The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-27
GARDENS ROMANCE.
Prima DOnna's Life Story Revealed by
Quarrel With Her Benefactors.

Chicago. March .27.-Musical critics
and magazine writers who have given
to the public whole volumes about
Mary Garden, have just learned that
there were several interesting episodes
in the life of the gifted diva that had
escap ped their attention.
Much had been written about the
assiduous attention given to her train
ing. and the patronage of Mrs. David
Mayer, but the little stories about the
years spent in Paris did not become
the subject of any pen until a real
falling out with Mr. and Mrs Mayer
disclosed the cause of the severance
of the friendship.
Then the rOmance-which many
actors say is necessary experience for
true acting-came to light. It was a
love affair with a student of the Latin
quarter.
1t had been accepted as a fact ever
since the heroine became recognized
as "the greatest American prima
because no man ever had touched her
heart. She has made assertions Of
that sort on several occasions.
Why have | never married 20 she
replied to a New York interviewer
last Dece ember. Because I've never
met man that it was possible could
marry who wouldn't have bored me
as a husband. o, don't mean that
I'm easily bored-that they'd bore me
at the end of a week or even if
should see them frequently, but all
your life-for years-when they're
there in front of you all the time-O!''
The interviewer continued in this
Miss Gardens form seemed to
shrink. She held out her arms as if
thrusting the frightful phantom hus-
band away from her, and her eyes
looked horror"
Disappointed in Men Friends
In the same interview she had this to
say of platonic friendship:
No. I have not found it. 1t is ex-
ceedingly hard to keep a friendship
disinterested. No, I have not and
have lost some of my best friends, too
some of whom I hoped so much. I
have tried SO often and been so often
disappointed. Friendship, friendship
think it is almost the greatest thing in
the world but. o. how Scarcel I have
tried so hard to keep my friends-tried
to hold them-till it all becomes impos-
sible''
Just a year prior to this interview
she had given another similar in many
My work IS my happiness. It is my
life" she said earnestly, 20. 1 have
thought at times that it would be nice
to fall in love with a man and all that
and 1 have even done it, but it never
lasted over twenty-foUr hours. One
loves with ones mind. don't you
with an art that requires every
thought and emotion, there is not
much room for love"
And before all these sayings were
written into the record the blue eyed
artist it is said, had a real affair of
the heart.
What Her Biographers Know.
She was young when she went
abroad They say she is 81 years old
and she went abroad about eleven
years ago Will J. Davis ''discovered''
her as a. choir singer. He brought her
to the attention of Mrs. Mayer, the
wife of the iunior partner of the firm
of Sch1esinger & Mayer, and through
the kindness of that patron she began
studying under Mrs. Sarah Robinson
Duff.
At the end of four years her musical
godmother personally chaperoned her
to Paris gave her carte blanche at the
Paris branch of Schlesinger & Mayor
and placed her under the tutelage of
Trabodella- Chevelier and Fugere of
the Opera Comidue also helped pave
the way for her in the company of that
theater. and in 1901 she got her