Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-07
MISS VAN zANDrs MISFORTUNE.
The Actress Slandered by the Paris
Press, But indicated at Last,

Press, But indicated at Last,
Speaking of critics, says a Paris letter
to the New Orleans Picayune, wish to
assert that in all my experience as a Jour-
nalist / have never known anything so
brutally cruel, with one exception, as
were the outrageous remarks made by the
Paris papers about Miss Marie Van Zandt
last Sunday morning. The exception was
when the late Wilbur F. Story made an
attack on Lydia Thompson, and she gave
him a good horsewhipping for it. Miss
Van Zandt tried to- sing last Saturday
night in the ''Barbier de Seville" but was
taken so i'll in the second act that she had
TO be carried off the stage, and the opera
was finished by another artistic. The next
morning every journal in Paris save one
declared that she was led off the stage be-
cause she was too drunk to sing. one
critic SAID she hiccuped, and came near
pitching headfOrward into the prOmpter's
hole; another declared that all Ameri-
can women drink whisky continually,
and that she was only keeping up the ira
ditiOns of her compatriots; all said she
never could sing; had too long been
spoiled; that she had insulted not only
the public, but the dignity of the press"
and that she must never be permitted 10
reappear at the Opera COmique or at any
other subyentioned theatre in France.
This and good deal more that was untrue
was written about this young lady, and l,
for one, feel like taking herpart, although
as everybody knows, there is no reason on
earth why L should do anything of the
sort. feel like breaking lance in her de-
Tense just TO show that the profession OF
American journalism is not yet so low as
it seems to be here in France, if l am to
4 . OnF GU,
day morning. Well, l was present
at this unfortunate affair, and am bound
to assert that L do not believe for one
moment that the young lady was in any
degree intoxicated, unless it was with an
overdose of medicine of some sort, taken
to relieve the intense pains under which
she was then suffering. 1 went back with
Nj. de BlOuitz to see Manager CarvalhO,
but, for reasons which Will be readily
understood, did not accompany him to
Miss Van Zandts dressing-roOm. But l
saw Mrs. Van Zandt, received from her a
positive statement about her daughters
illness, and that statement, printed in the
Morning NelCS, was the single article in
all Paris that took the part, or rather l
should say told the truth, of the young
American. On Sunday afternoon BlouitZ
telegraphed the London Times as follows
The curtain rose on the second act,
but Mile. Van Zandt, on advancing to the
front of the stage, had a haggard leok,
was unable TO articulate note, and stag
gered. ThereupOn a voice exclaimed,
'EIte est iUre,' and the cry was echoed by
the audience. An actor announced that
she was unwell, and that the performance
was suspended. After pause, in which
the audience made an uproar, Mile.
MeZeray, who happened to be present,
was brought forward in her usual dress
and played 'ROsine' amid plaudits natu-
rally exaggerated. Meanwhile the three
theatre doctors had attended the unfortu-
nate singer in her dressing room, and had
found her suffering from cerebral paraly-
sis, not in the slightest degree due to any
spirituous liquor, for she had drank moth
ing but orange flower water, and owing
to nervous attack during the day, had |
eaten nothing. 1t was heartrending to |
see her brilliantly dressed for her part, yet |
unconscious, pallid and shiyering. Much |
as she must have suffered last night, she !
must have doubly suffered to-day on find !
ing that sensational journalists, rushing |
out of the theatre without waiting for the !
sequel or for explanations, had propaga- |
ted cruel and unmanly calumny. Such |
an outrage on a young and promising 4
singer, entitled to cOmmisseration, must /
excite universal Indignation"
am glad to be able to add that the tai |
ented singer is getting on very well, and |
will make her temperance in few |
days.