Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1889 — A Poorly Paid Profession. [ARTICLE]

A Poorly Paid Profession.

The actor whose salary is SSO or less per week is not, as 4 rule, aB well ofl as the clerk'or salesman who receives half the amount. The actor rarely gets his salary for more than eight months in the year, and when unpaid salaries and prematurely closed seasons are taken into account a still further reduction has to be made. Then, too, the actor, and - particularly the actress, has much greater expense for dress than any other person earning a proportional income, while th« cost of living, while traveling, in even second-class hotels, is double that necessary at home. At all the agencies lists of acton classed acording to their special abiliHes are kept, and the agent generally knows pretty accurately what salaries will be accepted. He is also supplied with pne or more photographs of his clients. A manager who wants either a single actor or an entire company states his wants to the agent, who looks over his list of unemployed people, and then submit* names and photographs to the manager. He selects two or three, who are requested to meet him at the office, and from these a final choice is made. Between 3,000 and 4,000 names are on the books of some agencies. These names include not only every class o! actor, but, stage-carpenters, propertymen, baggage-men, business mane gers and advance agents.—New York Tribune.