Those Matinee Girls

1895

The Boston Type — How she Differs From Those of Other Cities.

The Boston matinee girl is quite unlike the same dear creature anywhere else, remarks a Boston Herald writer. The culture, the thirst for knowledge, the indulgence in "fads," the prevalence of reading clubs, have all had their effect on her. In other cities she may be a silly creature, about whom foolish but laughable dialogues are written. In Boston she is quite different. She may be excitable, emotional, amusing — indeed, she is — but it is all a la Boston, and the humorist looking for a subject would only find it at a Boston matinee by waiting and watching — or having great luck.

In New York if you watch a matinee audience entering Daly's, the Lyceum or the Empire you will note that every other woman kisses some one in the lobby, and that the rest seem to kiss every one they meet.

That doesn't happen in Boston. Probably knowledge and the microbe theory prevent. Anyway you will note that Boston women as they enter the theater or loiter in the parlor are content to make a great bustle of shaking hands. Then such a jostling as there is in the effort to see every one, such as standing up in the seats to find out who's there and who's with them, and such a hum of voices that the orchestra plays in dumb show! Yet, with all this, candor must confess that the matinee girl is prettier than she is silly.