Evening star., 1921-08-02
.rEw YORK M1UnNs~D ~DHAFH.
Scene Of His Greatest Triumph6
Shocked by News.

NEW YORK, August 1.-THE
death Of Enrico Caruso beneath the
skies of his own ITALY today caused
sorrow on every highway and by
way of New York.
Here he was loved by all-the poor
Of East Side tenements, the wealthy
of 5th Avenues stately mansions, the
countless numbers who filled the
seats of the Metropolitan Opera
the somber galleries whenever the
Incompatible tenor sang a. role.
Street sweepers stopped their work
to humble a prayer for the departed
tenor: the cultured lamented the loss
to art of one Of its most cherished
not only Americas but the worlds.
For Caruso's superb tones have en-
raptured audiences the world around,
Voice Missed During Illness.
The homage paid him was never
was' silenced during his long illness
last winter.
When he lay stricken. gallantly
fighting against a death that seemed
only hours away, ever expressing the
hope that he might be spared until
he could return to the soil that gave
him birth. the meek and the mighty
of every land prayed that the great
tenor would be spared to them and
to art a little while longer.
Princes sent messages of sympathy
and hope to his bedside from every
country that knew a cable station
or a wireless plant. In New York,
push-cart peddlers, as we'll as busi-
ness barons and leaders of society,
eagerly bought newspapers hour by
hour to learn how Caruso's courageous
To the hotel suite where he was
suffering from one operation after
another there went exquisite bouquets
from florists shops and also simple
Earlands that expressed the love and
admiration of the poor.
Cheerfulness Admired.
On the stage Caruso always was
curtain calls his gracious bows and
unexpected tricks, his inexhaustible
energy, aroused an admiration that
knew no boundaries, creeds or birth.
His joy was in singing.
Il promise you that when I go to
heaven I shall sing forever" he told
an audience at the Friars' Club five
years ago.
Sometimes, the possession. Of voice
that thousands considered the most
perfect ever given to a man, palled
upon the great tenor, and he would
just an ordinary somebody.
THE burdens Of my gift-are greater
than the rewards" he would say.
Personal friends knew Caruso to be
as cheerful in private life as on the
stage. Trouble seemed ever to follow
him, yet he kept cheerful and undis-
mayed.
Last December a disheartening se-
ries of mishaps preceded the illness
which led to his death. On the 9Th
he sprained his side when making an
energetic exit after the aria 'Vesti
la Giubba," in "P&gliacci"
Three days later he burst q blood
vessel in his throa. during a per-
formance Of "L'Elisir d'Amore," in
Brooklyn, but he bravely carried on.
Two days before Christmas he lay
in bed, his chest under treatment for
'sntercostal neuralgia" but the
Christmas eve audience for La JUL
va" was not denied the joy of hearing
him, for he left his sickroom and
sang the role of E1eazar."
Heavens MouEa Loss.
Christmas he spent In bed, and the
next day came word that pleurisy
had attacked him.
Week after week he battled for
life, undergo ing several operations.
When he was sufficiently strong he
went to Atlantic City for a few
weeks, and then. when the warm
Sun of early summer came to Italy,
he left New York, emaciated but
smiling, confident that he would re-
turn in the fall to the thousands Of
music lovers who awaited him.
To the superstitious 1t seemed as
CONTINUED on Nineteenth Page.l