The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-06-30
AN AMERICAN SINGER.
Her Struggles and Triumphs-The Life q n,
Adventures of Emma Abbott.

Her Struggles and Triumphs-The Life q nd
Adventures of Emma Abbott.
In 1854, pJor music teacher, with q
sad face, sat Iii the Peoria, ILL.,, depot
consoling sick wife and o group of
restless children. The father, hoping
to better his condition, lad left the busy
city of Chicago and brought his little
flock of helpless children with him.
Among the children was little, bright
four-year old girl. They called her EN-
ma. The little thing, surrounded by
poverty, sang and hummed and pratt
tied, for, like her father, she was fond of
music. The poor music teacher moved
into q little wooden house on the hill,
and, after a while, Providence put
enough pupils in his way to keep power
ty from his door. At night Mr.. Abbott
came home tired and discouraged, but
the warblings and happy chatter of lit
tie Emma cheered him up. From her
earliest infancy the little child had taken
intense delight in music. A song or an
organ in the street would draw the little
thing hungry from the table. A touch
on guitar would set her in ecstasy. At
the age of six little Emma had dreams of
singing in public. At six she was con-
stantly singing about the house,
catching every tune she heard her father
play, end at nine. to the surprise of
everybody, she began to play the guitar
herself. She became so proficient with
the guitar, and created so much talk
among the neighbors, that her father
thought he would better his circum-
stances by bringing her out with her lit
tie brother George in a concert in Pc
oria. The night came. The little
thing, not much taller than her guitar,
amazed and delighted the audience. Her
debut was so successful that her father
resolved to take her on concert tour.
This he did, and the child singer ap-
peared hundreds of times before de-
lighted country audiences before she was
thirteen years old At the age of thir-
teen little Emma was invited to visit
some school friends at Mount Pulaski,
not great way from Peoria. While
there, knowing the poverty of her father
and wishing to surprise him with money
earned entirely by herself, she resolved
to get UP concert ".on her own hook. F"
She went to the Pulaski printing office
in short dresses, got trusted for her
own handbills, and then went and
posted them around town herself. On
one of these handbills now before me is
printed:
Miss Abbott will sing "The Merry
Swiss Girl" chorus
The little girl didn't know what q
chorus meant, but it looked nice, and 50
she had it put OH the bill She drew
quite house; took go, and took 81
home to her mother Her father now
becoming sick and discouraged, little
Emma went down TO Lincoln, sang in q
school house, and then came home to
give guitar lessons ut twenty cents per
lesson to pay her own tuition in a select
school. At fifteen little Emma secured
a class of twenty poor children, who
came to recite at her mothers house.
On Sundays she sang in the Hebrew
synagogue "a kind old rabbi, Marx
Moses, teaching her to pronounce in
Hebrew and German.
The spring of her sixteenth birthday
found Emma's father poorer than ever
before, and the little woman, tc
help her mother, tried to secure
a clerkship in store, but failed
She saw her father sick and dis.
couraged, her mother sick, and broth
ers and sisters hungry. In the midst OF
her great distress she heard of q schoo
nine miles from Peoria which needed
teacher. Thither she went on foo
through the mud and slush. She founc
the principal trustee, kind old man, a
dinner.
"What do ycu want, my little wo
man 2" asked the old farmer, as he lait
down his knife and fork to survey on
little heroine.
"I live in Peoria, sir, and I'v,
walked"
"What ! walked, child2 walked =
interrupted the old man in astonish
ment.
eyes, sir; and 1 want to teach you
school"