JUST TO SEE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3118, 9 July 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

JUST TO SEE.

The very startling question was put to a popular and pretty actress : "Do you ever rehearse stage kisses ?" Tiie young lady smiled and replied that she always did. "Not repeatedly,''she said, "but just once, I don't caro to bo surprised by a poouliar sort of kiss on the night of a performance, so I always have an actor show me beforehand just bow he is going to do if. There is nothing so much in acting that I dread so muob as a kiss. No; I'm not a prude, and do not suffer from the actual contact of a polite and gooA-iookiiiir fellow's lips ; but there are more chances of disaster in a stage kiss than in almost any section of the drama. In the first place, it is apt to disturb my make-up. Then the actor may be a nervous man and pull my wig if I'm wearing one, or he may clutch me so tight that when he lets me go I lose my balance and got laughed at. My worse stage experience resulted from a kiss. I was in a scene of immense pathos, while I was hanging about my lover's neck, who was being taken to prison. The actor who played the wooer was a nice fellow, and not in the least disagreeable to hang to. I did so with extra tenacity in the night in question, and I noticed that he tried to free himself of me. But I clung ou tight, and glued ray face to his. ' Let me go ! ' he gasped and tried to drag back, but I pressed my face still closer, determined to ger,""a lot out of the scene. Suddenly, as I was rapturously kissing him. he sneezed. Oh, what a sneeze it w»s ! It seemed to start fiom his boots, and I bounded away from him, dazed by the shock. Then I heard a roar of laughter in the audience, am' saw my lover rushing from the stage with one section of his black moustache missing. Tnere was another speech before the act should have ended, but the stage manager did not wait for it. He rang down the curtain, and then informed me that I had better return the actor's moustache to him. When I reached my dressing-room I found a big piece of the moustache sticking to my chin. I had not kissed it away. The actor lost it in the snteze."