The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-05-29
HAVEN MORNING JOURNAL MONDAY.

CONSIDERED very Ine 1nQeed, Cf1eQ Ou
"Brava, Adelina" and threw magnificent
: bouquets and wreaths down before my
own bare little feet.
And then / would grow sleepy, palle6
with success, and so creep back to bed
leaving the bouquets and the wreaths in
the middle of the floor.
Shall I tell you that these magnificent
tokens were made of old newspapers?
Yes. I'm sure was very strange
little girl,
We were all very oppressed and anx-
ious in those days, and the prospects of
making money were very bad, l was
seven years old when the opera compa-
ny of which my father and mother were
members began to return so little money
that l could no longer stand my fathers
troubled face.
remember saying, Don't sell your
beautiful turquoise pin, papa. Let me
help you; l can sing well enough and L
will be little prima donna"
And l remember, too, my fathers eyes
filling with tears as he replied;
"No, little one, what you say is i'm
possible"
But had made up my mind, neverthe-
icSo' IVY iliOlileI udu dlItduy SlNSH lie
lessons in music, and had practised a
little with her.
l gave them all no peace until one day
it was noised abroad that little Adelina,
the daughter of Signor Patti, was to
sing Una Voce" and 1.-THE Somnambu-
la" at Niblo's Garden.
A prima donna of seven summers, said
everybody, and / am sure they must
have laughed.
But it was no laughing matter to me
or to my mother and father, although
was not a bit nervous or frightened, but,
on the contrary, full of childish conf
dence.
| l didn't care for much to eat that
evening, but nobody paid any attention
to my want of appetite.
/ coaxed my mother, and she braided
my hair and powdered my tiny brown
face.
We burned candles in those days, and
/ can still see myself looking for many
minutes into the mirror Of my bedroom
with the shadows behind me before we
set dut for the theater.
From time to time my father brought
repors to us in our dressing-room of the
dppedrdHce Oh the mousse. II WAS HoI u
large audience
AT seven o'clock the curtain went up,
and came on. I think everybody in the
house must have applauded, for, besides
having a great many friends there, 1T
would have been hard of anybody not to
have been interested in so young a cam
tatrice.
They told me afterward that from
those first notes nobody had any doubt
that l was success and born prima
donna. Child as I was, I felt sure that
lie Bon Dieu was at my side.
When the curtain went down on Una
Voce" I saw great number of men and
women clapping and waving their hands
and crying Bravo, bravo" and even the
gods in the gallery tried to whistle as
loud as they could, and you must not
forget that the gods were my personal
friends. There are no street arabs like
those of New York. They had long be-
fore nicknamed me 1.-The Little Chinee
Girl" because of my black eyes and yell
lowish features.
Then l remember my father catching
me up in his arms and kissing me, and
my mother and all the members of the
company petting me as II had done
something wonderful indeed; but it was
not more than / expected to do. But
there was 'Sonnambula" to come before
the evening was finished and they told
me there We're more people to hear
"Sonnambula" than "Una Voice." be-
cause many Of the audience had gone
out and brought in chance acquaint-
ances.
They told me that one man actually 7
brought over no fewer than six friends
from the New York Hotel, over the way, |
and what is more and better for us, he |
paid for them.
But have told you enough; the world |
knows pretty well what has happened |
after that. But have here told you the |
story Of my first ppearance.-London
Maily Mail.