The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-05-27
JIMMY LIND.
Lucy HoOper's Interview With the
Peerless Songstress.


London Letter.l
Then, too, the other day had the
pleasure of reviving the memories of the
supremest art delight that have ever
enjoyed. / went to call on Jenny Lind
The unforgotten Swedish prima donna,
who for many years has sung no more,
lives in spacious and charming mansion
in retired nook in South Kensington, q
very grove for the nests of song birds, by
the way, for Albani lives but a few doors
of, and more than one of the passenger
warblers take up their residence habitu-
ally in this pleasant quarter. Embow-
cred by trees and flowers, the home of
JENNY Lind looks just fitted to be the
peaceful retreat for one who has drained
to the very dregs the worlds intoxicating
cup of honors and applause.
In the elegant drawing-room, hung
with pictures and tastefuly decorated
with old china, artistic draperies, etc.,
found lady whose blue eyes and kind
ly smile bore me back at once over the
waste of some thirty years. Again, l
sat, an eager, excited, school girl, glow
ing with anticipation, / saw once more
before me the tall, slender figure in its
white satin draperies, with green leaves
and diamonds adorning the abundant
fair hair, and the olden thrill creeps over
me that heralded the first note of that
marvellous, that incompatible voice,
whose tones were to those of the velvet
throated Patti or the silver voiced Nils
son as the Regent compared to the dia-
monds Of Duchess. Shall forget how
old men, who knew just as much about
music as they knew about Sanscrit, used
to sit with the tears streaming down
their cheeks while Jenny Lind was sing
ing 81 know that my Redeemer liveth~
There she stood before me, the unfor-
gotten idol Of my girlish idolatry,
changed indeed by the lapse of years,
yet unmistakably the Jenny Lind Of old,
The abundant brown hair, with Jew
lines of silver amid its iocka was turned
under in the peculiar fashion in which
she always wore it, and the eyes are love-
ly as ever in their expression and in
their soft depths of lustrous blue. As
she talked, her gloved hands lay clasped
upon her knee in the easy, graceful pose
that was familiar to us in the Swedish
long years ago. 1 called her
attention to the fact, and she smiled at
my remembering the attitude, and the
pretty German monosyilabie '.sop which
used to be another of the little peeuliari-
ties that we noticed and loved because
they were hers, escaped from her lips. |
A grand piano in one corner of the
room, and large three-quarter length |
portrait Of herself, painted at the height |
Of her renown, recalled her past queen
ship in the realms of song.
She was handsomely yet plainly
iressed in rich black silk, closed to the
hroat with coral buttons, shawl of old
Jluny lace was draped around her shoul.
lers, and she wore very simple cap of
inc old Venetian guipure. She spoke in
warm terms of affection of the United
States, not in reference to the welcome
md the worship it had accorded to her
n by-gone years, but because, as she said
n her quaint English that had such
harm about it, "Your country takes the
abble of all other countries and gives
hem all chance" / spoke of the fact
hat when she sang in America there
vere no opera-houses there. "And of
hat was glad" she remarked, "for /
lad quilted the stage, and it was for that
eason that | was anxious to 60 to the
United States, since there would have
10 temptations to return to il"
aiso spoke of the intense sympathetic
uality Of her talent, and the marvellous
ower she possessed Of swaying her au-
fences at will, particularly In devotional
1usic. Something of the old, beautiful,
apt expression came into her eyes as she
nswered: It was because my voice
anne from God and I sang to God" And
, l took my leave Of her and went away,
nth all tender and exquisite memories
the divine joy that the voice of that
reatest of all great singers had ever
iven me nesting warm about my heart.
felt like one who would seek out cage
herein nightingale had once sung to
nchant the world, and finding the bird
one. would find in its stead a single
lily. The wondrous voice
as departed, but the woman, by purity
nd sweetness and lofty intelligence that
mt half its charms, remains unchanged.
Big Girls in a Frontier school.