Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-04
BENEFIT GIVEN
FOR SUFFERERS
IS BIG SUCCESS
NEAT SUM REALIZED FOR
QUAKE VICTIMS
AUDIENCE ENRAPTURED WITH
SPLENDID PROGRAM
Musical Concert at Mason, in Which
Noted Artists Appeared, Re-
VeaIs Los Angeles Has Its
Own Nightingale"
NTUSIC LOVERS turned out in large
N numbers yesterday afternoon and

nj USIC LOVERS turned out in large
X numbers yesterday afternoon and
AAA poured hundreds of dollars into
the box office of the Mason opera house
to help swell the relief fund which Is
being raised in Los Angeles by a diver
sity of methods to send money to the
stricken cities of Southern Italy. Incl
dentally, the big benefit developed a
new song nightingale in Miss Bessie
Bulpin, a local artist whose future will
undoubtedly prove a bright one.
More than $1100 is the total sum
which passed through the ticket Office,
and by the time all reports are received
from the scores of ticket sellers
throughout the city and suburbs 1t Is
probable the aggregate amount raised
by the monster benefit will be found to
reach nearer $1400 or $780, This brings
the total of the fund to nearly $1,000,
nearly $4,000 having been reported from
other sources. The fund undoubtedly
will exceed $4,000 before closing.
The lower portion of the house en-
tirely was filled, with the exception Of
one or two rows in the extreme rear of
the house, while the balconies and gal
lerieS were sold to standing room"
Had not an unfortunate miscarriage of
plans occurred Saturday it is probable
the boxes, too. would have been filled
more numerously than they were; but,
at that. there were but few boxes
empty a number of handsomely gowned
parties of women occupying the larger
number and increasing the brilliancy of
the affair.
It is doubtful if any musical program
ever rendered in this city has dis
missed a more delighted and more sat
isfied audience than that which at
tended the benefit. Words of euloSy
oftentimes exceed the value or merit
of the thing eulogized, but it would be
difficult to approximate or approach,
much less exceed, in eulogy the real
merit of every number on the program.
Every artist was a star that for the
moment, as the eyes of the spectators
were upon him or her, seemed to out
shine the stars that had preceded In
other words no one was best and no
one appeared to better advantage than
another.
BY a strange coincidence there are q
great many Italian musical artists ap-
pearing at the various theaters from
which the participants in the program
were gathered, and it was both proper
ana appropriate that they were chosen,
wherever possible, in the preparation
of the program. the rendition of which
was entirely in behalf Of their own
countrymen, whose homes have been
laid waste.
Speaks to Audience in Italian
A striking example of this fact was
empha sized in a few remarks which
NrtidOra Mauceri, the superb basso Of
the Lambardi Grand Opera company,
addressed in his native tongue to the
Italian-speaking portion of the aud
ience Signor Mauceri is a native OF
Sicily, his early life having been spent
not many miles from the eruptive vol
canO. Mount Aetna, in the island Of
Sicily, not far south of the destroyed
city of Messina. All of Signor Maui
ceris relatives live or did live in Mes
sina, and up to this time he has not
been able to secure any tidings from
any of them as to whether they have
perished in the cataclysm. Weighed
down as he is by grief and anxiety re-
garding his loved ones, Signor Mauceri,
nevertheless, not only volunteered his
services to the cause of his country
men, but sang with feeling and a
pathos that told a mute story Of his
anguish. When called in encore he
preceded his second number with an ex-
preston of thanks in behalf of all
italians to those who had contributed
to the relief of the stricken and famish-
ing sufferers, and especially those who
were in attendance on the entertain
ment
For those of the large audience who
In whose minds there exists a depth of
humanity which is touched by the per-
sonality of an artist before the foot
lights, there were perhaps two whose
faces, whose voices and whose manner
isms were carried away from the thea
ter, and which will linger in their
memories for time to come. These are
Miss Bessie Bulpin and Signor Gerard
GrazZiani.
Had the day been other than Sunday
and the audience less modulated be-
cause of that fact, it is safe to say
the enthusiastic demonstration which
punctuated and greeted Miss Bulpin's S
numbers would have been far more
noisy at their conclusion, though it
could not have been more spontaneous.
Although there were few in the aud
ience who knew Of the fact, the appear
ance of Miss Bulpin in the program was
a strain that but few singers could
have undergone had conditions been
the same.
Is Los Angeles Young Woman
Miss Bulpin lives in this city, and her
advantages have been those only which
her own efforts have made possible.
Entirely unframed in dramatic details,
inexperienced in footlight technicalities,
possessing no finished stage presence
except what nature gave her as a
sweet, modest young woman, she con-
sented to an appearance on the stage
with artists whose regulations are
world wide, whose experience is infinite
and whose training has been carried to
the last analysis. Not only did she
appear to every bit as good advantage
as the most finished stars who pre-
ceded and followed here, but the sweet-
ness Of her face and manners, accen-
tuated by the marvellous purity Of her
voice and the perfect harmony of her
notes literally captured her audience
and made her shine with at least equal
brilliance to that Of any other artist on
the entire program.
A pleasurable feature of the enter
tainment was the presence at the main
entrance and in the different portions
of the theater of number of young
women, as flower girls, who succeeded
in pinning their bouquets on the coats
and waists of nearly everyone who wit
messed the program, the young women
thoughtfully allowing the purchasers to
name the price which they should pay
this one feature netting a considerable
sum with which to swell the benefit
fund. The young women were chaper-
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