The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-09-24
THEIR QUEER WAY.
ACTORS 40 SINGERS AND THEIR
REMARKS ON THE CRITIC.


Several Cases Cited by the Innocent Re
porter.
"There are many amusing things
about the artistic temperament, sale
the innocent reporter, "but you have tt
know the disposition in order to tel
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 humol
that gives acquaintance with these per
sons an added pleasure. One charming
incident of this can always be found in
their views of what the newspapers say
about them. Mrs. James Brown Potter
is the only woman ever saw who
talked frankly about that subject.
$50 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 very truthful statement
of her own opinions and almost un-
paralleled in its frankness. Everybody
knows that Mrs. Potter has never had
that was really pleasant, but she had
plenty to be grateful for as long as she
was willing they should print anything
if it kept her in the public eye.
almost as genuine was a young
American singer who came back here
after she had made a debut and some
little reputation in Europe. She was a
pretty woman and she had good voice,
but she was unfortunate Once she had
a sore throat and another time she was
out of condition for some other reason.
At all events she was never in condi-
ton to do herself justice. So there was
nothing pleasant that, even with the
kindest intentions, the newspapers could
say about the young woman. One night
toward the close of the season she was
in a grand tier box at the opera house.
During one of the entr 'actes she was
walking about the foyer with a friend,
and halted in front Of the greenroom.
What is that room?' her friend asked.
Planting herself deliberately IN
front of the partly opened curtains, she
said in voice audible to every man in
the room, ooh, that is the place they
go to write, in the most disagreeable
way they can, the most disagreeable
things they can think of about you.
The younger singer was unjust, but she
had no false vanity. She was willing to
have it known that she read what the
newspapers said about her. Her more
illustrious colleagues are not always so
willing to admit that
81 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, and then turning suddenly to
a reporter standing near her asked if he
was the man that wrote she had signed |
contract to give some concerts at
50, 600 a night when she was really to
receive So, 900. The man did not IN
derstand French, SO Mile. Calves COM
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 |
to take 5000 less than she was to get.
mime. Eames has an indicated in
difference for what the newspapers say
which is sometimes a little bit difficult |
to reconcile with her intim ate knowl-
edge of what they publish about her.
Nine. 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 Nine.
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 in reality, he never, but in one
instance, took any notice of it. Plancon
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 or what
the newspapers write.
with the actresses the case is very
much the same. The celebrated foreign
ers, according to their own accounts,
are quite hnacquainted with anything
that the American press may 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' take a
of more than three min
utes to show that she had a fairly ao-
curate knowledge of everything that
had been printed about her. 1t must
have been some superior sort of clair
voyance tkat is possible only to the ar
tistic temperament, for hadn't she said
that none of them would be read until
che had got on the steamer to go to Eu
rope? Sarah Bernhardt has them all
translated to her and accompanies the
performance with more or less emphatic
reflections on the intelligence of the
writers who do not agree with her own
ideas of what she does. 1t is said that
The atmosphere of the Hoffman House
vas heavily charged with birthstone for