Anonymous

“ The danseuse always has a mother; if the fates cut the thread of the days of her natural parent, she will borrow, hire, or buy a new one. It is an article of primary necessity. The mother holds her daughter’s shawl in the wings, watches her dance, covers her shoulders when her pas is over, and offers her a little bottle of cold beef tea to quench her thirst and keep up her strength. ”

“ The corps de ballet, like an army corps, is composed of platoons, divided first of all according to the sexes, and then into quadrilles, first and second. The pay in the second quadrille is 700 to 800 francs a year; in the first, 900 to 1,000 francs; a coryphee gets 1,200, 1,300, or 1,400 francs. The next stage is sujet, with an engagement of three years and a salary beginning at 1,600 francs and increasing up to 2,000 francs in the last year.
These are the stages through which the members of the ballet of the opera pass. And what a hard time they have! ”

“ With a little watering-pot that they carry with their finger tips, like shepherdesses in Watteau’s pictures, they proceed to water about three square feet of floor; then flinging into the glass a general and collective ogle at the group standing behind them, they go through a variety of steps, pirouettes, smiles and capers for five minutes.
Then comes a little repose. The group of men breaks up, and those who are intimate enough approach and talk to the dancers. What they say to them is a secret. ”

“ They begin often at the age of 5 or 6 in the class des petites, and then every day in the year they practice and toil and chatter and caper until from rats they become successful figurantes at the rate of one franc a night, members of the first and second quadrilles, coryphees and sujets. Then at the end of their first three years’ engagement begins a period of bitter grief. For then it often happens that, instead of encouraging them and giving them a [12] decent salary, the administration of the opera chooses its stars from among foreigners. ”

“ As a resort the Jardin Mabille ranked about with the Sixth Avenue dives of New York. The general class of patrons were the same at both. The attractions are the loose women; the attracted the silly, young and old men. ”

“ If you enjoy nice photographs of female beauties, here is your opportunity. For only ten cents, we will send to you forty photographs of the most charming French girls in tights. Each photograph is mounted on a card and the lot of 40 card photos makes an exquisite, unique and petite collection. Ordinarily, you know, pictures of actresses in tights cost ten cents each, but here we make the remarkable offer of forty separate card photographs. Send ten cents, silver or stamps, to Keystone Book Co., Box 1634, Philadelphia, Pa., or to the firm from whom you purchased this little volume. ”

“ She herself has almost got to the end of her rope. Some day, coming out of a pot-house, she’ll drop dead in the street, and then she’ll be on show, for the last time, at the Morgue. Although known to thousands, nobody will claim her body, and she will be turned over to the medical school for dissection. ”

“ Everything was paid for in advance, and all drinks cost 15 centimes (7 1/2 cents) .
The decorations of this dive are its most remarkable characteristic—for the paintings on the walls, which were singularly well executed, were filthy and obscene beyond description. Human beings, male and female, were represented, life size, engaged in performances and operations which are never mentioned even among savages. ”