Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-10-06
THEIR QUEER WAY.
ACTORS AND SINGERS AND THEIR
REMARKS ON THE CRITIC.

Ca!Ious Indifference or Ignorance the Com
monest Refuge of the Artistic Nature.
Several Cases Cited by the Innocent Re-
| porter.
There are many amusing things
about the artistic temperament, said
the innocent reporter, ''but you have to
knew the disposition in order to tell
how funny they really are. You must
know enough not to believe them al
ways and then through all your inter
course with the professionals there will
flow an accompaniment of easy humor
that gives acquaintance with these per
sons an added pleasure. One charming
incident of this can always be found i'll
their views of what the newspapers say
about them. Mrs. James Brown Potter
is the Cnly woman l ever saw who
talked frankly about that subject.
So long as they don't ignore me,
she said, Il don't care what they write.
Let them say anything so long as they
say it. but it would be horrible TO be
left alone
THAT was a very truthful statement
|
| paralleled III its fraukness Everybody
knows that Mrs Potter has never had
very much to thank the newspapers fer
that was really pleasant, but she had
| plenty TO be grateful for as locg as she
was willing they should print anything
| If II kept her III the public eye.
almost as genuine was young
American singer who came back here
after she had made debut and some
| little reputation i'll Europe. She was
! pretty woman and she had good voice,
| but she was unfortunate. Once she had
a sore throat and another time she was
ont CT condition for some other reason.
At all eyeEis she was never in coEdi-
| tion TO do ferself justice. So there was
nothing pleasant that, even with the
klnGest intentions, the newspapers could
| say about the young woman. One night
| toward the close OF the season she was
in grand tier box at the opera house.
| During one Of the ontr'actcs she was
walking about the foyer with friend,
and halted i'll front of the greenroom.
What is that rCom?' her friend asked.
Planting herself deliberately III
! front Of the partly opened curtains, she
the room, oh, that is the place they
| go to write, i'll the most disagreeable
way they can, the most disagreeable /
things they can think of about you
The younger singer was unjust, hut she
had no false vanity. Size was willing to |
have it known that she read what the |
newspapers said about her. Her mere
illustrious colleagues are not always so
willing to admit that.
Il have heard Mile. Calve protest !
that she never SAW any newspaper but !
the Paris Figaro, and declare that she !
really had not the slightest idea what |
| New York papers wrote about her. She |
said this one day while waiting outside |
of Maurice Grau's office at the Metro |
politan. ana then turning suddenly to |
q reporter standing near her asked if he /
was the maj. that wrote she had signed !
n contract to give some concerts at !
81, 600 night wien she was really to |
receive 81, goo. Tho man did not un-
derstand French, so Mile. Calves con-
panion translated the question into |
English. The man replied that he rep
resented another newspaper, and when
she turned this into French for Mile. |
Calve she mentioned the name of the
newspaper from which she had had
translated the dreadfully erroneous
paragraph which had led the public to
believe that Mile. Calve had consented
10 take $500 less than she was to get.
mime. Eames has an indicated in
difference for what the newspapers say
which is sometimes Il little bit difficult
to reconcile with her intimate knowl-
edge Of what they publish about her.
Mime. Melba is also familiar with
them, and she is little less averse to
having that fact known than Nine.
Eames is. 1t is well known that Mime.
Nordica takes her press clippings with
her coffee, and she makes no bones Of
it. Jean de ResZke is a regular reader
of what the newspapers have to say
about him, and, whatever he may think
about it il reality, he never, but in one
instance, took any notice of it PlancoH
enjoys reading the agreeable things
that are written about him and doesn't
care who knows it, Only the women
profess to be wholly ignorant of what
the newspapers write.
''With the actresses the case is very
much the same. The celebrated foreign
are quite unacquainted with anything
that the American press Inay write
about them. Agnes Sorma said that she
did not intend TO read any of the crit
icisms of her work until she started
home on the steamer. 1t didn't take a
conversation of more than three min
utes to show that she had fairly ac-
curate knowledge of everything that
had been printed about her. 1t must
have Eeen some superior sort of clair
voyance that is possible, Cnly TO the ar
tistic temperament, for hadn't she said
that none of them would be read until
she had got Cn the steamer to go to Eu
rope? Sarah Bernhardt has them all
translated to her and accompanies the
with more or less emphatic