The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-13
LAST DAYS OF GILBERT
THE LIBRETTIST OF ,sPINAFORE"
 AND 1.-THE MIKADO."
Miss Nancy Mcintosh, Adopted Rs His Daughter, Shares With Mrs. Gilbert # Duties of Ministering to Him.

E
 London. Nancy Mcintosh, the Ameri-
 can girl who sang the prima donna role
 in Gilbert's His Excellency,' is his < devoted nurse sharing the duties with
 his wife.
 For more than year the composer
 has been helpless invalid and Miss
 Mcintosh has given up all engagements
 to care for her friend and benefactor
 Knowing that the end is near
 She has had numerous offers from
 London and American managers. Her
 devotion to the man who trained her
 voice and brought her out at the Savoy in his plays is touching and absolute.
 Not while MT. Gilbert needs me, '
 she has said to all tempting plans for
 stage work.
 It is in a way the story over again of Ada Rehan and her lifelong friendship
 with Augustin Daly, the manager who directed her art and made possible her career.
 The composer makes an irritable in- valid Nancy never bores me, l take
 1t as actual proof that she is a very clever woman, he said with a smile not
 long ago.
 In his willful moods, and when the twinges of gout are most unbearable,
 Miss Mcintosh is the only person who E has the least influence upon the sick man. He does as she directs as ,docilely as boy.
 Although her own health is frail, < Miss Mcintosh bears up bravely, and her cheerfulness infects even the in valid himself.
 Nancy Mcintosh was young Ameri- can in London with a good voice, a charming manner and all her fortune X to make Gilbert heard her singing, liked 1t, and gave her the chief role in His Excelency." He trained her for her debut at the Savoy, and she made a success, afterward appearing in New York.
 Mrs. Gilbert also became fond of the American girl and practically adopted her as daughter. Miss Mcintosh went to live at the Gilbert home. When Gilbert became seriously ill he began pilgrimage to all the health re- sorts of Europe. Miss Mcintosh gave I'D her career and went with the Gill berts The composer grew more and more to depend upon her, and now she never leaves him.
 Gilbert came back at last to Harrow Ito die. He is at the farm which he < bought number of years ago in order X to enjoy himself after his own original fashion.
 Close to the low, old fashioned home stead he had a monkey house built. In that he installed twelve of the liveliest monkeys that ever climbed a pole or cracked nut. It was Gilbert's delight Ito travel over the grassy acres at Har- row, hands in his pockets, showing the monkeys, dogs, cats and other pets to his friends. Now he is not able to see his old companions.
 The last days of the man who made SStl1e world so merry are in sad contrast SSto his life. Sir Arthur Sullivan's death Followed so closely by the death of the 55third of the trio, D'Oyley Carte, greatly distressed him, and he gave up all ! hope of writing again. N He paid last visit not long ago to ustlle Savoy, which had been the scene many successes, that he might
 ihimself in his own rhyme:
 .svsqaealer in magic and speels, - Blessings and curses and ever-filed purses, In prophecies, witches and knells.
 He looked about the theater sadly, and as he hobbled away on his cane, Sseemed almost to collapse with sadness and grief.
 Both Gilbert and Sullivan were great | sufferers when writing their gayest | pieces.
 When Sir Arthur Sullivan would get a more than ordinary polite note from Gilbert, he used to say:
 Poor man. how bad his gout must be x to- day"
 They quarreled and made up ire souently, and nobody charged the breaches of peace to Sir Arthurs sunny | temper.
 Gilbert's income from his work has | given him an independent fortune.
 Francis Collier, the veteran who con- Iducted all the Gilbert and Sullivan Ioperas at the Savoy, had an acquaint Iance of a quarter of a century with the | two famous partners. He has recalled | some "reminiscences of the two for the World.
 Gilbert on the libretto, says MT. Gel Her. worked in a very different way l from Sir Arthur Sullivan on his music f Gilbert was a very early riser, and worked in the day time All his stage situations were planned and studied l out with the aid of little wooden fig ures, which he moved about on a board that was his mimic stage.
 Ills skill in working out scenes in this Way was so great that when it came to rehearsals everything moved smoothly.
 MT. Gilbert is a very charitable man, and nobody in the profession ever ask ed him for loan in vain,
 Chorus girls in Gilbert's companies were selected with a view to making prima donnas, says MT. Collier. They were charming and refined girls and of ten the guests in MT. Gilbert's home or that of Sir Arthur Sullivan. Two of the chorus singers were Sir Arthur's cousins.
 Gilbert is very nervous man, and m first nights, when Sullivan had to conduct, the librettist never put in an appearance until late in the evening"
 The collaboration of the two was very genuine, for Gilbert understood perfect iI tYr hi7sinese of 2 1ihrettist and never meddled with the music. He never cn,1ld fell when a singer sang off the key.
 His librettos were suggested to him in all sorts of ways, the ''M1kado, for