The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1883-01-10
THE SPANISH LILY.
SO Adelins PATTI Calls Herself and her Err
| nesto Acquiesces.
A Chat with the Diva on several Interesting
Topics.

Chat with the Diva on several Interesting
Topics.
Special Correspondence of the Evening Light
New YORK, Jan. 4-Adelina Patti had
clever idea of her own style of beauty. She
was chatting with me and her adored Ernesto
Nicolini before her departure for Philadelphia
and, speaking of that ever present and still
all-absorbing topic of conversation, Mrs. Lang
try, said:
Don't you think am as much of Span.
lsh lily as she is Jersey lily ?"
Her dark, lustrous eyes, which have still
the hre OF youth, flashed at me as she said
this her beautiful deep black hair with its
southern gloss and her truly Spanish COM
plexion gave vivid zest to this fanciful name
OF Spanish lily which she had chosen. She
looked charming in pale pink dress with
row Of splendid roses at her side, but wore
none of her magnificent Jewels.
u have LETT them all at the Safe Deposit
Company" said she. 81 am afraid to travel
with them"
"lf a burgler CAME" NicoHni humorousIy
chimed in, "Pd have to shoot him. and IFS
hardly worth while killing people about
them I"
eyes, I'd shoot, too" Adelina exclaimed,
Initiating the motion OF firing off pistol.
Piff, paf, bum-dead There, imagine my
killing a burglar. What heroine I'd be-"
"We were talking about Miss Langry,"
somebody remarked.
"Oh, you naughty man, you want to put
me in the paper. Well" and here Madame
pa t.x.trt Nor no f,r, ,oxI -. 4
ligerent attitude, which she often adopts while
shaking her raven locks at her interlocutor
" don't think it's any of the public's business
what Mrs. Langtry does in private life. If she
likes Gebhart she has perfect right to accept
his attentions. Of course, it shouldn't be
done so publicly, sending his carriage on to
Boston and all that sort OF thing was all wrong.
And then think Gebhlr lis so much younger
than she is that she ouslt to be more careful.
But, after all, it's NON If the publc's BUSH
ness"
It's funny" Nicolini remarked, "that
Mrs. Langtry should come here as an actress.
and yet they talk about nothing now except
her private affairs"
The subject of conversation truned to mar
rage.
"Neyer marry unless you get rich," was
Nicohni's advice, which we gave with posi-
tiveness and emphasis as though it were one
of the laws of the Modes and Persians, ''or
unless you get wife with lots of money!
"a nice principal that" Nine. Patti said,
shaking her head reprovingly.
'Isn't 1t true, thought Nicolni urged,
use if you haven't money enough yourself to
take the care and expense OF a wife and child
rem upon yourself? Have all sorts of worry,
trouble and expense-bahr'
"And yet there are great many poor peo-
pie who are happy?" Patti said poutinek.
''No doubt laborers, tillers of the field and
that class Of persons, when their children be-
come big enough to help their parents; in that
way they get on; but ouf I" and Ncolini gave
shudder as he thought of the miseries of
matrimonial poverty to man of his tastes.
swell, used to sing for $50 night when
/ was little GIRL" said Patti, "and | was as
happy then as am now"
Somehow or other the chat drifted back 10
the past, and no less name came up than
that of her former husband the Marquis de
Caux. Strange to say, when Patti gets excited
or indignant she takes up the very softest and
most mellifluous of all languages Italian.
Nicolini being Frenchman, it is perhaps
not to be wondered at if in her gentle moods
French is her favorite medium Of expression,
Du' II ID certainly SuduSS tudl she u1SCaTOS
even German, which she speaks excelently,
to take up Italian for the nuerance of her
wrath. ..... ... ....
81 saw the Marquis the last time in Paris,''
Madame Patti said, her eyes flashing angrily,
sand looked at him like that" Adelina
looked daggers at me-very sharp daggers,
too.
81 challenged him in England some years
ago." Nicolini broke in, ''but he backed out.
saying to my second that he would ght any
where except in England. >"
HWhat is he doing?"
Gambling away the money which gave
him, Madame Patti replied, scornfully
HE must be an old man now" remark
ed"
she is only ten years older than | am. .
Nicolini frankly avowed, sand am forty
eight"
Here polite compliment was rendered to
the tenor's youthful appearance, when he
said, turning to his enchantress: Nobody
can help looking young md bright in her
presence. The sun will illumine with its rays
everybody within its reach"
Patti laughed and appeared pleased Nico-
ini's delightful batteries had evidently not
lost any Of their charms upon her. She amused
herself by humming some comic little songs
in German, English and French, ard I left
her alone with her happy ETnesto, who takes
about as much comfort out of life as most
men do and great deal more.
The Chinese question is becoming more
and more COMPLICATED. The treasury denart