Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-03-18
PAREPA'S MARRIED LIFE.
Memoirs of the Dead
Queen of Song

A lady of New York, who enjoyed the
friendship of Parepa, has written an ia
teresting memoir of her.
On her first arrival in this country, at
a private entertainment in New York,
the writer said to the artistic:
You are very beautiful, and remind
me Of my favorite Milo. / have a copy
of this most wonderfully lovely Venus
in every room of my home that possesses
sufficient interest to keep me in it an
hour at time"
"How l should love to live in one of
those rooms" exclaimed Parepa My
life makes an Arab of me--a female
troubadour, a singing vagabond; but
when l am rich enough ! shall marry
some good man for love, build me home
and fill my house with little children, all
my own. Hove little children. Do you
know that Norma nearly breaks my
heart? They tell me that am too young
to sing in Norma, that only those who
have been mothers and sorrowed deeply
know anything about that wonderful
opera. | can imagine that it is mys.
terious composition to those heartless,
selfish women, who love no one but them
selves, and to whom children are bur
den and torture. do not sorrow. l
have been broken.hearted, and / know
the wretchedness of an unhappy wife.
But God is good. He permits me to
forget, and / feel now when am singing
as if there were no such thing as years,
and no coldness in age. | am wild with
hope tonight. Don't you see it in my
face2"
Perhaps you will love some Ameri-
can gentleman, and live with us al
wsys2'
II don't know. Ny next husband
must be devotee Of music, and enjoy
it as intensely as / do. When man
loves me truly, and possessed of that one
sentiment in common with me. he may
be rich or poor, a giant or pigmy, an
Apollo or a Caliban, | shall marry him
all the same, and be happy with him
without asking where he was born"
By.and.by she married, and people
smiled at her choice, simply because Of
the inequality of their size but l re-
membered what she told me when first
we met, and believed in her woman
illness more entirely than ever. She
married an artistic, and, as time has
proved, she married him from motives
that cannot be questioned by the skep-
tic in downright, unselfish affection.
That their personal appearance when
together was somewhat oomical she we'll
knew, and laughed at it more heartily
than any one else. If he did not care
because her unusual size made him ap-
pear smaller than he really was, neither
did she feel sensitive because his little
figure gave her the appearance of a
beautiful young giantess. One night |
saw them together at the Leiderkranz
ball. Everybody who is familiar with
the grotesqueness of this grand affair
knows that no opportunity of burles-
quing notable people is permitted to
pass without proper attention. Parepa
had become Madame Rosa little while
before, and many persons had not yet
smoothed the smile out of their faces
that the difference in their height would
call up.
An immensely tall Teuton dressed
himself for the ball as a bride in white
robes, a ladys wig and flowers, and a
small lad was arrayed in the full dress
Of a gentleman. The tall masked bride
led the little man about by one hand,
while in the tiny husbands other hand
was carried a small ladder Now and
then he wished to converse with his wife,
and with pull of her hand or a snatch
at her drapery she was made to under
stand that an interview was desired.
The wife halted. The ladder was placed
against her breast, and the little hus.
band ran up until his face was on
level with his companions, when most
social occasion occurred.
Its disrespectful, and l don't like
it, said to her, as she came to my box.
20, but do, she answered. " Ii is
such fun for everybody; I've got lit
tie husband no bigger that my thumb,
I'll put him in pint cup and there I'll
make him drum, won't |, Carl Rosa2'
and she looked so happy and childlike
at him that be laughed back at her,
while she sang their old-fashiened nur-