Evening star., 1941-07-20
THIS WEEK MAGAZINE
-. TRY THESE ALPINE DISHES -
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right; but except Tor their lovely man
ners and obvious good breeding. they
ARE unlike our idea of nobility.
In the first place. the Won Traps
wear the costume OF their native
Tyrol. colorful for ordinary occasions,
black and white for best times. The
girls - all of them beautiful - are
not only gifted, but also very prac-
tical young people. They take entire
care of the big house i'll Merion. Penn
sylvania, where the family lives when
not on tour. Here they do the house
work. the laundry. the mending, the
cooking; and. until recently, they even
knitted the family's stockings. In
addition, they, as we'll as their broth
ers. are expert seamen, having been
taught by their father, who was for
merly a distinguished officer in the
Austrian navy.
Seamanship is of little practical
value to the Won Traps just now;
but skill in the household arts is very
important, indeed. And the fact that
the girls were trained in this way is
one of the things the Baroness calls
'Providential." 1T used to be Gus
tomary for all Austrian girls to be
brought up like this. but people gave
up the custom more and more. We
thought that was too bad," the Bar
oness says. so as the girls finished
school. they learned to do everything"
The beginning of the Trapp Fam
ily's public musical career seems even
more ''Providential." But let the Bar
oness tell it in her own way: I'VE
always sang, but we never wanted
even one listener and were famous for
not singing even for our friends" she
says. 1--WE sang old church music in
the private chapel of our castle and
we sang folk songs. We walked in the
mountains and picked up new. un-
published songs. Once when we were
singing out-of-doors, Lotte Lehman
heard us, though we did not know she
was there. After that she insisted on
our entering competition at the
Salzburg festival My husband was
very hard to persuade. for he thought
it was a terrible thing to sing on a
stage. However, we did it and won the
first prize. Then we sang on Christ
mas program over the air. and Chan
cellor Schuschnigg heard us and asked
US to sing at an important party he
was giving. After that came concert
in Vienna, followed by an engagement
for the next Salzburg Festival; and
the day after that Festival. we had
signed contracts for concerts in
France, Italy, Belgium, Holland,
Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
But the decision to sing in public
was really difficult one for U.S." the
Baroness emphasizes Every now
and then in life you come to a corner
and don't know which direction to
walk - either way looks good. But
we have always tried to build our lives
according to Christ and the Gospel,
and to ask: What would Christ like
me to do? I've even heard our
three and four year, -olds-when they
couldn't make up their minds what to
entertain themselves with - say to
each other: I wonder what He'd like
me to play now?'
'If it hadn't been for this" the
Baroness adds reflectively, I'VE should
MT have been here now For the Nazis
wanted to give my husband a fine
command again and offered our eldest
boy, just graduated from medical
school, a post as first assistant in one
of Vienna's finest hospitals. But
neither of them hesitated for a mo-
ment. We wanted to continue a Chris