The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-04
CARUSO BACK WITH
SON AND GRIEVANCE
Tenor Peeved Because Of Ital-
) ian Proletariat's Raid on
- His Larder.
STOLE ALL HIS OLIVE OIL
Also His Hams and Wines;
Wife's Plea Saved the
Family Chickens.

Enrico Caruso returned to America
yesterday with his bride OF year ago,
his fifteen-year-old son. a bad cold and
a grievance. His wife and son stood al
the tenor's side on the deck of the
italian liner Giuseppe Verdi. while he
nursed his cold with an innumerable
succession of handkerchiefs and aired
his grievance for the benefit OF the re-
porters who gathered about him.
The burden of his tale was the forcible
removal from his premises by the I'M
grateful proletariat of Florence of sun
dry hams, cheeses, casks of wine. hogs
heads of olive oil and the narrow escape
of his chickens. or rather his wife's
chickens, from n similar fate.
ut was a mean trick" he said. I'VE
were on my farm near Florence. A hun
bred and fifty of the neighbors came to
the gates and oheered-a touching well
come home. went down and talked to
them and they told me with tears in
their eyes that they had been without
wine and cheese all through the war.
80 opened the gates and babe them
enter. They covered the lawn and had
wine and cheese brought out to them
and they Toasted and we were all very
happy. And they went away
They Return with Papers.
But next day they came back, twice
as many of them, and they showed me
papers with seals and ribbons on them
and told me to read. The papers
showed that the leaders were regular
representatives of what they call in
Italy now the Public Commlssary. with
power to confiseate all surplus food and
wine.
II protested. I temporized. / said
would sing to them. did sing to them.
sang as we'll as I could and they APP
plauded tremendously. Then they broke
down the gates.
"They swarmed through my house
They carried away twenty-seven casks
OF wine. They took four dozen of my
finest hams and 1 know not how much
olive oil. And they were very happy
and very polite and very rough.
But my wife averted one tragedy.
The crowd was about to take all my
chickens also, and wiring their necks and
cook them. The chickens were my wife S
pets. Many of them she had named.
She could not have their necks wrung.
She pleaded with the crowd and her
italian is very good. The people were
moved. They relented. The chickens
were saved"
In spite of his experiences at the
hands of the Florentines the singer con.
fessed that he mad gained forty pounds
during his stay abroad. He did moi
mind the loss OF the wine SO much, he
said, as he has to abstain from It for the
sake of his voice. and besides he had
sold II three days before to man who
contracted to remove 1t Immediately
but the loss OF the hams and cheese
...a1 a. T. l.. Il
Enrico, Jr.. a Quiet Lad.
Enrico, Jr.. who is is. is on his first
visit to the United States He is taller
than his father and apparently of ar
administrative disposition, for his first
sight of the land of the free aroused nc
emotion that was apparent to the spec.
tators. He speaks English slowly but
correctly and is apparently a great pa
OF his stepmother, who answered mos
Of the questions addressed to him. He
cares much more for electrical expert.
ments, she said, than for music and
plans to take course In electrical en-.
gineering at an American university.
Caruso said he had contracts fol
twelve performances in Mexico city mex
month and planned to go there unles.
conditions south of the Rio Grande be.
came uolueuly worse. lie inquired par.
ticulariy for the latest Mexican news
His wife and son will remain in New
York during his Mexican visit, he an.
nounced.
Mrs Caruso was disappointed to learr
that her father, Park Benjamin, was moi
at the pier to meet her. That the fam.
lily are at least partly reconciled to heI
marriage to the singer, to which they
were violently opposed. was indicated
by the appearance of her brothers, Park
Benjamin, Jr., and Romano Benjamin
and Capt. and Mrs. Frederick Goddard
who met the steamer and placed their
cars at the disposal of the tenor and his
wife for the trip to their hotel. Mrs
Caruso was plainly disappointed, how.
ever, at the absence of her father.
Lieut.. Adolphe Caruso. who is no rel.
alive of the singer, and who has beer
American military attache at Rome
after service at the front, was also q
passenger on the Giuseppe Verdi. julio
SETH. director Of the MetTopoIitsr
chorus, was a member of Caruso's party
Another musical passenger on board
was Rosario Scalero, whom the tenor
called ltaly's greatest violinist. He 1.
TO play and lecture in this country.