New-York tribune., 1919-10-05
RECOLLECTIONS OF FAMOUS SINGER

appointed time numbered about fifty.
have not kept list Of them, but it
IS saddening to think how many OF
them preceded Nine. Patti into the
beyond: recall DR.. Leopold Damrosch
and Edmund C. Stanton, who repre-
sented the Metropolitan Opera House;
Max Maretzek, John A. McCaull, Au-
gustin DAILY and Colonel Mapleson, who
represented the theatre; William Win
ter. dramatic critic of The Tribune;
Richard Hoffman, and S. B. Mills,
planists; William Stenway, Charles
Steinway and Nahum Stetson, piano
forte manufacturers; r. F. Knoedler,
Or. "A. B. Mott, Jesse Seigman, Achille
of that day in New York; H. Casse-
beer, jr; Theodore Toedt and Judge
Joseph F. DAILY, the last Of whom pre-
sided. DR.. Damrosch responded to the
toast, "Music," Mr. Winter to Drama"
Mr.. Krehbiel to "The Press" Colonel
Mapleson and Mr.. Maretzek to "Impre-
sarios." There were other impromptu
speeches and Mr.. Winter read a poem
written on PATHS departure from
America. Nine. Patti was amiability
incarnate throughout the affair. Be-
fore the company had gathered she
made only one request, "Not too much
llRnC, plcaSCI
"Weve cared for that-no gas, no
Would you like to take peep into the
room?"
She would; and it was all right, es-
pecially the mellow candlelight How
the diva received her guests, how Colo
mel Mapleson (who owed her about
$4,000 went down on his knees like a
medieval knight before his mistress
all this | have told elsewhere and need
not repeat. A few days later the COM
mittee and few other gentlemen sat
down with Nine. Patti as her guests
at the Windsor Hotel, and this time
there was no specchmaking.
1t is possible, even likely, that great
many of the ladies who refused to sit
down with Nine. Patti at this dinner
knew more about the incidents of her
married life than ]. Society could not
quite forgive her for throwing over a
marquis who was equerry to the EN-
press Of France for Nicolini, who de-
serted wife and five children to
marry her. The fact that the marquis
was a notorious spendthrift and wasted
her earnings, and that Nicolini was as
devoted as slave to her Cor she to
him, for she let him choose her soup,
her wine, her food, and obcyed him at
table, to the anger sometimes of her
hosts, who sought to humor her tastes)
did not count in the case. The mar
riage with de Caux was opposed by her
father and her brother-in in-law, Maurice
Strakosch, who refused to manage her
affairs after it. 1t was promoted by
Napoleon III, Empress Eugene and
Adelina's lady companion, Fraulein
Louisa Lauw, who parted from her when
the divorce came. She wrote a book
entitled Fourteen Years with Adeina
Patti" in which she tells of how many
men tried to marry her friend and
narrates the details of the courtship of
a young Italian merchant with whom
Adelina was madly in love, but who
threw her over when her father told him
to wait some years until he had made
his fortune. The marriage with de Caux
was solemnizcd in May, 1868, at the
Catholic Church, Clapham, near London
The Prince of Wales gave a dinner and
ball in honor of the new marquse in
Marlborough House. Miss Lauw, who
talks kindly and cntcr!ainirgly. in her
book about de CauX, is less considerate
of Ncollni. She says that Patti at first
took a strong aversion to him because
he, the husband Of an cstimabe woman
and father of five children, was in the
habit Of boasting Of his conquests among
tha fair sex. Nicolini finally won her
over by following her from theatre to
theatre, breaking contracts and making
new ones simply to sing with her. De
Caux objected to this. and finally, when
he learned that Nicoin was to aban-
don the opera at Moscow and go to St
Petersburg. where Patti was engaged
lie demanded that "Romeo eft Juliette"
should be stricken from his wifc's roper
tory. The management agreed, but an
nounced "Traviata," with Patti and
Nicolini. Thereupon de Caux sent word
to the imprcsario that his wife should
not sing at all. Ferry, the manager,
promised to engage N1assini in
Nicolini's place, but when the cur
tain went up Oh the opera there stood
Nicolni as Alfredo. This was the Incl
dent which caused the rupture between
Patti and her companion, which was fol-
lowed few weeks later by the divorce.
fear that | am not only depressing
/ but gossip ping, where | had intended to
rehearse Nine. PATHS career in New
York. However, there is one more mat
ter which might as we'll discuss, since
it is bound to be broached soon and is
associated in a manner with the Incl
dent of her marriage to the Marquis de
CauX.
PATHS Religion
How long ago the report that Patti
was Jewess started do not know, but
it was revived in Il new form about
1890, when the story got into the news
papers that the chatelaine of Crag-y-
Nos was building d synagogue in the
castle. There was no foundation for the
report outside Of the too active fancy
of some newspaper paragraphcr, but it
set the world gossiping about the lady g
religious proclvities-ass that she
ever had any. 1t also brought out 1,
denial from Nine Patti herself that
she was contemplating the construction
of Il synagogue. That, however, was
not accepted by that numerous class of
writer's who find traces of Jewish blood
in every gifted human being as imply
ing that she was not racially Jew
Nor was there evidence of any sort in
the fact that she was married accord
ing to the rites OF the Roman Catholic
Church. Friends OF the Barili family
her maternal ancestors insisted that if
they we're not Roman Jews their looks
sadly belied them. A multitude of Ger
,>t. Io,,