often in an ill smelling day coach, at that. hotels. Still more Impossible food. Rebukes from stage managers who have long since forgettea the gentle manners of the ball room. And what will probably be hardest of all —“cuts” and sneers, the latter not always veiled, either, from those who are constantly her companions on the stage, and for the most part off the "boards” as well. Now, can any one doubt that Miss Randolph heard the "call of the stage?” Miss Randolph is an exceptionally pretty girl—her friends Insist that she was the “fairest bud of all the debutantes” of last season. She is the ward of Baron Henri Natalie, one of the few really wealthy nobles of France: her family name is one of the proudest either in Europe or America. With an income of $25,000 a year, and all the luxuries that such an income can command, she seemed to be one of the happiest young persons in the world. Suitors for her hand in marriages are said to have been numbered by the score. But she was not happy. She longed for a “career.”