Mrs. WilHam C. Whitney, the wife of the ...

Mrs. WilHam C. Whitney, the wife of the ex-eecretary of the navy, discnssed freely the question regarding the social career of an actrees. "The question is not an easy one to my mind to answer, fox it depends upon a great ïnany conditions. I do not know at the present time of a single instanca where a fashionable woman has gone on the stage and has retained her social position. The fact is there are very few fashionable women who have gone into professional life, and those few can hardly be cited as good examples. In every case these women have taken their choice between their friends in society and the people they have met on the stage, and in preferring the latter have lost all connection that they had with the friends of their foruier life. If a woman who goes on the stage surronnds herself by a first class company , and leads a perfectly clean life during her professional career, and continúes her friendship for her social friends, it is quite likely that she wonld retain whatever good position she had before. '1 think, however," continued Mrs. Whitney, "that our society, being so conservativa and rather slow, would probably hesitate a long while before opening its arma to an actress. There is nothing against the profession, and I know a great many lovely women who earn their living by it, but you know there is a general prejudice against it, and it would be hard to overeóme it. 'In England the Prince of Wales is the leader of the social world, and an invitation extended by him to any member of the theatrical profession means, of course, social recognition all around. ín this country society is founded upon a different basis entirely. We have no Prince of Wales and no leader to follow, and therefore there would be no one to settle such a question. Of course Mrs. So-andso might invite a prominent member of the profession to dine with her or to one of her big entertainments, but it wonld be a question as to whether others would follow suit. "No," continued Mrs. Whitney, "American society is not as lax in some respects as English society, for English society will tolérate a great deal that our society will not. The sum and substance of the whole matter is that it is hardly probable for many years to come that the fashionable world will accept a woman who has been on the stage, unless she belonged to society before entering on her professional career, and even then, as I said before, it all depends upon the manner of her