Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-09-11
CHAPTER XXXVII.
A Meeting of Eyes.


The newspapers had already given
many details of Madame Vanira. For
many long years there had been moth
ing seen like her. They said her pas
sion and power, her dramatic instinct,
her intensity were so great, that she
quoted of her what was so prettily said
of another great actress:
'fShe has a soul of fire in a Body of
gauze.''
No one who saw her ever forgot her;
even if they only saw her once, her face
memory forever afterward. No one
knew which to admire most, her face or
her voice. Her face was the most
wonderously beautiful ever seen on the
stage, and her voice was the most mar
ve1ous ever heard-it thrilled you, it
it's unutterable sadness, its marvellous
sweetness; those clear, passionate
tones reached very heart, no matter
how cold how hardened it might be
one felt that in listening to it that it
was the voice of a grand, passionate
soul. 1t was full, too of a kind of cleo
tricity; when Madame Vanira sung she
could sway the minds and hearts of her
hearers as the winter winds sway the
strong boughs. She drew all hearts to
herself and opened them. When she
sung, it was as though she sung the
CO Of oh TO
They said that her soul was of fire
and that the fire caught her listeners;
she had power, genius, dramatic force
enough to electrify whole theater full
of people, to lift them out of the COM
monplace, to take them with her into
the fairyland of romance and genius,
to make them forget everything and
anything except herself
Such a woman comes once in a CEN
fury, not oftener. They called her
siren, Circe. She was a woman with
a passionate soul full of poetry; a gen
Jus with soul full of power; a woman
made to attract souls as the magnet
attracts the needle.
She made her debut in the theater of
San Carlo, in Naples, and the people
had gone wild over her; they sere-
naded her through the long starlit
night; they cried out her name with
every epithet of praise that could be
1avlShed on her; sthey raved about her
beautiful eyes, her glorious face, her
voice, her acting, her attitudes.
Then a royal request took her to
Russia; still warmer welcome met
her there; royal hands crowned her
with diamonds, royal voices sweIled
her triumph; there was no one like La
Vanira. She was invited to- court and
all honors were lavished on her.
From there she went to Vienna,
where her success was as great; to
Paris, where it was greater, and now
she was to make her debut before the
most critical calm, appreciative audi
ence in Europe. The papers for weeks
had been full of her; they could de-
scribe her grand queenly beauty, her
wonderful acting, her genius, which
was alone in the world, her jewels, her
dresses, her attitudes; but there was
nothing to say about her life.
Even the society journals, usually
so we'll informed, had nothing to say
about Madame Vanira Whether she
were single or married, or a widow,
none of them knew; of what town, of
what nation, even of what family,
none of them knew.
She seemed to be quite alone in the
world, and against her even the faint
est rumor had never been heard; she
was of irreproachable propriety, nay,
more, she was of angelic goodness