"Why, if you're smart and listen to me, you'll be clinging to the trestle-work underneath until they pass over you, then I'll head on back to the hotel and have all the reporters come up and interview you, and then there will be columns published, the house will be filled that night and we will rake in a heavy stake."
The actress saw the point and had the pluck to execute the project of the agent. She stood on the bridge at the appointed time. She shrieked in the most frantic manner. The engineer reversed the engine and whistled down brakes, but in spite of all the train passed over her. There was a great sensation. She was dragged out from the trestle-work and taken to the hotel. The papers which would not take the advertisement of the show because the manager could not pay in advance sent reporters to interview the actress on her narrow escape, and gave columns to the company. The result was a series of full houses and the "snides" made a triumphant march eastward on the impetus of the shrewd agent's "gag."
CHAPTER XXII.
THE ACTRESS AND THE INTERVIEWER.
In no other country in the world does the interviewer's profession thrive as in these United States. From the cabinet minister—nay, the President himself—down to the common felon, all at different times are liable to what is called "the pressure of the pumping process." Some classes naturally like being interviewed, because all publicity adds to their importance and notoriety. The politicians are a specimen of this species. Then, again, another class regards the interview as a legitimate means of advertising and of attracting public attention to themselves and their doings. This class specially includes the dramatic profession. An enterprising manager is always ready to introduce his star to a journalist. Actresses and prima donne are to a great degree public personages, and there is an insatiable desire on the part of individuals to learn something of the foot-light favorites when they have doffed the stage costume, rubbed off the paint and powder, and become, as it were, for the time being an ordinary mortal. Hence, the newspapers have catered to this popular inquisitiveness, and there is scarcely an actress or sweet singer of note who has not passed the ordeal of the interviewing fiend. Mr. Henry W. Moore, city editor and dramatic critic of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who has done as much interviewing in this line as any newspaper man in the Western country, thus records his impressions of the operatic and dramatic celebrities whom he has met:—
Adelina Patti, the casta diva, always receives the journalist attired in handsome toilettes. Her marriage with the Marquis de Caux rendered her aristocratic in manners, and her behavior always has in it a tinge of noblesse oblige. There is an almost imperceptible flavor of condescension in her tone, which, while courteous, is rather formal. Since her separation from De Caux, La Marquise has become more accessible, and both she and Nicolini are almost warm in their effusions to journalists.
Christine Nilsson receives the interviewer pleasantly, but rather dignified in manner. She is somewhat cold in conversation, but her manners are always courteous. She talks little.
Etelka Gerster likes the interviewer. At first she regarded him as an American curiosity, but having learned his value she began to caress him. Gerster is not at all so sweet in private life as is generally believed. The Hungarian prima donna is very passionate and quick-tempered, and rules her husband, Dr. Gardine, with her whims. In the presence of the journalist she conceals her claws beneath her velvety hand and is sweetness itself. She talks much, dotes on America and the American people, and all that sort of gush. Her dresses are not particularly artistic, conveying the impression that she is slovenly in this regard.
Clara Kellogg submits to an interview as if it were a regular business transaction. Her mother is always present and will frequently make suggestions. Miss Kellogg chats pleasantly, but she has no warmth in her manner and no magnetism in her conversation.