The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-12-15
Prima Donna and their Clothes.

Emma Abbott, according to The 81.
Louis Glob-Democrat, is always ready
for an interview. A reporter met her
behind the scenes at the opera-hnuse the
other night, as happy as lark, and
when questioned by the newspaper man
about the cause Of her happy frame of
mind answered that she had won dia-
mond ring from her husband on Cleve-
lands majority. She iwagcred that the
democratic candidate for governor of
New York would get over $4,000 ma
jority; he got over 100000, and she got
the ring, a fve-karat solitaire, which
sparkled upon one of her fingers
IF / had lost" said Miss Abbott, II
would now feel very much as Nine
Gerster used to feel just about this time
when she sang Amina. How is that?
Well, she got very mad, The costumer
who made dresses for her when she was
with Strakosch--Nina Cerol--told me
that Nine. Gerster always tore the
bridal wells she wore in Somnambula' to
pieces. So, too, when she sang Lucia,
she kept picking at the waist of her
Peasant dress until it was in ribbons,
and when she came off the stage took
scissors and cut the front. She wouldn't
wear .he same dress twice Strakosch
paid for her wardrobe, so that it did not
cost her anything to indulge her passion
to destroy the garments. Cerbi said
Gerster was very sweet off the stage,
but always got mad as hornet when
she appeared in opera; she couldn't
sing without first getting mad As Cerbi
said, "The more she get mad, the more
good she sing"
''Mme. Cerb, | suppose, knew all
the prima donnasP" the reporter sug-
gested
"Oh, yes, and told many stories about
them. Nilsson, she said, was greatly
feared by the costumers, because she
was so extremely hard to please. Patti
was just thecontrary-very easy to suit;
she took everything just as it came.
Minnie Hank was particular only about
her boots; she liked pretty boots, and
was fond of showing her nicely-shaped
feet"
II am glad to see," said the prima,
.'that Salvini has met with such a nice
reception in New York. He is an old
and dear friend of mine. | met him in
Florence when was studying in 1875,
and he took me to his home on the
Arno, where | saw his sweet little Eng
lish wife, with her blue eyes and fair
hair. worshiping her husband as if he
we're god. Why, one day he fixed up
very ordinary pedestal in one of the
rooms and covered it with green baize
and had brass tacks sticking out at
every point. A cheap carpenter could
have fixed it up ten times more artisti-
cally, yet the tragedian's wife, went in
TO ecstacies over it, and thought and
said there was nothing like it. A very
simple thing butt shows how much he
thought of him and of what be did But
ought not to talk of Salvini in this
way. He was very good to me and
gave me letters that proved Of great
service. He also encouraged me to work
hard saying that all his own success had
come only from the hardest kind of la
Dor He told me he had studied Othello
four years before attempting to play il
on the stage and see by the papers
the. he cave his King Lear the same
lengthy study and attention"
Miss Abbott wanted TO say something
about her own success the present sea-
son, and excellence of her company,
but the reporter cut her short and was
moving away when the prima called
out:
"Be kind enough to say that Denver
baby does not exist. 1t is first-class
myth. We have nothing of the infant
caliber in our company, although Gus
Hall and John Gilbert, whom we call
Jumbo and Bolivar, have asked to be
cast for the babies in Norma which
we are soon to produce