Evening star., 1900-12-01

in q phenomenal degree. One remembers
an occasion when fourteen newspaper men.
practiced interviewers. interviewed her at
one and the same time upon her arrival in
San Francisco from Australia. 1t was at
the Palace Hotel. and the late Henry A.
Abbey, her manager at that time, conduct
ed the string Of newspaper men up to
madame's suite, to find her playing with
tiny baby kangaroo, that she had brought
from the antipodes. It ought to be said
that she was sitting in the middle of the
floor, pranking with the clumsy little ami
NAL. She arose, very stately. and with the
blush Of girl, when the newspaper men
filed somewhat more solemnly than neces-
sary into the room and gave each of them
handclasp, that-they compared notes af-
terward and found 1t to be so-sent dis
tinct electric shock from fingers to shoul-
der. Then she sat back in a deep chair
and smiled quizZically at the distinctly en-
barrassed circle-and embarrassment was a
sensation that not man in the outfit had
perhaps experienced since the beginning of
his journalistic career
One of the newspaper men had got his
education in France, and he started the ball
rolling by asking madame a question in
that 1anguage-his French was quite unim-
peachable. naturally. Then she flicked her
handkerchief anu announced in the most
impossible English that she wanted to talk
in English-which she did, for the remain
der of the sitting, so that every man in the
room longed for a temporary lodge in the
wilderness in order to shrek anu roar and
madame's! 1t was musical, it was piquant,
1t flowed with the volubility Of murmuring
torrent-but 1t was never, never English, nor
anything like English. AT the same time
1t was not French. All hands looked side
wise at the newspaper man who had got
his education in France to see if he was
catching the gist of madame's conversation,
but his face was screwed up into an express
sion or wondering amaZement, and he said
afterward that she might just as well have
talked in Zulu or Arabic, for all that he
caught of her meaning.
She. Had All the Fun.
This was perhaps the most notable of
madame's jokes. Long afterward the affa-
BILE Abbey told some of the newspaper men
who had been of that party that madame.
upon the departure of the newspaper men
that night, had rolled on the carpet for fif-
teeen minutes, exploding in scream after
scream of laughter over the blank coun
tenances OF the newspaper men as she
talked gibberish. The newspaper men, be-
tween the devil and the deep sea, sat in
circle around a big table in the writing
room and wrote their interviews with the
divine Sarah from their inner conscious
nesses, comparing the interviews before
taking them to their offices, so that they
would not differ in any essential details.
For had they not interviewed the French
woman? Truly. Therefore, they had to
write their interviews. Some of them
shrewdly suspecteu that madame had
stood them up in a spirit of diablerie
but they never knew positively that they
had been made imbeciles of by the mis-
ch1eVous Frenchwoman> until Abbey told
them-and then none of them felt sore
over it.
A Delightful Gathering.
Once again. There was a little supper in
the crystal banquet room Of the Hotel Rich
el1eu in Chicago, given in honor of the di-
vine Sarah by "Cardinal' Bemis, the pro-
nj nf ha
guests sat down in the beautiful room,
amid the vast profusion of flowers which
the cardinal and many others of ma
DANES friends had provided, at midnight
for Bernhardt had given a performance at
McVicker's that night. Robert G. Inger-
soil, happening to be passing through Chi
cago, was there. So was Daniel Dougherty
the silver-tongued orator. So was Luther
Laflln Mills an orator no less si.ver-
tongued. So was Nat Goodwi and Opie
Read, and a couple of English noblemen of
great station who were touring the country
at the time, and perhaps fifty others-ar-
tists and theatrical men and women and
newspaper men, and few men about town
properly vouched for by the cardinal"
This, 1t may be conceived, was a very de-
nghtful little supper indeed. Cardinal"
Bemis had at that time the most notable
Of public wine cellars, and he was bounti-
full with his old vintages that night-that
morning, rather The mellow wit of Inger-
soil never glowed more brightly never was
DooSHci ~ HuHOTOuSly eloquent, The
notables all did something. Ovide Musin,
by the way, the great violinist was there
too and he played his instrument magnifi-
Gently. Along toward 3 o'clock In the morn
ing the gayety was like the rataplan of
drums, and all Of sudden madame leaped
TO the center of the room gathered her
skirts decorously yet skttishly pursed up
her lips, and began to dance. She had been
to variety show that afternoon and had
seen one of the original cake-walking pairs
perform The air to which they danced
chung to her. She whistled it and cake
walked, and she did it almighty well. at
that. Musin with his violin, caught up the
air after Bernhardt had whistled IL once
and he played it for her upon his violin,
whereupon she ceased whistling and Just
gyrated. This was a picture-the queen of
the realm of tragedy, the friend and conf
dante or the tragic muse, with her skirts
clufched in one hand. cake-wa,kirg Ineer-
soil lay back in his chair and laughed until
he was helpless. The rest of them eroaned
in the very anguish of merriment and held
their sides hard. Then the gigantic novelist
Ople Read, leaped to the center and he and
madame cake-walked together.
The dawn was streakng- in when this
party-Very many members Of which have
now passed hence-broke up Assuredly.
they had good time-Bernhardt. mayhe
the best time of all of them. G r.