The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-15
WAGNER WOODED IN VAIN
REM OF MIME, FOR-
 GET,
Who Puts the Composer is mn Amus-
 ing Light.

Ing Light.
 An enterprisn g Parisian journalist lately reported a conversation with Madame Forget. She brought out from an old box letter of Richard Wagner yellow with age, and told how, at her fathers house on the shores of the Lake of Geneva. she had two wooers.
 Richard Wagner and Charles Forget was a bit of a dilettante and a Maecenas in a small way and both fell in love with me, and the rivalry only increased their passion. Wagner was the first to speak It was beautiful afternoon in June. l was sitting in the garden and held in my hand The Bride of Lammermoor." Wagner came up resolutely, and, seeing the book in my hand, said contemptuously: Opera spells romance for me He then made a grand gesture and exclaimed: There are only two men, Beethoven and 1. I shall be the great musical reformer of
 
 the century, His tone was naughty, his voice inharmonious, he looked like a bad tempered schoolmaster; moreover, he had flat feet and smelled rather mus tyy l dislilSed him much, and his brutal pride caused me a kind of terror I will blend poetry and music into one, and make out of them something insep- arable, a complete organism And then he repated: T shall be the great mu- scal reforjner of the century. My con- temporaries are blockheads, all he added sneeringly, all musicians and opera composers
 "Then he was silent, looked at the tips of his shoes and with sudden brusque ness said Will you be my wife?' Then he made a speech and talked of the fame that would accompany his wife and the noble devotion that he expected from her I believe I would sooner have married a fisherman from the lake. As I was amazed at his conceit and was sure that nothing could come out of him, I did not spare him, but plainly said 'No,' He looked so aston ished and confused that at first he could not find no words; then he exclaimed roughly: One day you will scarcely be- lieve in your own infatuation,' and walked away But he wrote me kind of memorial, in which he sketched his plans. I found it pretty obscure and spoiled by verbosty, but yet grandilo- | quent. regarded him too much as a theorist who could not carry out his taa inr lot b., me letter and agin asked me in brief terms if I would be his wife, I gave him the same answer as before. The repul- f sion which entertained for Wagner in- creased my liking for Forget and when he laterly confessed his love-how tend- erly, how dearly!--I felt as happy as a. young goddess"
 The interviewer was still holding in his hand Wagner's letter. and describes himself as feeling kind of scorn for the old lady. Did you not feel yourself in the presence of a great soul?' he asked, and received the reply: q did not feel myself in the presence of a great soul; I only saw intolerable con- ceit"
 But that was noble pride, madam"
 "The hypertrophy of the I is perhaps useful for doing great things, but in life it is repulsive, I do not regret having laughed"
 Do you not regret that you are not called Mime. Wagner? Fate offered you a fairylil1e bit of luck"
 q certainly regret having misjudged my own account, not his. He had opportunity to console himself. But do not regret that I am not his wife. I have children, and what mother would change her children for others?" Mime. Forget later described the lot of { the wives of famous men as one not to be envied and added: "Only self-sacri- icing love could have determined me to { undertake such a role. From the Mu- ; sical Courier.