Of course this independence is not absolute; but then how many men there are already silver-haired at desk or bench or counter who are still under the authority of an employer!  Like these men, the actress’s independence is comparative; but measured by the bondage of other working-women, it is very great.  We both have duties to perform for which we receive a given wage, yet there is a difference.  The working-girl is expected to be subservient, she is too often regarded as a menial, she is ordered.  An actress, even of small characters, is considered a necessary part of the whole.  She assists, she attends, she obliges.  Truly a difference.

Again, women shrink with passionate repugnance from receiving orders from another woman; witness the rarity of the American domestic.  A pity?  Yes; but what else can you expect?  The Americans are a dominant race.  Free education has made all classes too nearly equal for one woman to bend her neck willingly and accept the yoke of servitude offered by another woman.

And even this is spared to the actress, since her directions are more often received from the stage manager or manager than from a woman star.  True, her life is hard, she has no home comforts; but, then, she has no heavy duties to perform, no housework, bed-making, sweeping, dish-washing, or clothes-washing, and when her work is done, she is her own mistress.  She goes and comes at her own will; she has time for self-improvement, but best of all she has something to look forward to.  That is a great advantage over girls of other occupations, who have such a small chance of advancement.

Some impetuous young reader who speaks first and thinks afterward may cry out that I am not doing justice to the profession of acting, even that I discredit it in thus comparing it with humble and somewhat mechanical vocations; so before I go farther, little enthusiasts, let me remind you of the wording of this present query.  It does not ask what advantage has acting over other professions, over other arts, but “What advantage has it over other occupations for women?”

A very sweeping inquiry, you see; hence this necessary comparison with shop, factory, and office work.  As to the other professions, taking, for instance, law or medicine, preparations for practice must be very costly.  A girl puts her family to a great strain to pay her college expenses, or if some family friend advances funds, when she finally passes all the dreaded examinations, and has the legal right to hang out her shingle, she starts in the race of life handicapped with crushing debts.

The theatre is, I think, the only place where a salary is paid to students during all the time they are learning their profession; surely a great, a wonderful advantage over other professions to be self-sustaining from the first.

Then the arts, but ah! life is short and art, dear Lord, art is long, almost unto eternity.  And she who serves it needs help, much help, and then must wait, long and wearily, for the world’s response and recognition, that, even if they come, are apt to be somewhat uncertain, unless they can be cut on a marble tomb; then they are quite positive and hearty.  But in the art of acting the response and recognition come swift as lightning, sweet as nectar, while you are young enough to enjoy and to make still greater efforts to improve and advance.