Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-09-18
vOYACER RECALLS
CARUsO'S CONCERT
ON SHIP IN 1895
Proved Himself q Hail Fellow,
Well Met, Endowed With
Great Gift.

A friend of the New York Times as
! far away as Glasgow, and one whose
name, withheld at his request, is that
Of famous old Scots clan, has writ
ten to tell how he and other passen-
gers on the steamship Ophir, outward
bound through the Mediterranean in
1895, first heard the young Enrico
Caruso, then in his first year on 1taly's
stage but elsewhere unknown. A fell
low Scot going to Ceylon had sung
elers passing the Bay of Biscay. The
fore long the saloon and smoke room
were the scenes of social meetings in
which music had it's part.
There was" he says, "a chemist
from the United States, gold mine
manager, student from the London
school Of mines, some well to do Aus
tralians and others who had made good,
as well as a number Of women sailing
to Join their families in the Antipodes.
Caruso Entered at Naples.
$50 by the time Naples was reached
we were free and easy company with
capacity to enjoy any good thing that
was to be found. Into this company
and atmosphere Caruso entered at
Naples, and the discovery was made
that the Italian gentleman was train
ed singer on his way to Cairo to carry
out a musical engagement there.
TT was my Annie Laurie Scot,
now also deceased. who pressed Caruso
into service in the deck salon. To
this day I can picture the Caruso
laugh as he measured the situation
to which he literally had been dragged,
and the scene of enthusiasm when he
had finished his first song.
I'VE recognized at once that he was
a, singer Of no mean order and the
feeling was that he would Immediately
secure in Cairo the appreciation that
laws the foundation Of great career.
Caruso Joined in the fun when it was
going, and I can see him and another
man yet as they danced in the smoke
room for all they were worth, to our
general merriment.
Hall Fellow, Well Met.
"At that time / summed up this
Caruso as hail fellow, well met
sort of man, who was an Italian first
and foremost, a good sort next, who
knew how to enjoy life, and that his
heart and soul was in his singing. We
had many gratuitous performances be-
fore we reached Port Said, and at
such close quarters it was easy to
see that he was man of grit and
personality.
"The mastery manner in which he
rendered his songs to us then seemed
to say, Well, this is my first Eng
fish audience, and I will test their
love and appreciation of bit OF the
real article which he produced. Yes,
and we had it without stint. At that
time he was well built, with strong
and pleasant facial expression, with
italian fire in his dark eyes, and he
did let it burst forth at times, to our
great delight.
Had Natural Gifts.
Even then one could imagine him
swaying large audiences at will and
thrilling them through and through
with some of his master strokes, for
he had the physique and natural gifts,
as all the world found later. Who
knows but that it was his natural
abandon to his work that proved his
too early breakdown?
Looking back to the days of his
first English audience on board the
Ophir, one could see then that no eff
fort would be spared to put natures
gifts to the highest tests, even to the
swapping point, for such was the Ca
russo nature then revealed in 1885,"