The Sorrows of a Show Girl

The Sorrows of a Show Girl - A Story of the Great

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Sorrows of a Show Girl, by Kenneth McGaffey
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Title: The Sorrows of a Show Girl
Author: Kenneth McGaffey
Release Date: December 20, 2003 [eBook #10508]
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
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THE SORROWS OF A SHOW GIRL
A STORY OF THE GREAT "WHITE WAY"
BY KENNETH MCGAFFEY
1908

These Stories were originally printed in _The Morning Telegraph_, New York.

CONTENTS

Chapter
Explanation
1 Sabrina Discourses Theatrical Conditions
2 The Carrier Pigeon as a Benefit to Humanity
3 Sabrina Receives Money from an Unexpected Source
4 Sabrina Receives Her Fortune and Says Farewell to the Hall Bedroom
5 Sabrina Visits Her Patents in Emporia, and Shocks that Staid Town
6 Details of How Sabrina Stood Emporia on Edge and was Ejected Therefrom
7 The Chorus Girls' Union Gave their Annual Ball
8 Sabrina Falls In Love with a Press Agent with Hectic Chatter
9 Sabrina Returns to the Chorus, so that She Can Keep Her Automobile Without Causing Comment
10 Sabrina and Her Former Room-mate Involved in an Argument at a Beefsteak Party
11 The Dramatic Possibilities of the "Mangled Doughnut"
12 Sabrina Passes a Few Remarks on Love, Comedians, and Spring Millinery
13 Sabrina Scores a Great Personal Success
14 Methods of the House Breakers' Association Disclosed
15 Sabrina Denounces the Male Sex as Being All Alike, and Threatens to Take the Veil
16 After Investigating the Country Atmosphere Carefully, Sabrina Says the Only Healthful Ozone is Out of a Champagne Bottle
17 Sabrina Visits the Racetrack and Returns with Money
18 A Pink Whiskered Bark Tries to Convert the Merry-merry
19 Sabrina Advises Chorus Girls, Charging Time for their Company
20 Sabrina is Married and Goes Abroad on Her Wedding Trip

EXPLANATION.
In the following chapters some of Sabrina's remarks are likely to cause the reader to elevate his eyebrows in suspicion as to her true character.
In order to set myself right with both the public and the vast army of Sabrinas that add youth and beauty to our stage, and brilliancy and gaiety to our well known cafes, I wish to say that she is all that she should be. She is a young lady who, no matter how old she may be, does not look it. She is always well dressed, perhaps a little in advance of the fashion, but invariably in good taste. Among strangers or in public places her conduct is all that could be desired, while with those of her own set she becomes more familiar and may occasionally lapse into slang.
Fate may compel her to earn her own living or she may receive an income from a source that has nothing to do with these stories. Any person without the circle of theatrical or newspaper life is looked upon as an interloper by Sabrina and treated accordingly. Hundreds of her like may be found any evening after the theatre in the cafes and restaurants of the "wiseacres" known as the "Tenderloin."
KENNETH MCGAFFEY.

In which Sabrina rushes on the scene and begins to discourse breathlessly on theatrical conditions, boobs that send poetry for presents, the tribulations of hunting employment, and the outlook for a New Year's dinner.

CHAPTER ONE
"Ain't it appalling," demanded Sabrina, the Show Girl, "ain't it appalling the way the show game has gone to the morgue this season?
"I never seen nothing like it since I been in the business, and while I ain't going to flash no family Bible that's been some time. Why, shows that were making money if they played to thirty-two dollars on the day just naturally died. Me? You know I wasn't hep to the outlook. I come prancing into town fresh from doing one-night stands through the uncultured West. We did bum business for fair, but shucks, there ain't five dollars' worth of real money in all of Southern Kansas at no time. Salaries! Huh! I had to send home for money to pay my fines with. I cavort gaily out to hunt a job and find a line from Mr. Seymour's office that made the run on the Knickerbocker Trust Company look like the nightly window sale of 'The Evangelist.' I never seen so many of my friends in town at one time in my life, and if you make a noise like a dollar-bill anywhere between the two Flatirons you're liable to be the center of a raging mob. I heard it breathed that all the theatrical storehouses in town were playing to S.R.O.
"I got a chance to shake down a little change