The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1879-02-04
CHICAGO.
Dirt, Mud, sIush, and the opera.
Correspondence OF the standard.


Correspondence OF the standard.
CHICAGO, Jan. %, 1879.
Perhaps you will like TO hear some
thing o! your rival town, Chicago; and
there are points where j think il really
is ahead of Hillsdale. II has more
ministers and murderers, and is far
more dirty than II. ever thought Of be-
ing; but Pentecost and Stebbens are
here and may help the former. while
the summer days, with their no neces-
sity for burning coal, are coming we
hear.
Chicago doesn't stop short OF super
latiyes in doing anything, and has been
indulging in the coolest weather on
record. which has Just given place to
very worst thaw and mud possible, and
l think If it continues some web bot
toned boots or gondolas will be neces-
sary for people TO get about in, for
they will go someway, as this great
rush through snow or slush TO hear the
opera of late testifes. For two weeks
Her Royal Highness' Opera, with the
prima donnas, Nine. Gerster and Miss
Minnie Hauk, who created such a SEN
sation both in New York and Boston,
have favored Chicago. The papers
have been full Of descriptions Of the
artistes and the operas, and il any bit
of their private or public history has
been omitted ii surely is no fault OF
the reporters. We know how Nine.
Gerster, only % years old. was the
daughter OF an Hungarian carpenter,
and singing about her household work
one day was heard by a musical gentle
man of Vienna, who assisted and ad-
vised her and was the means Of bring
ing this Hungarian nightingale" from
her quiet nest, TO the glare and glory
of an operate life. Everywhere she
has been received with the greatest sue
cess, and this city was as hearty in its
enthusiasm over her as il the single
tickets had not cost 50, and as if .here
we're no "hard times, Qf one may judge
by the crowds Of the goIgeously dress
ed who daily went TO hear herr. "No
such singing Ia this city for % years,
say the best critics. She sang IN Lu-
cia dc Lammermoor, Somnambula and
Puritani, aud her sweet voice, with its
wonderful compass and flexibility, en-
hanced by her intense acting, could
hut have pleased cen ''the man who
has no music in his soul. They claim
she is equal to Jennie Lind. aud Mill
son, and Patti, and she quiet eclipsed
Miss Hauk who no doubt Is a fine sing
er, and whose inner history the raven
Gus reporter has invaded and tells Of
her, as growing up on Staten Islaad,
| in the home of a Dutch shoemaker. -
| SIZE rather dimmed her own lustre ut
her first appearance by having some
quarrel over the dressing rooms at the
| theater, which even disturbed the
smoothness OF the opera, and which
was thoroughly canvassed next day by
/ the papers. The best paid member OF
the troop was "Campanini, fine
tenor, whose salary is g, 900 a month.
Nine. Gerster gets only $500 and Miss
Hauk goo a week. Marie Rose is well
known here and also sang with them
and the chorus and orchestra we're fin
er than any anything ever here before.
You may indge OF the crowds when
you know that the Mayor closed the
doors and would let no more go in at
the Saturday matinee, which caused
"wailing aud gnashing Of teeth. But
like Xmas they will come again" no
doubt, unless they "set and sing them.
selves away, to everlasting bliss. -
The interest expressed in the opera viii
probably result in a new building for
that and lecturing uses, and will prob.
ably serve Prof. Swing as a church in
place Of McVicker's theater where he
now breaches. III.