The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-04-20
Random Notes of
Life i'm London.
The Varsity BOatrace, Mrs. Ebbsnith, Mrs.
Patrick Campbell and Other Topics.

London, March 3O.-Yesterday was
the occasion of the varsity boat race
on the Thames and the town was very
gay indeed and most dreadfully
crowded with visitors from all over the
kingdom, who had been invited up to
see it. We had been invited down the
river to view it from a launch, but
Academy duties prevented some Of us
from going, so all of us just stayed in
town. We We're right glad of it in the
end, though /, for one, should like
to have seen It, but it rained intermit-
tently all day, just pouring some times,
and the course could not have been
comfortable. London was dreadfully
crowded and it must have been much
worse down at the river, of course, as
the visitors in London were only "a
small fraction of those who came UP for
the race. / had occasion to go down
town during the day, and | really
thought that l should never get back.
The cabs were all bought up, and even
the busses seemed to have been subsi-
died for the whole day.
Flags flew everywhere, dark blue for
oxford and pale blue for Cambridge.
We were all for Cambridge at our
house, though just for no other reason
than that we had been invited to the
race by some Cambridge people and
so we all wore pale blue ribbons and
pale blue muiilers and pale blue in ouf
hats. No one dares to be neutral. You
must take sides with either one, and
even the cabmen and bus men had their
h. h., III 1tyit n
their favorite colors. Some of the swell
shops even took sides with their favor
ite crews, and displayed all pale blue
fabrics, ribbons, feathers, etc, In their
windows, while others had deftly decor
ated windows in dark blue. These OK
ford windows, of course, were not so
pretty as the Cambridge ones, though
they had the pleasure of displaying the
victorious lion among the dark blue at
the end of the afternoon, for old Ok
ford won the race, and the pale blue
was trailed in the dust of defeat One
of our young ladies, coming home from
the Academy rather late in the after
noon, was accosted by an amused little
bootblack at a corner who pointed to
her blue ribbon and advised "Take it
hoff, Miss; youse lost!'
Notes of Musical Happenings.
There isn't much to write about this
week, as my number of Evenings OUT
has been limited to two. on the one
l again heard Emil Sauer play, which
he did well indeed, this time, barring
some very energetic humping. He
plays admirably some times, and at
others very indifferently, his best points
being his absolutely perfect technique
and clearness of execution, and his
worst ones his hardness and lack of
feeling, crowned by a great big lot of
affectation. He will come over to
America sorae time, of course. / heard
Andrew Black, the great oratorio
basso, the same night, and another
oratorio and concert favorite in the per-
son of Miss Thudlcum, one of dear old
Signor Garcia's pupils.
Speaking Of Garcia, this veteran
singing master has just passed his
ninety-first birthday, and still keeps on
teaching away just the same as ever.
He is a wonderful old man. Ever since
the great success of that adorable wo-
man, Jenny Lind, who came to him for
lessons over fifty years ago and whom
he helped 50, he has lived in London
here, and has taught singing to hun
dreds and hundreds of women, not one
of whom has ever succeeded in touch
ing greatness even under his tuition,
though he has had many a voice to
mould that had been quite as good as
the voice of that wonderful artist.
A VetcrSn Voice Trainer.
It is the verdict of all thinking peo-
pie that while Garcia himself is, no
doubt, a very fine master even in his
declining days, still. granted to Jenny
Lind any other good teacher, she would
have become quite as perfect an artist
as she was, by virtue of her great
mental powers, as none of his other
pupils have ever got to be even a patch
upon her, and some of them are very
bad indeed-quite as bad as they can