The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-04


cultivation and her high ambitions have
been the subject of universal remark;
but it is not so well known that had
she waited for self-knowledge of her
own talent her powers might have re-
manned fallow precious years. In truth,
her standing to-day as the highest ex-
ponent of musical art America has pro-
duced is due to a woman who dreamed
dreams in a Maine farm house and
cherished high ambitions for her chill
dren.
Nine. Nordica was the youngest of
Edwin and Amanda Norton's six
daughters, and Mrs. Norton's father
was Camp Meeting John Allen. Mrs.
Emilio Castillo. sister of Nine. Nordi-
ca, draws this picture of her mother:
when mother had several children
and 1 was a great girl she looked no
more than twenty-five. She had beau
tiful chestnut hair which fell each side
of her sweet, animated face in a pro-
fusion of curls. She had a rich voice
of wide range. AT the Franklin County
Musical Convention she sang minor So
los alto or soprano, as the occasion de-
manded. Mother created a musical at
mosphere in het home, and people often
drove out from Pennington to hear us
sing.
Il can close my eyes and see the
group in the old homestead-mother
singing at the plano, father and his
brother Harrison with their violins, my
mothers brother, John Allen, lifting
up his sweet, tenor voice, and my sis
tiers and cousins joining in"
Wherever lifes pulse throbbed full,
wherever life's cup brimmed over,
thither were drawn this womans de-
sires. She went to New York to hear
| Jenny Lind, and to Boston to shake
| Louis Kossuth's hand and listen to his
| impassioned tale of a Poland bleeding
and torn" These trips were a nine
days wonder to the other farmers
wives.
She wrote poetry, perhaps not abso-
| lutely correct as to meter but the feel
| ing was there. A woman OF enthuS-
| iasm, she naiVely recorded them. Her
| eldest daughter was Imogen, for Gym
beline's daughter; the second, lone,
after BulWer- Lytton's heroine; the
| fourth, Wilhelmina Kossuth. for the
| patriot Poles daughter; the fifth, Lii
| liam Bayard Taylor Norton, who died
| at the age of seventeen months and
whose name was bestowed upon little
| stranger who came to fill the cradle,
| and who in time, became the famous
| prima donna.
| Mrs Nortons rich natural endow-
ment and force of character had come
to little in a Maine village, and she
wished the family to move to Boston.
| Beyond, as in a mirage, beckoned
Italy, the land of art high-celored,
| dazzling, alluring. Through her own
| endeaVors she later set foot upon the
solid ground of her enchanted dreams.
The little Lillian was six years old
when the much coveted move to l3os-
| cold
! The little plants were reset In the
richer Boston SOIL and boarders taken
| in a rented house. Commonplace labor
| toward an uncommon end, here came
in the mothers strongly practical side.
for the fathers hope of more than a
competency from an invention for cor
ing apples were dashed by a friends
rascality.
The children benefited by the good
Boston schools and all received some
musical training. Only little Lillian,
the spoiled darling, rebelled against
school discipline, and was full of
whims. However, she was observing,
and absorbed knowledge as a plant
does nourishment
When she was nine years old four
of the girls were occupying roomy
chamber. Against it's wall long mir
ror often reflected amateur dress
makers, parading their trains, pea
cock-like. Sometimes there were other
reflections. The oldest sister says:
"Often I have Weakened to see Lii
liam in her long night dress, her ha.r
streaming, pirouette or stand a-tip-toe
before this glass, whistling the latest
air
Lillian was not a particularly pref
ty child, but between the ages OF
twelve and fifteen she blossomed out
wonderfully. The pupils of her bright.
beautiful eyes looked black at night
instead of blue. She had fine teeth, a
beautiful complexion and dazzling
smile. While her features were NOT
strictly regular. there was fascinat-
ing play about them
Wilhelmina, a girl with a promising
voice. died at the age of seventeen.
By strictest economy one daughter
could be kept in the Conservatory of
Music, and to Lillian, then fourteen,
fell Wilhelmina's vacant place. The
mothers ambitions now became de-
finitely settled in Lillian, and as the
girls unusual gifts were demonstrate
ed everything was sacrificed to her
future.
John ONeil gave her special les
sons and put her through the five
years course in three. She became
hard student, but If ever her inter-
est tagged the mother shamed her.
Mrs. Norton learned her daughters
parts and taught them to her, and
worked and economical to pay her
way The mother had her first re-
ward, when, at graduation. Lillian
was crowned the greatest singer 9ho
ever came out of the conservatory
The Castillos gave her her graduating
dress, a brocade in blues, costing SIS.
A church position was quickly hers.
She was called to be soloist at st.
Louis and Baltimore concerts but was
unsatisfied, for the mother had taught
her to aim higher. 4
Lillian sought the removed Titjens
before a performance of I'll Trova-
tore" and audaciously sang to her
Leonora's great aria. Titjens gave the
girl an order admitting her to her
dressing-room that evening, and there
Lillian met Maretzek. They advised
New York.
Mrs. Norton believed in striking
while the iron was hot. She scraped
together and borrowed all the money
she could, and FASTENED with her
youngest to the metropolis, where two
years were spent under Maretzek.
When money got scarce Maretzek took
her pupil to Gilmore. She advised LII
liam to sing something easy from
Lucia" but the slender girl burst in
to the bright Seraphim" aria from
Samson" Gilmore engaged her for
100 concerts in the old world. And
with her went her mother.
The Gilmore concerts ended, Lillian
was engaged to open the Trocadero
at the Paris Exposition in 1873. Next
the two were in Milan, rehearsing
daily with San Giovanni, he who re-