The daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1904-1905, 1904-03-07
TAR AND
ARTISTS

ter certainly was not unpleasing but
many people have paid fifty cents to
hear just as pleasing. The fact is
that Patti is a ridiculous old woman
trying to be young and can It, and
that is all there is to it after careful
ly boiling down her upper register,
her lower register, her middle regis
ter, her beauteous costuming, her
dangerously dyed dangerous
because somebody else might try it
her cleverly rouged face-and her
poor, old, WORKOUT voice The truth
of the situation is that through the
grace and mercy of one or two great
metropolitan managers, American au-
diences all over the country have,
within the past decade, had the pleas
ure and privilege of hearing the
greatest singers of their time, and
indeed of any other time, and even
were Patti in her prime it is doubtful
whether she would or could arouse
TIE eulHliSIaSiil, the I'IdtitlllS anu tHS
admiration she once inspired. There
are many beautiful natural things
which are but caviare to the multi
tude untilset off by the aid of art and
this is a thousand fold true in the
matter Of the human voice Patti
never learned to fuse her voice
Had she done so, even now with her
wonderfully preserved organ, she
might have been able to make more
of an impression on the present day,
but Nature has her bitter revenges,
and it is a hideous law that perfec-
ton can only be for day And it
makes no matter how adroitly Patti
avoids showing the decadence of her
once alleged marvellous organ by con
fning herself to those songs which
will bring into prominence only those
tones she IS still sure of, it makes abb
solutely no matter. Whatever it Is
that formerly made people shout bra
vas and throw bouquets is gone-ab-
solutely, utterly, completely. A
goddess should remain on her throne
A Princess should hide in obscurity
A statesman should not be too geta-
bic lest people find him nothing after
all but a politician. In short Patti
should have stayed at home and
amused herself with her friends and
her nice youthful husband, the Baron
Cedarstrom, who is a thousand moons
younger than She A modern might
Hamlet-liIe soIiloquize somewhat
thus:
Alas. poor Patti! I saw her. dear
mother! That heck once so rounded,
all fabby and plumpered That hair
once so raven, now carefully peroxi-
ed! Those tones once so golden, all
broken and brassyl' or something or
other like that. To do her justice,
however, if one couldn't see very
well, "barring" her face Patti might
have been but thirty-fve.
For a long time one Of the Chicago
papers printed at certain intervals
of time in a department edited by
the well known writer, Mrs Ella,
Peattie, poems we ought to know"
This column takes a good deal of
pleasure In reproducing two little po-
ems by Mr. Meredith Nicholson, an
Indiana writer who first acquired rep
utation by his poetic output, tho
since he has become known as a crit
lie and novelist, the first of these po-
ems appearing in Harper's Magazine
some years ago.
CHARM.
1t IS a presence sweet and rare,
A something oft attained by Art,
Yet oft possessed, all unaware,
BY folk Of simple mind and heart
And he that has it can not pass
The secret on witt gold or name;
It vanishes like dew on grass,
Or heat that hovarc over Aann