The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-17
THE LATE KIRMESS.
MInc. Nilsson Defeats Pretty Society Lady
in a Beauty Contest.

Nine. Nilsson Defeats Pretty Society Lady
in Il Beauty Contest
New York Letter in Pittsbnrg Dispatch.
We have had the rarest of exhibitions i'll com
petitive beauty. The two women matched
against each other were not the hired persons of
a dime museum nor those who had no other
claim on fame than their faces gave to them.
They We're socially eminent otherwise than
through exceeding loneliness. One was fore
most singer in Italian opera the world over
Nine. Christine Nilsson. The other vas that
New York lady of wealth and fashion, who
comes nearest to being what in London is called
a professional beauty-Mrs. James Brown Pot
ter member by marriage Of the Potter
family, which contains two Protestant
Episcopal bishops and millions of dollars
If you have ever seen Nilsson as Mar
guerite in Faust you already know
how she looks when off the stage, for in that
role she got is not wigged nor much painted.
She has gentle unaffected and politely cordial
manner i'll social intercourse, speaks English
with slight Swedish accent and is a complete
refutation of the idea that low birth is any
hindrance to the requirement of distinctly
aI1stocratic dcmeanor. She was dressed for the
contest in the costume of g Swedish peasant
The competitor with Nilsson for the admira-
ton of thousands of people was a tall, slim,
graceful woman of about two thirds the singers
age undeniably more perfect physically, rather
startling, though certainly lovely in the extreme
display which she made of her bosom, and
mistress of elegant department. Mrs Potter
has for several seasons been conspicuous IN
amateur theatricas and tableaux, and really
possesses some dramatic ability, though most of
her fitness for such employment lies in her at
tractive personality. She has brown hair, dark
grey eyes regular features, of delicate size. and
a good figure except that she is not quite erect.
But she was beaten decidedly by Nilsson, and
hardly on the merits. They were the sales
ladies in the flower booth at the kirmess, or
Dutch fair, which our ''best families held in the
Metropolitan Opera house. Everybody could see
at u glance that Mrs. Potter was the most beau
tiful aud yet she stood neglected while the prima
donna was constantly beset by crowd of buyers.
The eagerness of the society girls to get posies
from her hands, to chat little with her, and to
pay s.. 50 for her picture with autograph on
the back was tribute of wealth to genius not
often happening. What pleased and Interested
me especially in the show was her nice ability to
strike exactly the right medium and manner be-
tween conscious condescension and ELUSIVE
politeness None of her acting the stage
could be more difficult or successful, and it
struck me that she well illustrated the fact that
matrimonial propriety is worth while to an
actress, even as a selfish consideration. Adelna
Patti is incomparably a greater prima donna
than Nilsson, and handsomer, but is never in
vited into the society of the fashionable people
who so ardently admire her as public performer.
The doors of Murray Hill are shut against Bern
hardt Langtry, Terry and Aimee, while they are
open to Nilsson and Gerster.