Norwich bulletin., 1921-02-17
ENRlCO CARusO. OPERA STAR.
 SUFFERS WITH HEART ATTACK


 New York. Feb. Ie,-Enrico Caruso, Metropolitan Opera star whose voice is known around the world. tonight was fighting a grim battle with death
 Stricken last night with heart attack Following pieuriSy, the tenor tossed on his bed in the Vanderbilt hotel all day, large oxygen tanks standing in the sick room, the last defenses from death Doc tors held anxious consultations and ex- pressed belief that the crisis would come late tonight The last rites already have been administered.
 An day the lobby of the hotel in which the great tenor was confined presented an atmosphere of tense but suppressed anxiety The attendants bearing floral tributes and telegrsms from scores of friends slipped quietly through the crowds. Even the orchestra downstairs. which gave number of operatic selec- tions made famous by Caruso's voice, played in muffied tones, although the sick man was far beyond the sound-on the eighteenth floor
 During thu day several of his closest friends from the Metropolitan and Chi ! cago opera companies, with keen solici- l tude plainly written on their faces, vainly sought admission 10 Caruso's chambers. Although Antonio Scotti and 1 | 1t his bedside when il was thought he
 might not rally. hlS physicians turned l back all callers when their patient ap- pcared to have. passed the crisis. The only exception to this rule was made for
 Park Benjamin, Jr.. a brother to Mrs Caruso, who was allowed to make ;wo brief calls during the day.
 Mir. Benjamin divided his sympa thy between the tenor and Mrs. Caruso. who has not left her husbands bedside since
 the first severe collapse last night She lpersistentiy refused to leave him min. ute, despite her lack of sleep. It wa: said late this afternoon that she Wa. beginning to show the terrible emotiona strain, but she managed to conceal il
 from her husband
 The universal anxiety over Mir Ca
 ruso's condition was obvious not onl, from newspaper realers everywhere-il
 the hotel lobby on the streets, in tn,
 subways-but also from deferentia questions from Italian laborers who shy ly requested of the door attendant if h, had heard from the singers apartment Il In and, out of the Metropolitan Oper; House passed a continual stream of per sons asking the one question: "1s Carus still alive?'
 The tenseness was somewhat relieve date this afternoon when Bruno Ziratc , ICarusos private secretary, came down 5 stairs for the first time since his chief l relapse and announced that he now ha "great hopes"
 The only members of the immediat = family who have been with MT. Carus
 since he was stricken, he said, are NIT. f Caruso and their fourteen months t daughter, Gloria. Enrico, Jr, studen e in Culver Military Academy, Indiana, c expected to reach New York at 10 o'cloc = tomorrowS morning. Rudolfo, 21 year l old, the other son, is in Florence, Ita I,
 and will make no effort to come, becaus
 it was realized he could not arrive befor
 the crisis had passed.
 5 MT. .Zlrato's announcement was late
 supplemented by an unofficial bulletin b . the hotel physician, who said: t MT. Caruso is still holding his gail = His heart action is fully as good as l. was this morning"
 r MT. Caruso awoke late in the afte, s noon after a comfortable sleep and toe | few sips of hot coffee. Father Nor :. nelli, who administered extreme unctic e last night during the singers sinkir 7. spell, and Father MelIi,. of Paterson. l. J., personal friend, were allowed
 pay a short call while MT. Caruso W; e propped up for this slight nourishrnen l. Upon leaving his room. Father Mor
 nelli sadi the tenor's morale was e l. tremely satisfactory.
 d After they had left, Caruso, remarked J. If the priest doesn't come again, r. am not at all worried. I feel that I ha,
 made my peace with my God"