The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1921-02-17
.CARuSO BATTLES
AGAINST DEATH
Still Hope For Recovery If:
Famous Opera Star.
RALLIES AFTER COLLAPSE
Physicians Find It Necessary to Con-
stantiy Employ Oxygen to Sustain
His Life.

New York, Feb. 17.-IGnrico GaruSo,
Metropolitan opera star, whose voice
is known around the world. is f=hg-
ing Il grim battle with death.
Stricken with 4 heart attack fDIicw-
ln@ plurisy, the tenor loss 1t "a his
bed IL the Vanderbilt Hotel all d;ty,:
ll.Se oxygen tanks standing in the
si"llr"om, the last defenses fronI. .learn.
DOCTORS held anxious consultations
and expressed belief that the crisis
was near. The last rites all '9dy had
i.een administered. !
Aii day the lobby of H." t,t", III
which the great tenor Was cinIin,:,G
presented an atmosl:her" Of EcllSc hUt
suppressed anxiety. The attendants
herring floral tributes ard kilograms
II II scores of friends slipped quietly
tin ough the crowds. Even IL urc,,r,;-
TIA downstairs, which gave = number
uf operative selections -na,,r f"'uouS
by Caruso's mellow voice. played in
mnffied tones, although the sick man
was far beyond the sound--0n the
eighteenth floor.
During the day several of his clos
cet friends from the Metropolitan and
Chicago Opera companies, with keen
solcitudc plainly written III their
aces, vainly sought admission to Ca
ruso's chambers. Although Nnton;c
Scott and Enrico ScoGnanif1I0 were Al
owed to visit his bedside when II was
thought he might not rally, his ply
cicians turned back all callers when
thair patient appeared to have passed
he crisis. The only exception to this
rule was made for Park benjamin,
Jr. brother TO Mrs. Caruso. who
was allowed to make two brief calls
Curing the day.
Mr.. benjamin divided his sympathy
between the tenor and Mrs. Carusn,
who has not left her husbands bedside
since the first severe collapse. She
parSistently refused to leave him a
minute despite her lack Of sleep. II
was said that she was beginning 70
Show the terrible emotional strain, but
she managed to conceal il from her
husband
The universal anxiety over Mr.. Ca
rISo's condition was obvious, not only
from newspaper readers everywhere
in the hotel lobby, on the streets,
in the subways-hut also from defer
cntial questions from italian labor
erS, who shyly requested of the door
attendant if he had heard from the
singers apartment. In and out of
the METROPOLITAN Opera House passed
a continual stream of persons asking
II" one question: as Caruso still
alive?"
The tenseneSs was somewhat relieV-
ed when Bruno Zirato, Carusos rri-
vate secretary, came downstairs for
the first time since his chiefs relapse
and announced that he now had great
homes"
The only members of the immediate
family who have been with Mr.. Ca
rus0 since he was stricken, he said,
are Mrs. CarusO and their 14-mOnths
old daughter, Gloria. EnricO, Jr., a
student in Culver Military Academy,
Ind, is COMING to New York. Rudolfo,
q wears old, the other son, is in Flor
ence. Italy, and will make no effort to
come. because 1t was realized he could
not arrive before the crisis had passed.
Opera stars assembled in the hotel
lobby listened to an effective compli-
ment paid the tenor by the hotel or
chestra. In the lobby sounded strains
of an aria from "Pagliacci." Eyes of
other noted songbirds, remembering
Caruso as Canio-his most famous
loln-welled with tears as they list