The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-09-13

Ue-lS more OICen IMAM not paid Tor eX-
tirpating the dross from the gold and
believed implicitly by persons too igno-
rant to think for themselves.
When an American girl unwisely
chooses-it is always unwise-to exhib-
1T her voice before the glaring white
light of foreign public opinion, the
abuse which assails that sweet organ of
almost divine import is like a flash IA
dance turned upon vital part-a part
which is not criticised on it's own mer-
its, but on the merits of it's owners
charms The voice must undergoa set to
with comparison, which i'll France is
considered inevitable rather than odious.
1t is compared numerically with the
voices OF the past and the present Then
its owner is stoned and Subjected to the
rack and hacked and besmudged and
relegated to the cliffs of good radiance
and spitefully misused and purposely
misunderstood, and, finally, if in one
chance out of thousand her instrument
wins the right to soar indefinitely, an
emanation from it's owners heart, a
spontaneous outburst of her innermost
soul, an utterance of her oversoul, it is
as exhaustively discussed as though it
We're fashioned of fiber and tissue in
stead of gush and osltpour, IS though of
flesh and blood instead of embodying
the nucleus Of inspiration.
Does that voice win its way to the
stars, giving evidence of a sweetness
which is supposed to enbellish only the
main turnpike to Pamassus, the wolves
that have failed or the carrion that has
faltered or the onlookers who have
stolen spurious achievement instead of
worked for tho legitimate article or the
impotent who have twlrled their thn ,nhs
while waiting for fame turn and ssllt!,
with the hurtful slur of their weak
wrath, the being who through sheei
grit and indomitable pluck and colgss.,!
self abnegation has lifted his or her Geo
given gift in an honest fight for better
things.
This is not an eHaggcration.
The night Constance BIilia made her
debut at the Paris Grand Opera Was
one of those bitter nights when the elc-
ments war with personal comfort out
side and personal comfort wars with
itself within. The galleries We're liter.
ally gorged with the Paris student
world, which congrcgates about the
musical and art arena with deathless
fidelity whenever one of it,; rank and
file dares to throw his or her effort for
recognition within it's midst and claim
for it, on the ground of merit, adequate
recompense The American girl stu
dents, i'll last years coats and hats,
their countenances pallid and pinched
with want, their eyes and lips sharpen
ed with expectancy, sat huddled to-
gether in the topmost gallery, with
their opera scores on their knees, their
tongues chattering like magpies ON the
tree of knowledge.
The question was, Would the apple
Of wisdom, of such eminent desirabili-
ty, of SO delightful an import, fall
within the hands of their enviable con-
temporary, or would it smile malicious
~, turning its rosiest side toward the
breeze of public protest, and refuse to
be coerced? Long haired students,
dreamy eyed and originally clad, as
though Indifferent to the law of fashion
or custom, with stocks about their slim
throats, hats retained between the acts
and the odor Of last nights tussle with
poverty stricken Bacchus in their
breaths-Bacchus who was poor speci-
men of his richer relative in that he
had substituted absinth for grape juice
and nicotine for tobacco-lolled against
the railing Of the gallery at the left of
the highest tier.
In the boxes We're the stockholders
and their overdressed or underdressed
wives, who, ever on the scent of novel
ty, hired their places semiannually to
infuriate the management and spent the
other six months grumbling at gov
eminent institution which demanded
dear pay for cheap ability.
In the parquet were seated the critics,
that body, or rather army, of men who
exemplify the alternating aperature
through which merit must creep i'll or
der to attain hearing. Their souls
were charged with cynicism as bald
as it was bland, but their pens were
tipped with the most corrosive acid ex-
tant. Some of them, men with families
and the record Of experience in their
lined physicgnomies, affably discussed
the newcomers indubitable pluck and
imminent tiasco. Desmoulins ogled the
galleries skeptically, regarded his nails
diligently, whispered solecisms in the
ear Of his companion, who was no less
parsonage than De Lacaze, and await
ed with impatience the rising of the
curtain upon the event of the hour.
There We're two loges in the house
which claimed his attention. One was
narrow one on the fourth tier 1t con-
tanned all the members of the pension
in their best bibs and fuckers the
World, the Flesh and the Devil FREEDOM.
mating. The other was large one OF
the first tier, in which were seated
Priscilla, radiantly lovely in pure white
Aunt Mildred, sparkling with magnifi
cent diamonds; Stornmouth and Doxie
The two latter had arrived three day.
before. Their arrival had scattered Il.
1:.a :, ~ tho