The age-herald., 1901-12-18
BRAVO, BESSIE ABBOTT!
A New Distinction for an American
 Girl With Superb Voice.

From the Chicago American.
 Another plucky little American girl has been heard from. Seven years ago she was singing coon songs and "l Don Want to Play in Your Yard" and now she ia going to sing Juliette in the Grand opera house in Paris. to get into wnicn is almost as hard as getting into heaven
 Only by the hardest and most con scientious and patient work has this am bilious little girl won such great ois- tinction.
 If is Bessie Abbott whot has clutched this musical honor.
 She is the first American who has been invited and allowed to sing in grand opera in Paris without having studied abroad She has received her entire musical eau cation in this country.
 She has vet another reason for pride. Jean de Reszke is the fairy godfather who has brought about the change in her fortune, and it Is an operatic proverb that Jean de Reszke never makes mistake In a voice.
 The story of how 1t happened that the taller of the Abbott sisters" is going to Sing Juliette in the Grand Opera House in Paris, the finest opera house in the world, is one in which beauty and talent and poverty and fairy godfather and an immense amount of hard work play their part
 Seven years ago the Abbott sisters made their debut in Ed Rice's bright company in Little Christopher" What was known to those who sat in orchestra chairs and looked at the Abbott sbters through lorgnettes was that they were very young and very pretty, that they were a good deal frightened by stage aL-& l.e.Ax rnIr x.A well the "coon songs that appeared op- posite their. names The orchestra seats lent their approval to the little debutan- tes. They were called before the curtain and sang another verse of the 'darky" air. When they had sung that the aud fence called them back and insisted on having a whole song over again. So 1t was that the Abbott sisters captured New York with '1 Don't Want to Play in Your Yard"
 What did not appear to the orchestra seats was that the Abbott sisters were mere children, only 15 years old; that they were twins, for. discounting the makeup that really made them over. they looked less alike than most sistera; that they were not born to the stage" as their natural acting. aided by Manager Rices coaching, would lead many to be- lieve, but were driven upon it by need that the Abbott sisters did not sing a duet, as might casually be supposed, but solo number by one with an obligato by the other. For it was but one of the Abbott sisters who could sing.
 The Abbott sisters were in fact the lit- tie Misses Pickens Bessie and Jessie, and all of the voice that might have been in- tended for both somehow went to Bessie. She will be remembered by those who were Little Christopher" enthusiasts as ''the taller of the Abbott sisters" Since this is a truthful chronicle, it must be said that she was the prettier and more graceful, and, in the matter of coon songs at least, the most energetic. |.
 The little Misses Pickens were members of the old Pickens family of South Caro- lima. that mum bered judges and generals in its genealogy. There was their great great-great-greatgran Andre Pickers, who was a volunteer in the ex- petition led by Colonel Grant against the Cherokees and who rose from captain of the militia to brigadier general in the revolutionary war.
 After two seasons with Ed Rice the Abbott sisters played the Keith circuit, still "doing coon songs and dances, and four years ago they went to London to fill an engagement at the Empire Theatre.
 They happened to cross the Atlantic on the same steamer as Jean de Reszke. who was going home to Paris after one of his metropolitan grand opera tours. There was of course the inevitable and often na thetic last night concert for sthe benefit of disabled seamen and the widows and orphans of seamen." Jean de Reszke re- fused to go below, but lounged about the salon. wishing 1t were morning and thev