The Press., 1898-04-21
THEIR QUEER WAY.
ACTORS AND slNGEE5 AND THEIR
 REMARKS ON THE CRITIC. -.


 Callous Indifference or Ignorance the Com
 monest Refuge of the Artistic Nature.
 Several Cases Cited by the Innocent Re-
 porter.
 .sThere are many amusing things about the artistic temperament" said she innocent reporter, "but you have to know 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 sous an added pleasure. Que 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 1 ever saw who talked frankly about that subject.
 "'So long as they don't ignore me, she said, I don't care what they write Let them say anything so lcng as they say it, but it would be horrible to be left alone.
 That was a very truthful statement of her own opinions and almost un- paralleled in its fraDkness Every body knows that Mrs. Potter has never had very much to thank the newspapers for that was really pleasant, but she had plenty to be grateful fer 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 reputatio in Europe She was a pretty woman and she had good voice, but she was unfortunate. Once she had sore throat and another time she was out of condition for some other reason. At all events she was never ill condi- tion 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 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 a voice audible to every man ill | the room, oh, that is the place they go to write, ill the most disagreeable way they can, the most disag1 eeable things they can think of about you. The younger singer was unjust, but she had no false vanity Ske 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.
 II have heard Mile. Calve protest tn at she never saw any newspaper but the Paris Figaro, and declare that she | Ieally had not the slightest idea what New York papers wrote about her. She said this one day while waiting outside l of Maurice Grau's office at the Metro politan. and then turning suddenly to reporter standing near her asked if he was the man that wrote she had signed a contract to give some concerts at $2, 900 night when she was really to receive S2, 900 The man did not un- 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. | Sd1NS Suc uCHt1OuSu GuO udLlO O4 tuC 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 $2OO less than she was to get. | Mime. Flames has an indicated in- difference for what the newspapers say which is sometimes 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 Mime. Flames is. It is we'll known that Mime. Nordica takes her press clippings with her coffee, and she makes no bones O1 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. Plancor Ienjoys reading the agreeable things ithat are written about him and doesn T care who knows it Only the womer profess to be wholly ignorant of what the newspapers write.
 With the actresses the case is very much the same The celebrated foreign dSCOEu1uS 1O tuc4E OWu dCCOuAbS are quite unacquainted with anything that the American press may write about them. Agnes Sorma said that sh' did not intend to read any of the crit icisms of her work until she started home on the steamer. It didn't take conversation of more than three min utes to show that she had fairly ac curate knowledge of everything tha had been printed about her It mus have been some superior sort of clair voyance that is possible only to the ar tistic temperament, for hadn't she saiG that none of them would be read unti she had got on the steamer to go to Eu rope! Sarah Bernhardt has them al translated to her and accompanies tn, performance with more or less emphatic reflections on the intelligence of tn, writers who do not agree with her owi ideas of what she does It is said tha the atmosphere of the Hoffman Hous' was heavily charged with birthstone fo several days after Mime. Sarah had tn, New York accounts of her performance of Mazda read aloud to her in Eng fish, When the American actors reat unfavorabls accounts of themselves they are always able to tell how the, came to be written. There is alway some specific cause for everything unfa vorable, Either they suubbed the write accidentally or said something disagree able about him to one of his friends There IS never any explanation beyons their bold truthfulness for the fiatterini notices that appear New York Sun.
 Ine secret of New York's Greatness.
 Ernest Ingersoll writes an article fo St. Nicholas on the Greater New York his paper being entitled Reasoning Gu a Metropolis. MT. Ingersoll says: The secret of New York proud great ness-why she is and always will the imperial city of North America il
 wealth and influence and commercia power, even though some other tow | may soma lima in fha fufura counf