Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-09-07
"REMINISCENCES OF SONTAG,

"REMINISCENCES OF SONTAG.
Suggested by the Death of Harry Palmer
Was the Prima Donna Pramaturely In
TERED. .....
New York Mercury.
The sudden and unexpected demise of
Mr.. Harry Palmer, the famous theatrical
manager, formed the topic of converse
ton in many professional as we'll as non
professional lotteries during the past
week. His enterprise, his many endear-
ing qualities of heart and head, and his
remarkable career were all duly recalled
and tenderly told. Naturally enough,
when atfectionate "reminiscences were the
dominant theme, the name of Henrietta
Sontag. the Countess Rossi, was fondly
remembered by those who had the for
tune to listen to her siren strains nearly
half century since. One silver-hai1ed
German, in an p-town music hall, on
Monday evening remarked to his younger
companions:
'Ah, nobody sings like Sentag, and no
one ever will!' The old gentleman
emptied his glass of Rhein vein and said
Il was young man-quite young man
IN Berlin when first saw Sontag. All,
what fun we had in those days over poor
Sontag! You young people recall with
ripping laughter the love affairs of the
charming little Lucca and the fascinating
Patti-for all the world is interested in
the tender experiences prime-donne; but
1t is only old folks like myself whose
memories can go back to the hilarious
days OF Mile. Sontag and the Baron
Rossi. Theirs was a love-match which
provoked acres Of broad German grins and
LOTS OF SCANDAL.
TWAS feast which the gossips of 1880
fully enjoyed, and have never forgotten.
Henrietta Sontag was then in the flower
OF her youth, of her beauty, and Of her
charm of song. She had long declared
herself invulnerable to the arrows of the
cunning little archer, but she was human,
after all. Wherever she went it was no.
ted that Baron Rossi was at her heels. If
she arrived in Berlin by one diligence, the
devoted Baron was sure to arrive by the
next. TWAS precisely the same thing at
Hamburg, the same at Paris, the same at
st. Petersburg-untili in Berlin we were
accustomed to make fun of poor Sontag
and to dub her persistent follower Baron
'Montag.' When, in spite of all precau-
tons, loves secret began to leak out, and
when scandal took place Of heartless Jest,
they linked
LADY SUNDAY AND BARON MONDAY
together; but it turned out that the par-
son had joined them in advance, 50 that
all the calumniators and jokers on Sontag
were figuratively knocked into the mid
Gle OF next week. All! she was charm
ing said the old man, tipping his snuff
box. ."ln those days she possessed that
kind of beauty that makes stoics suscep-
tlble, heroes melancholy, infdels devo-
tlonal, and enthusiasts hang themselves.
She gave to Song her smile, and to Fash
Ion all her taste. Her voice was indes-
cribably charming. 1t took captive the
soul as her form delighted the
eye. A more angelic embodiment
OF gGaces and accomplishments never
presented itself before an audience.
She was, in fact, one of those per-
sonally gifted few about whose beauty
there were no dissentlents. It was Of
that severe unexac ting quality which en-
cages female hearts. Her youthful Vi
vaclty was so feminently gentle and so
tempered by delicate discretion that she
was, withal, so outwardly unconscious of
her surprising loneliness that even envy
itself was pleased to acknowledge it. All,
yes Henrietta Sontag had every personal
advantage that genius could covet fo1
awakening EMOTION The incidents
attending her triumphal progress through
the United States were then touched up.
on. Her dresses, the torch-light pro-
ccssions, the diamonds she wore, the
hearts she turned even in her ferty-seventll
year, the clerical Juror in Boston, the mad
enthusiasm of New York, were lovingly
remembered. The saddest and most
pathetic scene of all, when the drop cur.
tain Of her life fell clouded in mystery
and IN gloom, was also discussed. She
died in Mexico, many of our readers will
no doubt remember, on the anniversary
OF Waterloo ill 1854. Her death was
separated from that Of the favorate Young
tenor Pazzolini by only few hours Il
has beeome the fashion to attribute the
sudden taking off of the prima, donna
and her gifted companion to Asiatic
cholera. There are some secrets
which Will never be known till
THAT GREAT DAY,
when the judgment shall be set and the
books be opened, and when the dark cor.
ners OF all hearts shall be exposed. The
venerable Berllner above quoted is of the
opinion that on that day it will be dis.
covered that she died from the effects Of
some drug administered by person in
the train OF her husband and herself-a
colored woman Of sanguinary ferocity
and of tigerish love of blooS. In the CAP.
ital of the land of Cortez and Montczu.
ma it has been the conviction of few
that Sontag died from poison, while 9th.
ers have steadfastly maintained that the
drug was potent narcotic, md that she
was IN reality the victim Of premature
burial. It is known beyond all possible
cavll that she was inferred with almost
indecent haste, as is invariably the fash.
ion in Mexico when cholera or yellow fe-
yer becomes epidemic.
1t appears that the dead features Of
Sontag and Pazzolini presented none of
that agonized distortion peculiar to death
from cholera. She wore a glorifed and
happy look-an expression Of happiness
which seemed to convey to her husband
and the privileged spectators the impress.
sion conveyed in the words of the Epis.
copal Church Prayer-Book that "she rest
ed from her labors." decays effacing
fingers" never touched that calm, placid,
happy brow. The destroying Angel did
not disturb a line Of the still lovely fea-
lures. She lay, as it were, in the beati-
tic rapture of repose-
50 fair, so calm, so softly sealed.
The first last look by death revealed"
More than this, it has been stated that
before the coffin was closed forever the