The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1912-01-18
SINGER SEEKS DIVORCE.
Madam Shumann-Heink's Domestic
Relations are Unhappy.

singer who visited gOSkal00Sa ana
gave a concert at the 1910 assembly
of the Chautauqua, will soon file suit
for divorce from her husband, accord.
ing to st. Louis dispatch in the Chi.
cago Tribune. Her husbands. name
is William Rapp, and he is twelve
years her junior. The dispatch says:
She and her husband have been sep
arated for some time, but neither, UNI
til now. has acknowledged there was
a permanent arrangement Nine.
Schumann-Heink is 81 years old.
The singer in her apartments to-
night said the divorce petition would
be filed soon, but where she could not
say. Her marriage to man not a
professional and dozen years young
err than she has not been a happy one,
she said She spoke with feeling of
the mesalliance and said she had en-
dured it as long as she could. While
she dreaded having the name of Schu-
mann-Heink in the divorce courts,
there was no alternative, she de-
clared.
Il have no word to say against Mr..
Rapp," said the diva. He is a gen.
tleman, cultured and refined. But it
is best that he should go his way and
go mine. He is in New York, where
he has an office, and IL am on the
road singing.
No Quarrels or Scandal.
There were no ugly quarrels or
any scandal-please say that for both
of us. 1t was just for the best that
have acted as have.
1T is my children that caused the
separation. He could not understand.
And l should not blame him too
harshly for it. He has no children of
his own, while have eight, and some
of them are grown.
When it came to a question wheth-
er it should be my children or my
husband to whom l have been mar
ried six years / chung to my children.
And what good woman would not?
They are my life and love them with
every breath that l draw.
MY children have been my inspira.
ton in life. They gave me the ambi-
ton to achieve what | have achieved.
have given my life for them, and /
never have regretted it, and do
not regret it now
Children Spurred Her On.
when l was in my native land and
oh! so poor, and the first of my eight
children came | wanted to do all /
could for 1t, and when the others
came l felt that / ought to do more
work for them. 1t was that they
might profit by it that l decided
above all things to become a great
singer, a great artist; that l might
give to them the things that had been
denied to me in my childhood.
"And worked so hard, and / de-
MED myself so many things to
achieve my ambition. 1t was to work
for them and to build them a home
that l came to your America that in
the thirteen years l have been here
have come to love so well. But
what made me come was to win mon.
ey and a home for them
Il succeeded before | became the
wife of Mr.. Rapp. My estate in New
Jersey is a beautiful place and / am
happy when | am surrounded by my
children. Then l have another home
in California, and am happy there.
And, no matter where ] am | want
my children to know that their moth
er will always take them to her
arms"
Husband a chieasoan.
Nine. Schumann-Heink and Will
liam Rapp, Jr, of Chicago, were
married in May, 1905. Mr.. Rapp is
a lawyer and son OF the late William
Rapp, editor-in-chief and vice presi-
dent of the Illinois Staatz-Zeitung.
Until just recently the marriage
was considered an ideally happy one.
Countless stories were printed about
the domestic felicity of the couple.