New-York tribune., 1918-03-03
SybiL Vaue Has
Great Venerafion
For Lloyd George
English Premier Thanked
Her Several Times
for Singing

his own again. For some years prior
to the Great War his vogue had lapsed,
wanting the great circumstances that |
cxalJ and transfgurc our common clay.
For It is the war god that 'bazcs the
trail Of glory.
Then along came August, 1914. To-
day the world thrills to a score Of
names FURNISHED by the far-flung glare
of battle. The French girl glows at the
thought of Petain and simply adores
genial Papa Joffre. The English girls
dresser bears a framed likeness of that
stern warrior, Kitchener Of Kartum,
while she scans the paper for news Of
the fresh successes Of Haig or Byng.
The American girl is sure that lean,
brown Pershing-a typical American
soldier of the finest typc-s going to
turn the ultimate trick.
And Sybil Nanc, the tiny Welsh prima
donna who made her sensational debut
at Covent Garden just before the war
and who is now singing in Charles
Dillingham's "Cheer Up." at the Hip
podrome, is absolutely certain that
neither these times nor any other
times have produced greater man
than her own Lloyd George. His pict-
urc hangs beside her bed where she
sees it first thing in the morning and
last thing at night, touch of kinship
in an alien land.
In the feeling of Sybil Vane for
Lloyd George there is more than ven
GRAFTON for the dominant figure of
Downing Street, London who has come
from the people, from his little Welsh
town, to guide an empire through the
most troubled period of its history.
There is touch of something akin to
love for the great man who reached
out his hand in passing to the little
girl from Cardiff in the throes of con-
qucring the formidable London public.
1t was at large and formal dinner
at the Ritz-Carlton, in London, given
W 'Ci1 1SOISC lslNNCli III IiOllOI Vi LHC
Welsh leader that Sybi Vane first
met Lloyd George. After the dinner
she rose to sing, a girl still in her
teens, fresh from her debut in "Han-
sci and Gretel," still little shy of
gorgeous hotels and great people after
her quiet home in Cardiff All her
songs were in English, and during the
applause which followed Lloyd George
rose and went over to her. He
took her hand and said, in the Welsh
tongue: "Thc Motherland forever!"
meaning that he recognized in her
true countrywoman of the land Of song
He then asked her if she sang in her
mother tongue, and begged for one
little folksong. Sybil, who is as ardent
a Welshwoman as even he could desire.
Immediately rose to the full height of ,
her four feet nine, and sang with all |
her heart one OF the strange old Welsh |
melodies which have thrilled Celtic
hearts for generations. Every one was
in raptures, and Lloyd George once
more went to her and thanked her.
Later, at the 1stedd-Vodd, the famous
annual music festival of the Welsh |
people, when the singers from all over
the country gather, one year in the
north and the next in the south of
Wales. to compete for prizes, ten thou
sand people packed the huge temporary
auditorium because the word had gone
forth that Lloyd George would speak
to his own.
Ten thousand people went mad with
joyous excitement, throwing their hats
in the air and shouting in their own
tongue, "Lloyd George forever!" when
the sound of trumpets announced the
approach of the hero. And beside him
on the platform sat Sybil Vane, risen
in one year from humble little COM
petitor in the contests to one of the
honorcd artists. This time she sang
many of the songs Of her country. and
Lloyd George turned to her on the
platform and paid her the homage due
an artist. Later in London his daugh-
ter, Allwyn Lloyd George, went to the
dresslng-room Of the youthful prima
donna at Covent Garden, where she
was singing in Wagnerian roles, and
told her how much her father had en-
joycd hearing her rendition of the
Welsh songs.