The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-08

There is a real Trilby in New York city
a woman of wealth and prominence. who,
ike Du Mauriers heroine cannot ordinarily
sing at all, but whose pure vocal notes and
marvellous performances on the piano
charm all who hear them when she is I'M
der the influence of a hypnotic spell. She
is Mrs. Addie Belden Gage, who lives with
her husband at the fashionable Hotel En-
pre-. Fifty-fourth street and Columbus
avenue.
Her strange case has been the marvel of
her friends, as. indeed. it has been of her
self for years. 1t differs from that of Trii-
by in that Mrs. Gage has no Svengali-the
influence comes on apparently of itself.
No one suggests it. Mrs. Gage feels no i'll
after effects. OF what occurs during the
presence of the influences. she is ignorant.
She has never heard herself sing.
When the Trfby craze first took possess
sion of the reading world certain wise men,
while they submitted to the fascination of
the story, declared that the authors main
idea was absurd. That a woman who in
her normal condition was totally devoid
of musical ear and ignorant of technique
could under certain hypnotic influence.
with the marvellous beauty of her singing
uplift her audience to the greatest nights
of passionate enthusiasm, was, so they
said, an impossibility.
But only a few nights ago. says the New
York World. party of guests at the Ho-
tel Empire stopped to listen as they passed
TO the sweet. clear. yet weird music of
womans voice as she sung in the reception
room to a few favored friends. They lis
tened and were delighted. Later one of
them closely observed the performer, and
remarked something in her demeanor
which made her ask questions,
the woman, as she sat at
the piano, with tightly closed
eyelids had a strangely white, intense,
rapt expression on her face, while her
hands did not move like those of other peo-
pie over the keyboard; they seemed to be
stifened up and to fall without being in
the least under the control of the player
But they drew forth weird chords and
ripping arpeggios of perfect melody. over
this accompaniment the voice broke forth
in melody sweet, but very, very strange
Without intermission the singer wandered
from Gounod to Meyerbeer, from Verdi to
Wagner, then to simpler melodies, and fl
nally to Home, Sweet Home Gradually
the voice grew softer and softer, and low
er and lower, until in the end it seemed
not 10 stop-but to vanish like an echo in
hands fell relaxed In her lap Her features
lost the strained expression, the eyelids
slowly opened, and with a peculiar signing
yawn and rubbing the backs of her hands
across her eyes, she arose from the piano.
When she arose she did not know that
she had been singing. From the time the
hypnotic trance takes possession of her un-
til it has entirely passed over she is prac-
tically non existent. She knows nothing
of her surroundings, or what occurs about
her; neither is she aware of the fact that
she is singing and accompanying herself
on the piano.
Consequently Mrs. Gage has never heard
her own voice when under control. Mrs.
Gage positively asserts that it is not her
own voice She declares that it is the spir-
a
since dead, who seeks astral embodiment
and gives vent to its pent-dp being through
the medium of her person and throat.
Some thirty odd years ago Mrs. Addie Bel
den Gage was born in Rochester of fine
old aristocratic family. She received
hrst-claSS education and grew up to be an
extremely bright and attractive girl.
Assurance
To-day you turned your face away
And seemed to doubt me,
Tonight your acme of delight
Is but to flout me-
But sweetheart l will wait;
Love has no laggard gait,
And though he seem away,
Far off he cannot stay.
Tomorrow you will say:
Dear heart, of all the things thou art,
The best is holiness,
Believe me not when r j grieVe
Thy heart with GOODNESS.
Take me within thy arms,
Shield me from doubling harms,
For | am thine Away;
My love can never stray;
And did not yesterday
II. Edmund V. Cooke.
The aigrette, says the Westminster Ga
zette, so much affected by women in head
DECORATIONS at the present time, is made
OF the slender decomposed dorsal feathers
of the small white egret, or heron. These
feathers form the birds nuptial ornament,
being acquired at the pairing time and
shed when the breeding is over. The bird
!nhablts heronries, and it is in the breed
ing season that they are sought for by
the feather-hunters. 1t is then, too that
their anxiety for the safety of their young
makes them fearless of the gunners, the
instinct of self-preservation being over
mastered by the love of their offspring.
AS they hover in a white cloud over the
heads of the hunters, they are shot down
without trouble, and when the few or
Hamental feathers nave been plucked from
each bird, the carcasse are thrown down
IN heap to tester in the sun, and the
lodgings are left to starve in the nests!
Il had an illuminating talk with our
ChlneSe laundryman around the corner"
contributes woman, land 1t was an OBJ
lect lesson in industry and economy. He
works, he told me, twenty hours out of the
twenty-four all the days of the week ex-
cept Sunday and on three OF them he
does not go to bedeat all. He earns $40
a week, S. of which goes for rent and IS as
lease money to the Chinaman who con-
trolls his laundry district. He lives on 81
week and lays by the other S. His
diet is tea and rice. He is striving for
5000, of which sum he has now more
than half When he has the full amount
he will go back to China and live in ease
and comfort the rest of his days. He
wants three wives, and one costs $50, but
the investment will be a good one, for they
can support not only themselves, but him
as well. and his superfiuous money can be
a generous reserve for emergencies"
It is really wonderful to see how very
little attention is bestowed, as a rule, on
the. eyebrows and the lashes. A woman
VIII worry herself thin, and make the
ives of her household uncomfortable if her
hair is falling off, or she has a pimple on
her chin, but she pays less than no re.
gard to the state of any other part of her
lace. AS long as there are enough lashes
10 protect the eyes. and the eyebrows
are thick enough to make their presence
known. she rests content-una ware, per-
maps. that much Of the attractiVeness of