The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1886-03-18
Patti at Mount vernon.

In the southern part of the town Of
Mount Vernon, in Westchester county,
says the New York Tribune, there is an
old two-story red-brick dwelling-house,
which was the home some thirty years
ago of Adelina Patti. At the
time when the PATHS purchased the
property there were q number Of
wealthy Italians living in and near
Mount Vernon, forming little society
of their own. The old school house
where the Patti children attained frag-
mentary education is torn down, but
their attendance is well remembered by
numbers of the present residents OF
Mount Vernon, and particularly the
singing of the future prima donna at >
school exhibition, when her voice and
method of vocalizing astonished all who
heard her. She sang acceptably in q
duet with one of the pupils, but it was
in her singing of Home, Sweet Home, !"
that she thrilled the audience. Later
she appeared as public singer in the
Mount Vernon hotel, and started from
there in the wonderful musical career,
which In some respects has had no par
allel. This was probably when she
was about Is years of age, and her res
idence in Mount Vernon was in the in
terval between her concert tour through
the states as musical prodigy and her
debut at the Academy of Music in
New York as an operate singer.
As nearly as can be learned the Patti
family lived in Mount Vernon some
three years. The neighbors remember
that they were always coming and GO
ing and having numerous guests. Mime.
Patti had been famous singer, and had
married twice. Her children by her
first husband and those of Sig. Patti by
his former wife were domiciled with the
brothers and sisters of Adelina, making
a decidedly lively and fractions house
hold. The four or five acres about the
dwelling were cultivated by some Ital-
ian workmen. When Mime. Patti
wished them to come to their meals she
stepped on the piazza and called them
in a voice which could be heard across
the valley opposite her house. She
ruled with an absolute sway. Adelina
was not considered pretty, but was live
ly, full of caprices, and delighted to in
Vite the children of the neighborhood
in the house in order that she might act
and sing before them in some impro-
vised opera. On one occasion she in
formed a woman who was hired to
work by the day that the hands of the
clock had been set back by member of
the family, so as to get an additional
hours labor from her, and she then put
the hands forward in their right place.
Ali this time she was under musical in
struction, going frequently to the city
for this purpose or receiving it from her
brother-in-law, Maurice Strakosch.
against whom she seems to have been
in a permanent state of revolt. When
the PATHS left Mount Vernon they had a
public sale of their furniture, and it is
now scattered through many households.
Mime. Patti went to Rome, and her hus-
band became the travelling companion
and protector of "Little Patti" as she
was then called. The family still own
property at Mount Vernon. A follower
and servant of the PATHS was one Par
obi. He inherited small fortune, be-
came dissipated and died in a hospital
at Yonkers. His stories of his former
benefactors were numerous and anus
ing, particularly of the family con-
ficts and personal perils he had wit
messed.